Sons and Lovers. An understated, succinct and highly effective rendering of the D. H. Lawrence novel, with a fine cast topped by Trevor Howard, playing the hardhanded, hard-drinking coal miner.
Elmer Gantry. Director Richard Brooks's wonderfully gaudy, artfully graphic adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' notorious 1927 novel about a carny-style revivalist specializing in the Seventh Commandment.
Psycho. Alfred Hitchcock's hand may be heavier than usual and totally immersed in blood, but it can still grip the spectator by the throat more expertly than the claws of any horror artist in the business.
The Apartment. Billy Wilder oats uproariously sown by Jack Lemmon as a latter-day Alger hero who earns the key to the executive washroom by lending four philandering executives the key to his apartment.
Bells Are Ringing. Judy Holliday, a great comedienne, and some typically sprightly lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green save an otherwise mediocre cinemusical.
TELEVISION
Wed., Aug. 10
Music for a Summer Night (ABC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.).* Pianists Eugene List and Olegna Fuschi should make Guest Hostess Margaret Truman feel at home.
United States Steel Hour (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Red Buttons, playing a Cockney copper assigned to Malaya, unravels The Case of the Missing Wife.
The Jack Paar Show (NBC, 11:15 p.m.1 a.m.). The regulars joined by Buddy Hackett, Florence Henderson, Body Goodman and Arthur Treacher. Still some of the liveliest TV available, particularly in this summer of reruns and cheap fill-ins.
Fri., Aug. 12
Moment of Fear (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). A summer suspense series continues with The Third Party, about the sudden death of a presidential candidate on election eve. Color.
1960 College All-Star Football Game (ABC, 10 p.m. to conclusion). Rushing the season, as usual, with the heroes of last year's campus amateur hours tackling the 1959 professional champs, the Baltimore Colts.
Sun., Aug. 14 Music on Ice (NBC, 8-9 p.m.). Singers Johnny Desmond and June Valli plus skaty-eight skaters in a variety show called Continental Holiday. Color.
Mon., Aug. 15 What Makes Sammy Run (NBC, 10-11 p.m.). A worthwhile repeat: the first half of Budd Schulberg's dramatized novel, with Larry Blyden as Sammy Glick, the slum boy who becomes Hollywood's archetypical heel.
New Comedy Showcase (CBS, 10-10:30 p.m.). They Went Thataway, a western parody, with James Westerfield as Black Ace Burton, a no-hit gun fighter.
THEATER
On Broadway
All still quiet on the West Side front as far as new shows are concerned, and among the old, the summer sun has roasted into oblivion a few that the critics missed. Of the more durable musicals, there are Bye Bye Birdie, a rousing rock-'n'-roll call for an Elvis-type monster; Fiorello!, a more fun-than smoke-filled memoir of New York City's late mayor; and West Side Story, Romeo and Juliet in a brilliantly choreographed Manhattan rumble. Among the dramatic works, the midsummer's night cream includes Toys in the Attic, Lillian Hellman's corrosive piece about a weakling whose old-maid sisters depend on his dependence; and The Tenth Man, ancient Jewish exorcism strikingly put to work on modern neurosis.
Off Broadway