Television: Apr. 10, 1964

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UNFORGETTABLE: ARETHA FRANKLIN (Columbia). In tribute to the late Dinah Washington, Blues Singer Franklin makes a courageous stab at reproducing all "The Queen's" great hits, among them What a Diff'rence a Day Made, This Bitter Earth and Cold, Cold Heart. The arrangements pressed upon her are nothing short of sabotage, but Franklin survives them, wisely avoiding imitation in pursuit of even higher flattery.

CINEMA

THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT spins hilariously around Tippy Walker and Merrie Spaeth, who commit grand larceny in their scene-stealing debut as a pair of overprivileged Manhattan teen-agers with a yen for Concert Pianist Peter Sellers.

BECKET. In this stunning film version of Jean Anouilh's historical drama, Peter O'Toole is a brilliant King Henry II, Richard Burton a sober but solid incarnation of England's 12th century martyr.

THE SERVANT is Dirk Bogarde, who coolly corrupts his master, finally trades places with him, while Director Joseph Losey's camera peers into the British caste system like an evil-minded snoop.

YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW. One of the season's brightest collaborations offers Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni blossoming as a first-rate comedy team in three ribald fables directed by Vittorio De Sica.

THE SILENCE. In a bold drama that reflects his own uncertainties about religious faith, Sweden's film genius Ingmar Bergman has an innocent child witness the death of the soul in two tortured sisters, one a lesbian, one a nymphomaniac.

DR. STRANGELOVE, OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB. The ubiquitous Peter Sellers and George C. Scott head a fine cast in Stanley Kubrick's explosive fantasy about inadvertent nuclear war.

THE FIRE WITHIN. France's Louis Malle (The Lovers) studies a world-weary gigolo (Maurice Ronet) who pours out the heeltap of his charm and drinks a final toast to death.

THE GUEST. Donald Pleasence brilliantly repeats his stage role as a ranting old derelict in the film adaptation of Harold Pinter's The Caretaker.

TOM JONES. Five of the 20 actors nominated for 1963 Oscars are doing their "best" in this rollicking movie version of Fielding's 18th century classic.

BOOKS

Best Reading

THE WAPSHOT SCANDAL, by John Cheever. Evicted from St. Botolphs and its rooted way of life by time, circumstance and inclination, the younger generation of Wap-shots find the 20th century closing in and the fit uncomfortable, whether in suburbia or in the claustrophobic atmosphere of a missile base.

ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND THE CONSTITUTION, by Clinton Rossiter. A major reappraisal of the flamboyant Hamilton's role in the founding of the U.S. Government, made by a historian who ten years ago dismissed him as "reactionary." Taking a long second look, Rossiter describes Hamilton as "the prophet of industrial America."

MISS LEONORA WHEN LAST SEEN, by Peter Taylor. Fifteen stories of marriages and families, institutions and hypocrisies, most of them set in the South. Taylor's knowledge of his settings and the elegance of his writing make the collection a joy.