POISON OF LOVE-

Rare Acting Marks View From the Bridge'

By W. WARD MARSH Some of Arthur Miller's works would not admit im`provement when translated from stage to screen. For example, "All My Sons,” a downbeat drama which was no box office hit, anyway.

Then there was "The Death of a Salesman" and

"The Crucible."W WARD MARSH Both made extraordinary films with "The Death" becoming a strong box-office drama (Lee Cobb did it on stage and Fredric March on screen). Would

“A View From the Bridge"

Colony Art

"A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE." melodrama, directed by Sidney Lumet. Screen play by Norman Rosten from Arthur Miller's one-act play. Produced by Paul Graetz. A Continental Distributing release played by the following cast: Eddie Beatrice Catherine Rodolpho Marco Alfieri Mike Louis Lipari

Raf Vallone Maureen Stapleton Carol Lawrence Jean. Sorel

.Raymond Pellergrin Morris Carnovsky Harvey Lenbeck Mickey Knox Vincent Gardania

with the niece he even brands formances-is very good and the boy as a homosexual before properly innocent as the niece the girl in perhaps as intenwho loves her uncle with every tionally a revolting scene as kind of love except the one he the screen has had.

Swift justice and tragedy come at the end. The Cast

craves.

Jean Sorel as her sweetheart gives an intensely pathetic performance. His work in the screen's most tragic scenes. Raf Vallone, the Italian star aside from death itself, when who probably first drew attenhe takes the unjust branding, tion to his work with "Bitter is so vivid and genuinely masquiring a narrator in lieu of Rice," is the hero-villain. His culine without undue stress on the Greek chorus. Now a full is a most unusual and powerthis that he must be rated as length feature, it has been ful screen characterization, for one of the U.S. film finds of tightened, clarified and made he is the figure of a strong man the year. This is his first even more powerful by scripter growing weak and cowardly English-speaking role. Norman Rosten. when a passion he does not Raymond Pellegrin, who has Basically, it is unchanged, recognize begins to possess him. been seen in several foreign holding to characters whose The greater it grows the films, is the older immigrantmotivations are not understood more morose he becomes until relative. a kind of avenging by the characters themselves his entire character is changed. angel who ultimately brings but are crystal-clear to the Vallone makes the slow transijustice to the hero-villain, but tion so real and vital that he it is a justice meted out in beThe Colony Art has Miller's The film has a slow beginis both shameful and sympahalf of his own family and not "A View from the Bridge," ning but works itself into a thetic, and watching him, one for the illicit love within his originally a one-act play regripping frenzy before the has the feeling of being let in relative's heart. tragic fadeout. The central on the exposure of a family figure, a hero turned villain secret. .who never knows his own corMaureen Stapleton is both rosive weakness, is completely understanding the only one destroyed, leaving those who really love him to mourn while his neighbors, who did not know him well enough, hate him through his final hour.

it not be better to forget "The

Misfits?"

spectator.

Only his wife really knows that his sin is covetousness and it finishes him as surely as a deadly poison.

A story of Sicilians on and around the docks of New York, "A View From the Bridge" tells of an uncle whose love for his niece, now a grown woman, alienates him from his wife, his friends and neighbors and even relatives he helps to enter the country illegally.

This illicit love he does not even recognize finally prompts him to turn his relatives over to the immigration authorities. When one of them falls in love,

Sidney Lumet has directed with the same sure feeling he gave "Twelve Angry Men," and his searching camera finds who knows her husband's shame his characters and presents and pitiable as the wife who them with the accuracy of life. tries to make Vallone recogIn the event there might be nize his own weakness and a misunderstanding because of what it is doing to all of them. the foreign players mentioned, Carol Lawrence in her screen "A View From the Bridge" has debut-after stage and TV perEnglish dialogue.