ENCORE

Interesting as a stunt, but I can't see its sales value. For here are the three stories which provide the unit background for the third group screen release (Quartette and Trio were the others) --plus the screenplay version. The stories taken together have no unity and are uneven in interest. Cruise is, it seems to me, the most provocative of the three, in the story of an aggressive spinster on a cruise freighter, and of how romance, synthetic as it was, changed her. The Ant and the Grasshopper, the first story, is a cynical bit about two brothers, and how the unworthy brother got the undeserved rewards of a should-have-been wasted life. Gigolo and Gigo lette, story of a high diver at the point of breaking nerve, has its emotional impact, but less of story buildup. In each case, the screenplay version intensifies the story; in each case certain deliberate liberties are taken with details. But in final analysis Encore adds up to very little -- a trivial time passer at best.