Television: May 10, 1968

(3 of 4)

HORIZONTAL (ATCO). In the vast electronic underbrush in which many musicians operate today, along come the Bee Gees with their crystal-clear voices, sounding as if they were plucked right out of a church rock group. Three of their best numbers: Lemons Never Forget, in which the group displays some nice, tight vocal work; With the Sun in My Eyes, a gentle solo backed by organ; and the poignant Really and Sincerely, which starts with a lone French accordion.

CINEMA

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Director Stanley Kubrick sets out both to define man's past, and describe his future in this stunning film that is at once a dazzling visual experience and a demanding philosophical exercise.

THE ODD COUPLE. Neil Simon's Broadway comedy of an alimony-poor sportswriter (Walter Matthau) and his fussy, divorce-bound buddy (Jack Lemmon) is transformed to the screen virtually unchanged. Actor Matthau more than makes up for the static mise en scene with his comic genius.

BELLE DE JOUR. This bizarre tale of the sexual fantasies of a young wife (Catherine Deneuve) is a fitting capstone to the 40-year career of Spanish Director Luis Buriuel as it ranges from anticlerical homilies to fetishist daydreams.

HOUR OF THE WOLF. Sweden's Ingmar Bergman returns to his favorite themes of spiritual crisis and psychological trauma in this dark parable of the deepening madness of a reclusive artist.

I EVEN MET HAPPY GYPSIES. The anachronistic life styles of the Indians of Europe—the gypsies—are portrayed in this melancholy and sometimes violent Yugoslav film.

NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY. In an adroit blend of black comedy and bloody homicide, a callow New York City cop (George Segal) dogs the elusive tracks of a psyched-up killer (Rod Steiger) with a closetful of disguises.

UP THE JUNCTION. This gritty tour of a Battersea slum is enlivened by the presence of Suzy Kendall, a smashing new blonde bird from Britain.

THE PRODUCERS. For his first film, Writer-Comedian Mel Brooks weaves his gags around two canny Broadway con men who set out to make a fortune by staging a flop. The result, despite its bad moments, is some of the funniest American cinema comedy in years.

BOOKS

Best Reading

COUPLES, by John Updike. Wife swapping is the game, described in living off-color, but soul saving is the real stake in this rich, mazelike and subtly rewarding novel by the crown prince of American letters.

T. H. WHITE, by Sylvia Townsend Warner. A compassionate biography of the tormented English author who re-created the legend of King Arthur in a new form part magic and farce, part fairy tale and epic.

THE DISNEY VERSION, by Richard Schickel. Within a carefully prepared social, cultural and artistic context, Cinema Critic Schickel sees the late creator of Mickey Mouse and Disneyland as embodying the best and worst traits of the hard-charging entrepreneur.

IN THE HEART OF THE HEART OF THE COUNTRY, by William Gass. The author of the highly praised novel, Omensetter's Luck, focuses an intensely physical image of the Midwest with poetic precision.

THE LITTLE DISTURBANCES OF MAN, by Grace Paley. In this reissue of a 1959 collection of stories, ordinary lives become extraordinary when told in the author's artfully supple, salty syntax.