... 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 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 ...

... Round the New Shows At the Theatre Come Out of Your Shell (Criterion; 8.30) I DO not remember having seen before a revue at the Criterion. But this like the servant-girl's baby, is only a little one. That is to say, it is very intimate, it has no chorus, the scenic arrangements are simplicity itself, and instead of an orchestra we have a pianist and a drummer. In the first half there was ...

... Playbill Looks at the Shows Escort (Lyric) SIR PATRICK HASTINGS'S drama of the Royal Navy in wartime, Escort, is by no means plain sailing. No doubt that is as it should be, for purposes of realism. But Sir Patrick has complicated matters owing to a professional urge to graft police-court cross-examina tion stuff on to ward-room routine. The other play of the dangers of life at sea these ...

... COTTAGE TO LET AT WYNDHAM'S THEATRE By ANTHONY COOKMAN IT is entirely reasonable to fight shy of topical plays. Like Coronation pic tures or Jubilee marches or Corn Law rhymes, they are apt to be bad art, so disconcertingly reluctant is art to come pat to any given occasion. But there is no need on this account to think twice before going to see Cottage To Let. at Wyndham's Theatre. True, it ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE That Censorship MANY years ago I wrote a novel called Responsibility. The crux of this novel was when in 1914 an illegiti mate son sought out his father saying that he had never worried him before but that, now that he was going to give his life, he would like to have as much to give it for as the other lads of his age possessing fathers who acknowledged them. ...

... THE CINEMA BY JAMES AGATE Nonsense and Sense THERE is a horrible scene at the end of Edmond de Goncourt's La Faustin. Lord Annandale is dying, and the French tragédienne who is his mistress is keeping watch by the bedside. Presently she begins to study the workings of the human countenance in extremis. And since her art has become her second nature, she goes to the mirror to see if she will be ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE Awav From It All J LAST week I had the luck to be invited to spend a few days in the country. In peace time one knows what this means-- the amenities of London plus the country air which one can always shut out by keeping the windows closed. Even so, there are some people who still cannot abide rustication. Like that witty American, O. Henry, they are kept awake at ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE Funny and Unfunny ONE man's meat is another man's poison. In other words, you cannot argue whether a comedian is or is not funny. If a comedian is funny to you, then both you and the comedian are in luck. On the other hand, if a comedian strikes you as unfunny, the plight of both of you is desperate. Let me chronicle this week how I have been both in and out of luck. ...

... 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 ...