(Continued from page 17)

we must conclude that Mr. Bolt's excellent screenplay and Mr. Lean's exciting direction merely neglected one important element of Lawrence's destruction-the reason! (Now for heaven's sake, don't run around shouting, "Well, my dear, you know he was a homosexual" in the way some say it of various movie stars. Lawrence was not a man to be so treated.)

In other respects the film is superb and defies categorization as a mere "spectacular." It is a work of art. Alec Guinness (Prince Feisal, leader of the Arab revolt), unfortunately does not have a role large enough to merit "the Supreme Academy Award for All Time" as best actor. Peter O'Toole (what can I say?) undoubtedly gives the finest performance ever given by a previously almost unknown actor. He has an intensity in one scene that matches that of Guinness!

Anthony Quinn is fine as Abu Tayi, a lesser prince than Guinness, but is a lesser actor also. Art Kennedy, Claude Rains, Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quayle are among our best actors and demand no other comment. The photography: the heat, the space, the action, all are caught. Several sequences-including a motorcycle accident and an attack on an Arab camp by bi-planes-are better portrayed than anything similar we've ever seen. Sound: the music is well integrated if a little repetitive; a desert theme is particularly effective. One amusing scene involves echoes in stereo (for which reason,

among purely visual ones, you'd be wise to see the film first-run rather than in neighborhood theatres).

Actually the film is great because it is about a great man, a disturbed, disturbing man, a man who nearly ranked with Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Wellington as a great general. He will remain an enigma because we aren't sure, anymore than he was, exactly who he was, why he led so brilliantly, what caused him to falter. Even so: Winston Churchill dubbed him "one of the greatest beings alive in our time." If only he could have lived in Alexander's time...

THE CAMP COMMENT: Lawrence is particularly recommended for O'Toole. Besides his considerable talent, he's fun to watch. After all has been said about the script and director side-stepping the issue, there is, some camping! Lawrence is honored by the tribesmen with a robe, saracen blade, and Arabic tittle (pronounced EL-LOronce?). Alone in the desert he glories in the exotic swirl of the robe and adjusts his head-dress in the mirrored blade. Several times, coquettish is the only word for his behavior-never more than while cavorting atop a derailed train as his picture is taken for the Chicago Courier. But there's something unsatisfying about a hero when he refuses to be one... when his grandness is a cover for hidden fear ...when you want to love him and can't quite like him because be doesn't like himself. It contains a lesson for us all!

mattachine REVIEW

BOOKS

"ALL WE CAN DO IS TO SUGGEST THE PROBLEM"

STRANGERS IN OUR MIDST: PROBLEMS OF THE HOMOSEXUAL IN AMERICAN SOCIETY, by Alfred A. Gross. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1962. 182 pp. $4.50. Reviewed by Rev. Robert W. Wood.

Rev. Wood is author of Christ and the Homosexual and of "Changing Religious Attitudes Toward the Homosexual." Mattachine REVIEW, Nov. & Dec., 1962.

If this book had been published ten years ago, or even five, it might have been considered a trail blazer. Appearing late in 1962, it offers little that is new or pioneering in thought or direction save for the person who is reading about homosexuality for the first time. However, the acknowledged accomplishments of the Rev. Dr. Alfred A. Gross, Executive Secretary of The George W. Henry Foundation, New York City, in helping many hundreds of homosexually disturbed individuals over the past score and more of years require serious consideration of whatever he has to say on the subject.

A selection of the "Pastoral Psychology" book club, this liberal approach to contemporary homosexuality views the matter primarily through the social and religious avenues with a minimum of psychological jargon. Like the magazine, however, it is more superficial than profound. It was written for the parish minister and general citizen rather than for the homosexual. It seems to follow the pattern of other books published by the same Press and one can only wonder how much the author had to bow to the demands of the publisher and to leave unsaid much that his experience would have prepared him to say.

While lamenting the absence of a bibliography, one is grateful for the footnotes and index in this over priced book (182 pages, $4.50). The reader gets the impression that very little is being said or done in this sphere in America, and that all pioneering work generates from England. For instance, only passing mention is made of the work of the national homophile organizations in this country and there is no reference to the National Council of Churches' "Sex Ways in Fact and Faith."

Dr. Gross' verbose style, familiar to readers of the annual reports of the George W. Henry Foundation, is apparent here too. Such words as “domiciliary," "desuetude," "tendentious," "luetic," "Maleficent," and fre-