Cinema: Dec. 8, 1961

Throne of Blood. A barbarically splendid Japanization of Shakespeare's Macbeth; both brutalized and energized by Director Akira (Rashomon) Kurosawa, the Elizabethan tragedy becomes a noh play of demonic majesty.

The Five-Day Lover. France's Philippe (The Lore Game) de Broca has produced a minor comic mattresspiece in which hero (Jean-Pierre Cassel) and heroine (Jean Seberg) tear up the sheets with hilarious abandon; but then at the last minute, the director figuratively draws the sheets over the lovers' faces—the contemporary bedroom, he seems to be saying, is a morgue.

A Summer to Remember. New wave in Soviet cinema? Probably not, but this is the fourth good Russian film (the other three: Ballad of a Soldier, Fate of a Man, The Gordeyev Family) to reach the U.S. this year. It is a fresh, warm, funny story of a little boy's life with father in Russia.

The Kitchen. Too many cooks cannot spoil this spluttering slumgullion of socialism and melodrama, heated to a rolling boil by British Playwright Arnold Wesker.

West Side Story. This big, slick cinemusical, like the Broadway show it is based on, decorates its hoods with haloes and its cops with badges of dishonor, but its dances still seem (mostly) fresh and its Romeo and Juliet story still seems (mostly) sweet.

Loss of Innocence. A thriller of sensibility, based on Rumer Godden's novel, The Greengage Summer, celebrates a sophisticated rite of puberty in a French Chateau.

The Hustler. Director Robert Rossen racks up an impressive total score in this tale of a young pool paladin (Paul Newman) who learns that character, meaning Old Champ Jackie Gleason, is more important than talent.

TELEVISION

Wed., Dec. 6

Golden Showcase (CBS, 8:30-9:30 p.m.). PREMIERE of a new dramatic series. Tonight: George C. Scott, Susan Oliver and Louis Hayward in Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The Bob Newhart Show (NBC, 10-10:30 p.m.). Comedian Newhart aims his quietly lethal shafts at TV producers and the Kremlin. Color.

David Brinkley's Journal (NBC, 10:30-11 p.m.). Brinkley takes two ex-soldiers—an American and a German—back to Normandy Beach, where they were enemies in 1944. Color.

Armstrong Circle Theater (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). Tonight's semi-documentary dramatization concerns the counterfeiting of popular records.

Thurs., Dec. 7

Sentry Abroad (NBC, 7:30-8:30 p.m.). A news special that surveys the U.S. military establishment abroad, 20 years after Pearl Harbor.

The Great Challenge (CBS, 10-11 p.m.). A discussion of the possible role of a united Western Europe in future world affairs.

Fri., Dec. 8

Frank McGee's Here and Now (NBC, 10:30-11 p.m.). News feature stories. Included tonight: an inquiry into last year's explosion of an atomic reactor in Idaho.

Sat., Dec. 9

Update (NBC, noon to 12:30 p.m.). Robert Abernethy's news program for teenagers.

Sun., Dec. 10

Wisdom (NBC, 5-5:30 p.m.). A Conversation with Frank Lloyd Wright. Repeat.

Meet the Press (NBC, 6-6:30 p.m.). Guest: Under Secretary of State George W. Ball. Color.

The Wizard of Oz (CBS, 6-8 p.m.). The classic 1939 M-G-M film, with Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, ct al.