TV Radio Mirror (Jan - Jun 1963)

The V.I.P.s MGM; PANAVISION, COLOR This warmly entertaining, sentimental story is an interesting contrast to the bedbugs-and-brain-hemorrhage films we've been getting from England recently. This is pure schmaltz, but it's upper-class, artfully-handled schmaltz, enhanced by a winning team of actors, the bright dialogue of Terence Rattigan, and the tasteful fancies of background violins. The old stranded-by-the-elements situation (a fog-bound London airport this time) brings together a brusque tycoon (Richard Burton), his fleeing wife (Elizabeth Taylor), her new love (Louis Jourdan), an Australian factory-owner (Rod Taylor), a film director (Orson Welles) and companion (Elsa Martinelli), and a duchess (Margaret Rutherford) who is going to Miami to earn a few bucks as a social director. Maggie Smith, who makes her film debut as Rod's lovelorn secretary, is especially appealing. All the Way Home PARAMOUNT "A Death in the Family," the title James Agee gave to the novel from which sprung a Broadway play and the present film, best describes both the subject and the mood of this story. The setting is Knoxville, Tennessee, of fifty years ago. Jay Follet (Robert Preston) and his wife Mary (Jean Simmons) exist in a comfortable world of home-made ice cream, Charlie Chaplin movies, family visits and big breakfasts. Then death enters their world. The film is highly successful in capturing Agee's poetic memory of small-town America, the delicate currents of family love, and the atmosphere of a home in mourning. A sad picture that has moments of beauty. The Conjugal Bed EMBASSY; ITALIAN, ENGLISH TITLES A forty-year-old bachelor marries a demure young girl and soon finds himself panting to keep up with her desires. At first, this seems to be a comedy about the problem of age difference in marriage, but the hu *mor becomes somewhat grimmer. The Italian title for the film was "The Queen Bee," after the insect who is interested in the male only as a contributor to motherhood. When his useful purpose is served, Alfonso fades away, and Regina TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE: GEORGE CUTTINGHAM ANSWERS YOUR MOVIE QUESTIONS rules the hive. It may not be the funniest movie around, but it certainly makes one think. Under the Yum Yum Tree COLUMBIA; COLOR A doll-faced co-ed (Carol Lynley) and her fiance (Dean Jones) take an apartment to test their compatibility. Their personality compatibility, that is; Carol has no intention of sacrificing her virtue before marriage. (Landlord Jack Lemmon, a rascally bachelor, has other ideas.) A comedy proving that sex is not only cute, it's funny — as long as nothing actually happens. AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL; COLOR Ray Milland stars as an M.D. who develops eye-drops that give him xray vision. Except for a brief party scene in which he finds to his delight that he is seeing the girls as nature made them, Ray has a rather dismal time of it. Seeing into the heart of the universe, you see, gives one terrible headaches. Gone Are the Days HAMMER FILMS This is a satire about the South written by a Negro (Ossie Davis, who also plays the lead). In this corner, wearing black suit and vest, weighing two hundred pounds of righteous wrath: the Rev. Purlie Victorious. His opponent, in white : Old Capt. Cotchipee, 140 pounds of nostalgia, including moustaches and bullwhip. As a film, it's crudely produced and broadly acted, but it's sometimes very funny. And you sense a warm heart behind it all — angry warm heart though it may be. Muriel UNITED ARTISTS; COLOR If, while watching "Muriel," you find yourself fighting back a desire to shout, "What's going on here?" don't let it worry you. You'll have lots of company. Director ("Last Year at Marienbad") Alain Resnais' way of telling a story is perplexing, to say the least. In this latest experiment, he deals with a middleaged couple who are attempting a reconciliation, a young man who has guilty memories of the Algerian war, and a girl who has been travelling with the older man. The result is a film of some visual beauty and immense dramatic obscurity.