Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1961)

For fuller reviews see Photoplay for the months indicated. For full reviews this month, see page 6. (a — ADULT F — family) ALL THE FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS— M-G-M; CinemaScope, Metroeolor: The sincere efforts of Boh Wagner, Natalie Wood, George Hamilton, Susan Kohner hold your interest in a confused story of Southerners who take their sex problems to New York. (A) October ALL THE YOUNG MEN— Columbia; Earnest but often familiar drama of youth at war. In Korea, Sidney Poitier leads a cut-off Marine platoon that includes vet Alan Ladd and greener James Darren, Glenn Corbett, Ingemar Johansson. (F) September ANOTHER SKY — Harrison: As a reserved Englishwoman arriving in Marrakech, Victoria Grayson becomes infatuated with a young Arab and plunges into a strange world. Slow-paced and poetic; filmed in Morocco. (A) December BETWEEN TIME AND ETERNITY— U-I, Patlie Color: Old formula set in lovely Balearic Island backgrounds. Given only a short time to live, Lilli Palmer dallies with handsome native Carlos Thompson. (A) November BUTTERFIELD 8 — M-G-M; CinemaScope, Metroeolor: Liz Taylor does her strongest acting in this hitter case study of a New York party girl, who hurts not only herself but her married lover (Laurence Harvey) and her despairing friend (Eddie Fisher). (A) December CROWDED SKY, THE— Warners, Technicolor: Efrem Zimbalist Jr. pilots a Navy jet fated to crash with Dana Andrews’ transport, which carries the usual quota of emotional passengers. Overplolted but tense. (A) October DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, THE — Warners, Technicolor: Robert Preston. Dorothy McGuire, teenager Shirley Knight portray warmly the problems of an average family in Oklahoma of the 1920’s. (A) November ELMER GANTRY— U. A.: Memorable characters fill a warm-blooded, courageous movie, with Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons as revivalists. Are they phony or honest? Newspaperman Arthur Kennedy wonders. (A) October HIGH TIME — 20th; CinemaScope, De Luxe Color: Amiable campus musical casts Bing Crosby as a fiftyish freshman, Fabian as his roommate, Tuesday Weld as a kookie coed. There’s one switch on the old college comedy: These students actually study! (F) December I AIM AT THE STARS— Columbia: Exciting science-fact story, politically tricky. Curt Jurgens, as rocket wizard Wernlier von Braun, rouses doubts in wife Victoria Shaw and Nazihating newsman James Daly. (F) November FM ALL RIGHT. JACK— Columbia: Those sly British turn labor-management relations into a laugh-loaded shambles. As a shop steward, Peter Sellers creates a deadpan masterpiece. Ian Carmichael’s a bumbler whose honesty starts a riot. (A) July INHERIT THE WIND— U.A.: Two great old pros, Spencer Tracy and Fredric March, argue over teacher Dick York's fate in a robust fiction version of Tennessee's “monkey trial’’ of the 1920‘s. Reporter Gene Kelly covers a hot story that still sizzles. (F) December KEY WITNESS— M-G-M: Incredible crime yarn finds Jeffrey Hunter’s model family in danger after he sees a killing committed by Dennis Hopper, head of a j.d. gang. This hardly flatters L.A. cops. (A) December LET NO MAN WRITE MY EPITAPH— Columbia: James Darren scores in a sordid but sentimental slum drama, as Shelley Winters’ son. Derelicts led by Burl Ives strive to save the boy from crime. (A) November LET’S MAKE LOVE — 20th; CinemaScope, De Luxe Color: Big, blowzy musical with dazzling stars. Billionaire Yves Montand, hiding his identity, joins a little-theater troupe and falls for Marilyn Monroe. (A) November MIDNIGHT LACE— U-I, Eastman Color: Doris Day looks lovely and scared stiff in an eye-soothing, nerve-frazzling mystery. As wife of London financier Rex Harrison, she’s badgered by threatening phone calls. Myrna Loy’s her American aunt. (F) December SEVEN WAYS FROM SUNDOWN— U-I, Eastman Color: In an unassuming horse opera, new Texas Ranger Audie Murphy has trouble chasing outlaw Barry Sullivan — because Barry is too doggone lovable! (F) November SONG WITHOUT END — Columbia; CinemaScope, Eastman Color: Dirk Bogarde’s romantic good looks suit the role of composer-pianist Franz Liszt, whose life is seen as a piano concert and costume pageant, with stormy personal drama on the side. (A) September SUNRISE AT CAMPOBELLO — Warners, Technicolor: Intimate closeup of the Roosevelt family during his battle with polio. Ralph