... By V. S. Pritchett THE trouble about most thrillers is that, like boys' books, they are always crudely patriotic and ortho dox when they deal with international politics. Other people's politics are always being confounded and their knavish tricks frustrated with a self-righteousness which is very boring for anyone above Boy Scout age. It is also very old-fashioned. For patriotism has branched ...

... The Bystander Bookshelf Yanks, Finns and Ladies By V. S. Pritchett ONE of the chief charms of the American character is its fraternal benevolence. If a man tricks you he tricks you as a brother; and it is as a brother that you double-cross him in return. It is significant that the country which gave us the sly duels of Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit should also have given us that essay in ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Women Aren't Angels (Strand) THE appeal of this risible and, in spots, roarable farce depends largely on the humours of undressing and dressing-up. We all know by now that Mr. Robertson Hare is not Mr. Robertson Hare if, some time during the evening, he is not deprived of his nether garments. This is his signature situation. But not only Mr. Hare is compelled, ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon The Tempest (Old Vic) THE TEMPEST has always seemed to me the most mysterious, unfathomable and baffling flight of beauty that ever called for an audience of poets. It has the elusive quality of light-- the faint-strong smell of the seashore-- and the sound, an arcade of sound, is that of a shell against the ear, when all the storms and zephyrs that have ever ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Three Iievues REVUE after revue after revue. Of which this week three. First, Moonshine, Archie de Bear's in offensive pocket (let us hope not out-of- pocket) offering at the Vaudeville. Don't Sing a Song About the War, a good num ber, invites us to forget there's a war on. But so mild is the entertainment that sometimes we almost forget there's a show on. ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Garrison Theatre (London Palladium) IT would be well not to go to this show if you have a headache-- unless you want to boast that it didn't give you one. Seldom can there have been such a continuous racket inside a theatre-- blaring brass that splits the ears-- super-blasting microphones cal culated to take the deaf by storm comedians roaring wisecracks above ...

... 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 ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon In Good King Charles's Golden Days New MR. BERNARD SHAW'S play on King Charles the Second, described on the programme as A History Lesson in Three Scenes, is immeasurably more entertaining and instructive than most of the history lessons in our schools. That, of course, goes without saying. The choice of characters and period enables the author to discuss all ...

... By V. S. Pritchett MR. CHARLES MORGAN has a place of his own in contemporary fiction. It is not at the top. He is not one of the good good novelists nor one of the good bad novelists. He belongs to that curious mixed company of the bad good, the faux bon. I dreamt that I dwe-elt in ma-arble halls describes the sensation his books give to one. One wakes up in one of those literary nails ot ...

... Films of tlie Day Advance Notes on an Epic By George Campbell AN American spy on whom I rely for information now and then has been trying to dig up some information about The Great Dictator. After putting an official of United Artists' Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Culture to the question, my informant succeeded in breaking through the veil of secrecy with which Chaplin surrounds his ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Lunchlime Shakespeare Strand IT may be said that the theatre these days is getting along like one o'clock-- though why one should get along faster or slower than any other hour, nobody has ever been able to explain to me. One, however, is now unquestion ably the popular entertainment time, possibly because, in addition to its status as an interval, raid or no ...

... The 64 Bystander Bookshelf Shades of the Prison House By V. S. Pritchett THOSE who read Mr. Jim Phelan's Lifer guessed there was an auto biographical story behind it. Here it is: Jail Journey (Seeker and Warburg; 12s. 6d.). Its importance as a study of the English prison system from the inside is steadied by its lack of hysteria; it is an astonishing and moving human document of considerable ...