Karen Carpenter came along at the wrong time. Ten years earlier, just before the Beatles, she would have been queen of the world of pop. as she truly was and truly deserved to be. Instead, in the hippie era, she was treated as a contemptible young, female Lawrence Welk. Richard Carpenter is a great pop producer, but he too is forgotten or maligned.

Those hit records are timeless gems. The public loved what the arbiters of hipness derided. “Rainy Days and Mondays” is a joy forever. What a voice.

The hippie / druggie era was attacked from the Left, if I may, by punk rock. And amen to that, and hey, ho, let’s go!

This same pathetic era was attacked from the Right, so to speak, by the unironic sweetness of the Carpenters.

As the Manolo notes, Omar Sharif was absurdly beautiful in his prime, but there was always a certain lack of acting there. Standing around looking quizzically lovely does very well in a certain sort of movie, but a three-hour-plus monster like Dr. Zhivago requires rather more alertness and resolve (on everybody’s part).

It did have Julie Christie, who was absurdly beautiful and could act. But she’s not enough to salvage such a long and, as the Manolo notes, basically silly movie.