Bellamy, as FDR, and Greer Garson, as his wife, give fine emotional performances — and accurate impersonations. (F) December SLiRPRISE PACKAGE — Columbia: Yul Brynner and Mitzi Gaynor, as an American gangster and girlfriend exiled to a Greek island, breeze through a talky, funny thriller. Noel Coward’s a witty unemployed king. (A) November TEN WHO DARED— Buena Vista, Technicolor: Forthrightly aimed at young fanciers of action and history. John Beal plays the scientist who ran Colorado River rapids to map the Grand Canyon country. (F) December UNDER TEN FLAGS — Paramount: Brisk, factbased adventure casts Van Heflin as chivalrous captain of a War II German sea raider that takes on many disguises, baffling British admiral Charles Laughton. (F) November WEDDINGS AND BABIES— Engel: The title names the speciality of John Myhers, as a photographer in New York's Little Italy, clinging to bachelorhood in spile of Viveca Lindfors’ efforts. Charmingly real. (A) November WHERE THE HOT WIND BLOWS— M-G-M: Sensation-filled, grimly amusing (for those not easily shocked). In a decadent Italian fishing village, Gina Lollobrigida evades Yves Montand’s clutches. (A) December next year, and show Bobby he’s not the youngest in the family any more!” “You’re going to have Passover every year, Tony?” Mrs. Schwartz asks. “We’ll have Passover and Chanukah and Christmas,” Janet says. “We don’t want to impose our beliefs on the girls. We want to give them as much as we can of each religion — and then, someday, let them choose for themselves. “It’s a problem,” Janet admits. “Like Sunday school. We were thinking maybe we would send them to the Unitarian Sunday School. That’s almost interdenominational. It’ll kind of get them in the habit of religion. You know, tell them about God without insisting that they believe any special set of rules or anything like that.” Janet looks at Tony. “We’ll have to think it over and decide,” she adds. “I know if we have a son, Tony wants him to have a Bris when he’s eight days old, and a Bar Mitzvah when he’s thirteen. . . .” “Yes,” Tony says. “I’d like that. But then, Jan, that would make him a Jew pretty thoroughly, wouldn’t it? And where does he get his freedom of choice then? I mean, we can’t bring up a boy one way and the girls another. It wouldn’t be — ” his voice trails off as the door bursts open and Bobby appears, with a sleeping Jamie in his arms and Kelly right behind him. They’d been playing pickaback. “Whew!” he explodes. “I’m beat!” He sets Jamie down on the couch and she promptly rolls over, fast asleep. “And I think this one is, too.” “Both of them are,” Janet says. “How about bed?” Jamie, breathing peacefully on the couch, makes no protest. But Kelly objects. “No,” she wails. “Daddy, you promised! Daddy, tell me again about Christmas, the way you told me about Chanukah and the candles and the light that burned for eight days.” Love is what matters For a second, Tony looks back at Janet, questioning. But she only nods her head, and waits. Slowly, Tony turns back to his daughter. “All right, Honey,” he says. “Well, Christmas is really a birthday party that everyone has for a little baby who was born a long time ago. Some people think this little baby was really God himself, come down to earth to live here for a while. Some people aren’t sure about that. But everyone loves the little baby because he grew up to be such a good, wonderful man, who loved little children and helped people wherever he went. The name of the baby was Jesus, and he was born far away across the ocean in a place called Bethleham. . . .” Janet Leigh Curtis turns to her motherin-law. “It will all work out, Mother Schwartz,” she says. “Tony and I love each other . . . and love our children . . . and love God. Kelly and Jamie are going to grow up the same way. And with love, we’ll find the answers together, all of us — together.” “Yes,” her mother-in-law says. “Love is what matters. The rest — the rest will all work out.” And the two women smile affectionately at each other as they listen to Tony’s story. And in the window of the living room, where they and Bobby sit in comfortable silence, the lights of the great Christmas tree will shine. Only a few nights earlier, in that window, the lights of the Chanukah candles flicker instead. But the glow is the same. — Charlotte Dinter See Tony in U-I’s “Spartacus,” “The Great Impostor” and “The Sixth Man.” Be sure to watch for Janet in Columbia’s “Pepe.” 72