... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. A BIT far-fetched is the way I heard one hoary headed picturegoer describe WONDER MAN (Leicester Square). And since Danny Kaye, in the film, walks through stone walls, squirts water from a drinking fountain through the top of his head, and plays identical twins, one of whom melts into the body of the other at will, the descrip tion is probably not exaggerated. ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. IT isn't every week that you can go to a motion- picture gallery, and see an exhibition of some of the best work of Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet, Suzy Prim, Jean Renoir, Maxim Gorki, John Steinbeck, Burgess Meredith and Walt Disney, but that is the pleasure I can promise you this week at the Academy Cinema, where they are showing the French UNDERWORLD and the American FOR ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THE New Gallery, I suppose, will again be the Mecca of parents with children to entertain these Christmas holi days. The new Disney Christmas annual is out, and it's called DUMBO, and proves to be the simple, gaudy, straightforward sort of thing that children expect from Disney, without any disturbing innovations. Dumbo is a baby elephant, an innocent, blue-eyed baby born ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. THE CHILDREN is a sequel to Nina Fedor ova's deservedly popular story The Family. Hemmed in by the Japanese, Lida and her mother are still living in Tientsin, on very short com mons. In the intervals of thinking about Jimmy in America, Lida is studying to become a singer she gives one or two concerts, and there is no doubt of her talent. A handsome and eligible Spaniard ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. IN amongst the feature films, the newsreels and the Ministry of Information shorts, a number of sizable documentaries are turning up these days to lend variety to our programmes. Probably the most important, the most skilled and the best photographed come from the Government's own Crown Film Unit, which has, naturally enough, priority in subjects. Crown does not employ the ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. IT is so pleasant to watch those ex cellent artists. Gaby Morlay, Michel Simon, Eric von Stroheim and the rest at work again, that few people will grumble if the new French film at Studio One, DERRIÈRE LA FAÇADE, is not arranged quite as impeccably as their talents merit. Derriere la Facade was in pro duction when the war broke out. It was actually showing in Paris when ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. THE Art of Living is not an art that can be practised nowadays, but one finds a melancholy anti quarian or academic interest in hearing it discussed by someone who knows as much about it as does M. André Maurois, himself a member of a nation which knew more about it than any other of the modern world. Poor France One finds oneself dropping into the past tense, not only ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THE best double bill in London just now is un questionably at the Academy, in Oxford Street, where they are showing MARIE- LOUISE and STRANGE INCI DENT in the same programme. I am not sure whether this is really very tactful programme planning, as I imagine that many gentle-hearted people who will be enchanted by Marie-Louise, may find Strange Incident both harsh and ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. AS Mr. Epstein sculpts, so does he write, without fear and, I was going to add, without favour; but this would not be entirely true. Disguise the fact as he may, every man is his own favourite, and Mr. Epstein, besides being his own biographer, is also his own apologist, or, it would be fairer to say, the apologist of his art. Ut himself he writes with admirable ...

... . Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes for 1941 has just been published. It is one of the most useful of all books of reference, as it is a handy volume, which occupies a small amount of space 011 the writing-desk, and yet it contains over 30,000 biographies arranged in alphabetical order. Many of these will not be found in other reference books, as Kelly's includes not ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. MRS. THIRKELL is one of the few writers who are able to make a satisfactory novel out of the material of wartime conditions as they affect the daily lives of ordinary English people. She does not specialise in air raids or evacuees, or Ministries or factories; still less does she venture on to the parade ground. or into the air or under the sea. She realises that such ...

... THE LITERARY LOUNGER. By K. JOHN. THE SIXTH HEAVEN. By L. P. Hartley. IN the unrelenting flow of current fiction-- much of it expert work-- it is very hard to retain impressions; each new novel becomes a wave obliterating the one before. At the time one may think differently, and label this or that outstanding, but the chances are that in a month or two the outstanding will be levelled ...