Television
February, 1981
John Steinbeck's East of Eden will take up several nights and at least seven prime-time hours as an ABC Novel for Television, to be scheduled for late January or February (watch your local listings; there'll be plenty of advance ballyhoo). The 1955 movie version directed by Elia Kazan made James Dean a legend, but this one won't do much for Sam Bottoms, who substitutes simple competence for Dean's stunning charisma. Shorn of the Steinbeck prose, Eden plays like rich, trashy melodrama, a sweeping...
