THE SCREEN

Tell me about the rabbits, George. At the Science Center (Lecture Hall B) on Friday and at Leverett House on Saturday, Of Mice and Men features Burgess Meredith (George) providing the explanations for Lon Chaney (Lenny) in this film adaptation of Steinbeck's short novel. Steinbeck's work is an engrossing study of human dependency and love, and the often tragic results of an unequal friendship (long before Midnight Cowboy.) And also for those who like to argue whether the book was better, The Last Hurrah is at Lehman Hall this weekend. Most people think that's the name of an overpriced steakhouse; actually it's the title of Edwin O'Connor's elegiac novel about an aging lrish pol. In the movie, Spencer Tracy plays the grand old mayor of a grand old New England city (guess which one) fighting for his political life. A must-see.

The Orson Welles boasts--if that's the right word--the Boston premiere Friday of Le Secret, a Robert Enrico film with Jean-Louis Trintignant. Not too surprisingly, it's thriller about a Man on the Run (not sure who or what is chasing him) with, get this, a Shock Ending. The reviews, however, have been good. If you don't want to gamble, Hitchcock's The 39 Steps is also at the Orson Welles on Friday and Saturday. One of the better spy flicks made, it stars Robert Donat and Madeline Carroll in a cross-England chase complete with trains and foggy landscape. Hitchcock's sense of humor prevents this 1935 thriller from ever bogging down.

Tonight, in the Basement Conference Room of Gutman Library (Brattle Street and Appian way) The Dreamwalkers will be shown. It's described as "a BBC film on the Sufi work of Idries Shah" and I won't display my ignorance by trying to explain that. Free, the film starts at 8 p.m.