ANYTHING FOR A FRIEND

He sounds like Holden Caulfield, thinks with his hormones like Dobie Gillis, and has a collection of Henry Aldrich-type friends. He's Clarence Bascomb of I Love You Mary Fatt. Clarence has grown older but not up; with a yen for Arabella Jablonski, girl agitator, who promises him the ""ultimate reward"" if he will help her ""integrate"" the highschool prom by taking Sally, the only Negro in his class. The prom (in Massachusetts) goes off without incident. (Clarence's father loses his job, and Sally's parents are nerve wracked-- but Clarence is barely aware.) To Arabella's horror, he comes to like Sally, but he lets her down hard on the level of friendship. Arabella, her foam rubber body untouched by Clarence, goes off on a well publicized peace march. Here is adult ridicule-- effective and often belly-laugh funny-- zeroing in on the integration and peace movements, which engage so much adolescent attention, and finding them a matter of posturers followed by sheep. Clarence, as this kind of instrument, is not as appealing as the Clarence of I Love You Mary Fatt.