... The Literary Lounger. By L. P. Hartley. p The Historical Novel. It was once the fashion in historical novels to take pains to make the setting true in every detail to its period, but to people it with men and women of the author's own epoch. The characters were the only anachronisms. True, they em ployed an archaic form of speech, liberally interlarded with such words as Gramercy and Zounds ...

... . By MICHAEL ORME. NOT even the bitter satisfaction of being able to say to myself I told you so did much to lessen the acute feeling of disappointment that assailed me as I came out of the Alhambra after the premiére of Elstree Calling, Being aware that reiteration is by no means the hall-mark of sound criticism, I had all the evening been trying to disregard my oft-repeated assertion ...

... Learning About Men FIRST BRITISH SCREEN REVUE By Lionel L oilier SOME years ago now Elinor Glyn wrote Three Weeks, and it was considered daring. Now, for the purpose of the screen, she has written Knowing Men, and to day it is naïvely amusing rather than daring. Times have changed, but Elinor Glyn's men and women have remained constant. The plot of Knowing Men the knowing, I presume, ...

... SMALL BEER AND SOME By Ralph Straus COUNTRY chronicles are often enough very small beer, but they can be genuinely entertaining. There is, indeed, a mood that is common to most of us when a quiet, backwatery kind of story will be the one most likely to please. And here on my table are three such stories which, without being wildly ex citing or little masterpieces, are exceedingly good to read. ...

... The Cinema By JAMES AGATE A Talkie Hevme IN all walks of life it is extremely hard to be quite fair to the man who gets what, in slang parlance, he has been asking for. One would find it much easier to be fair to The First British Cinema Radio Revue, more brightly known as Elstree Calling, if British International Pictures, Ltd., had not chosen the Alhambra as the scene of its exploitation. ...

... Criticisms in Cameo. By J. T. Grein. i. ALMOST A HONEYMOON, AT THE GARRICK. IT is about time that somebody wrote a good play for that clever couple, Miss Renée Kelly and Mr. Hylton Allen, and one in which this character- actor of quality and insight has something more to do than to excite facile laughter as a high and mighty butler at the beck and call of his eccentric master, the ...

... By JAMES LAVER TCagner, Casanova, Sand, and an anti- American Satire Casanova was not what is usually meant by an artist and many would deny that he was ever in love, but he put almost his whole life in the pursuit of women, and the fag-end of it in the composition of his memoirs, a masterpiece of lively narrative and skilful arrangement. A new edition of Arthur Machen's English version, ...

... Qur Ofl'°U5 Cm c on MICHAEL AND MARY (St. James's Theatre). BECAUSE of the hu manity and humour of Mr. A. A. Milne, Michael and Mary is a good entertainment, and since those who live to please must please to live, a good entertain ment may be called a good play. All the same a sense of unreality pervades it and makes us depend on its charm and humour rather than on its power of ...

... The Cinema By JAMES AGATE Bribery and Corruption I HOPE you won't think this is bribery, said a theatre- manager the other day as he offered me a cigar. I don't mind, I said, so long as it isn't corruption! The whole point about bribery is that it consists of both cause and effect. If there is no effect then the cause becomes innocence itself; in other words there is no harm in taking ...

... Mexican Melody *nj Aid wycii tAt ice Silver Wings, at the Dominion Theatre To be quite frank, I have seen many musical comedies which have bored me to extinction-- especially those labelled romantic. This description is given to Silver Wings at the Dominion Theatre, but it-- or they-- did not bore me in the least. I thoroughly enjoyed what was a very long first night. 1 cannot say that I ...

... Aid wycH Success Screened A CHEVALIER TRIUMPH By Lionel Collier IT has always been my contention that to transfer a facsimile of a stage play to the screen is a mis take. Not only is it a mistake, but it is bad art-- if you will allow that there is an art of the camera. It makes no difference whether the pic ture is a synchronised or a silent one; there is an immediate limitation of scope and ...

... Miss Clemence Dane Criticises A list in La vrai isda 1 1 er By Siyvicf L fnclset Knopf 8s. oof.) THERE are two sorts of historical novels. There is the novel of contem porary life which later generations find a gold mine of authentic in formation about the customs, habits, thoughts and feelings of a civilisation long since vanished out of memory. In this group one places such books as The ...