JFK:Reckless Youth; Jack

As far as the scandalous stuff goes — well, sure, there are scenes of the young JFK in a whorehouse and of sweet-faced Jack, hospitalized for suspected ^ leukemia, boffing a lively young woman in the morgue. Oh, and there's a lengthy subplot about Inga Arvad, a Danish journalist with whom swinging- single Kennedy is said to have had an affair in the early '40s and whom the FBI suspected of being a spy for Germany. Arvad is played by Yolanda Jilot as so superlatively smart and sexy that I frankly wouldn't have faulted JFK for spilling every bean he knew to the Jerries. But surely, after all the dirt that's been dug up about Kennedy over the past 30 years, these incidents can't be shocking to most viewers. What would shock in 1993 would be a well-made TV movie that spent as much effort bringing Kennedy's politics and presidency under close scrutiny as it does his reckless yet seen-it-all-before youth.

An occasionally more interesting version of Kennedy's life is offered by Jack, a documentary from executive producer Peter Davis (The Selling of the Pentagon, Hearts and Minds). Using no narration except the voice-over testimony of unseen friends, relatives, and colleagues of Kennedy, Jack follows the President from birth to death, with plenty of rarely seen photographs and film footage.

It's interesting to hear how pals and allies — such as JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen, press secretary Pierre Salinger, and Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee — continued to dream the old dreams and to learn that Kennedy wanted Warren Beatty, not Cliff Robertson, to play him in the 1963 film about PT 109. But once again, sex provides the biggest spark: A woman identified only as "Susannah M., Anonymous Friend" claims to have trysted with President Kennedy — in the White House's Lincoln bedroom, no less. This woman also creates more of an eloquent metaphor than any of JFK's cronies: "He was looking for a mirror — someone who would keep reflecting back that he was fascinating and amazing...."

She's speaking about herself, but she might as well be describing all of us — still, 30 years later, only too eager to receive his gaze. JFK: Reckless Youth: C Jack: B-