... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE The Past Year's Films AT this time of year the correct or at least the expected thing is to write an article entitled The Year's Best Films. And at once the old, old question has to be asked-- Best films for whom? Which brings me still nearer to first principles when one begins to ask oneself-- What is a good film, and what is a bad? Let me deal with the bad films ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE WHAT PLEASES THE PUBLIC THE other day I read somewhere-- precisely where doesn't matter-- an attack on the quasi-musical person. It was a witty and an erudite attack, but completely invalidated, to my mind, by the notion, undeclared though implied throughout the article, that great composers write their music for the benefit of musical critics only! I think I never ...

... THE CINEMA BY JAMES AGATE A Job for Somebody I HAVE often wondered why the theatres have never employed what I call a produc tion taster. Such an individual would not have to be a dramatic critic whose sole interest is, or ought to be, in the æsthetic qualities of a play. There are, of course, in existence a considerable number of professional production tasters who call themselves libraries. ...

... THE CINEMA Garbo By JAMES AGATE AND now, on the subject of Sarah, I am sworn to an ago-like silence. From this time forth I never will speak the word! An excellent vow fully meant, when years ago I made it in my first Ego. And I have kept it reasonably well since. But, as all the world who reads me knows, Bernhardt is to me what King Charles's head was to Mr. Dick, and the world is now to ...

... 7Z£L_ Jane at Hollywood By James Agate I AM not of the company which hold that great novels are sacrosanct and must not be transferred to the screen. It all depends upon the novel. Where, as in the case of Dumas and Hugo, the book is nine tenths action the very best results may be obtained. Conversely, the kind of novel which is eminently unfilmable is the introspective sort, or the analytical ...

... Performing on the Air By Herbert Farjeon J/i, Cans! and Carlisle Express (B.B.C.) THE Stuff to Give the Troops, of which we heard so much during the last war, has, with the advent of wireless and the present war, become the Stuff to Give the Forces, who, as you may have gathered, are given a programme of their own by the British Broadcasting Corporation; but while this is, no doubt, a well ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE Around Sherlock Holmes LET me confess that I found myself, the other evening at the Regal, thinking about anything except the film in front of me, a film which purported to deal with Sherlock Holmes. It didn't. Instead it dealt with Mr. Basil Rathbone's exquisite profile in the part of Holmes and the broad, moony meadow of Mr. Nigel Bruce's countenance in the part of ...

... TlC. _ English or French By James Agate ONE of my friends, a musical critic and a brilliant fellow, has one excessively annoying fault. He will never let you express admiration for a performance of some thing or other without telling you that he has seen the work performed better. Do you tell him that you enjoyed, say, Rosenkavalier at Sadler's Wells? He will tell you of better soloists and a ...

... The Theatre Goes Rural A Lonsdale Comedy in an Old Barn in Buckinghamshire Although thirty-three out of fifty theatres and music halls in London have applied for renewal of their L.C.C. licences, barely half a dozen of them are at the moment 44 in com mission. One show which might have been rehearsing itself to a dark-sheeted audi torium but instead was being played through and through in a ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE Musings About Civilization THE other day I read in the paper how some young woman who had been a hairdresser's assistant was rung up at two o'clock in the morning to get a band leader out of a jam. Never before, I read, had Miss Blank stepped straight out of bed to sing, almost unrehearsed, a bunch of difficult songs with a strange band. Is my mind wandering, or is ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE Half-truths About Hollywood THE new film at the Odeon, Hollywood Cavalcade, flatters only to disappoint. It is a cavalcade which, after breaking into a highly successful trot, suddenly stops cavalcading and turns itself into a doleful and protracted procession of broken hearts. The story begins with a young Irishman called Mike who has a notion about directing motion ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE Escaping into History THERE was a letter in The Times the other day urging that while we should do wrong to under estimate the strength of our country's enemies, we should be on our guard against over-estimating them. I think that the cinema news-reels ought to take some note of this, and that such elements of reassurance which exist should be given full place in our ...