... Round the New Shows At the Theatre Dear Octopus (Adelphi) DEAR OCTOPUS wears well, and still clings as closely as ever to public favour. It is, of course, a habit of octopuses, octopi, or octopodes (that 's the right one), to cling. The revival at the Adelphi confirms me in my opinion that the play is a good one, but thin, in that it is sadly lacking in the dramatic element. I do not suggest ...

... The Glass Slipper (St. James's) By Horace Horsnell IT cannot have been merely to avoid con fusion with other seasonable Cinderellas that Herbert and Eleanor Farjeon call their fairy-tale with music by its alternative title, The Glass Slipper. One feels that it was rather to mark differences than to disclaim kinship. The differences are fundamental. Their version amounts to a restoration, a ...

... TU By Herbert Farjeon The Blue Goose (Comedy) IF you want to get the feeling that there isn't a war on and that life in 1941 is pro ceeding just as evenly and calmly as it did (or did it?) ten years ago, a visit to the Comedy Theatre may possibly supply your need. Not that life as depicted in The Blue Goose is appreciably more like life in 1931 than it is now. It isn't. It doesn't nretend to ...

... By Horace Horsnell Rain (St. Martin's) MR. SOMERSET MAUGHAM has a remark able gift for investing fiction with an air of truth. He exercises it, not only in his choice of themes, but in his treatment of them. His best stories seem so credible, their characters so real, that simple readers are persuaded he takes them direct from life. And since his point of view is seldom a soothing one, it is ...

... The Banbury Nose (Wyndham's) By Horace Horsnell MR. Peter Ustinov must be getting tired of being told that he is a promising dramatist; but he is promising, if only in the sense that each new play he writes creates lively expectations of the next. He is young, though there is nothing callow about his work. Indeed, the striking thing about it is its maturity. l ne nesuauons or mcxpcncuuc of ...

... By Horace Horsnell Humply Duinpty (Coliseum) Cinderella (His Majesty's) PANTOMIME, like Punch, has never been what it was. The trouble is that, unlike Shakespeare and the Musical Brasses, it is not an acquired taste. Seen in youth, it is usually a case of love at first sight. Once an absolute monarch, as ribald as rollicking, King Panto has become a kind of constitutional cypher, and, like ...

... THE CINEMA Pre-war War Films By JAMES AGATE OVER and over again as I sat watching the preposterous but thrilling An Englishman's Home at the London Pavilion, my mind reverted to one of the greatest war films the cinema has ever thrown up. This was The Burgomaster of Stilemonde, adapted from M. Maeterlinck's play. Incidentally, a comparison between these two films proves that Euclid was wrong ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Important factors in the case Old Jim (Gordon James and Queenie (Leueen MacGrath Saloon Bar Wyndham's) THE action of this play takes place in its title, which is a good one; and since the scene, so warm and well-polished, so bright and gaudy and comfortable, is even better than the title, let high credit be given at once to Michael Relph, who designed it. As soon ...

... : Reviewed by Trevor Allen NOVELISTS may hate this war, which destroys literary detachment, slashes royalties, and cuts paper supplies, but they cannot escape it. The Fiction Front widens. Three novels in this batch concern the present eruption, although one, refusing to be intimidated, merely has the laugh on it. I refer with chuckles to Envoy on Excursion (Michael Joseph 8s.), by Caryl ...

... -.1 )l -fjWWVvinf 61 fl l- MENUS MONDAY Mixed Casserole Cauliflower au gratia Mashed Potatoes Ginger Biscuits Jam Pancakes TUESDAY Braised American Pork Cold Meat Cakes Slices of Potato and Carrots and Onions Mixed Vegetable Salad Mixed WEDNESDAY Macaroni Cheese Vegetable Soup Fried Tomatoes Savoury Pancake Steived Apples THURSDAY Salmon Rissoles Consomme Potato Hash Potato and Onion Salad f ...

... Reviewed by Noel Thompson JUDGING by the sales of The Thin Blue Line there must be many thousands of people who will want to know what happened to its heroes, Tommy Halton, Henry Ireland, Paddy Tallard, Jock Riddell, Ginger Pleasanton, Kit Crockart and Hugh Claverley. In The Avengers (Hutchinson, 7s. 6d.) Charles Graves satisfies that wish by giving the adventures of the heroes after he ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Ton of the World (Palladium) HAVING pleonastically described this show on the programme as an Extravagant Extravaganza, the management at the Palladium can hardly object if it is accorded a Critical Criticism. True, there is some Brilliantly Brilliant fooling by the Crazy-Gang Crazy Gang at the start. But Most of Most of the Rest of the Remainder is either ...