... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Swinging the Gate (Ambassadors) THE new Gate Revue, warmly wel comed on the first night, is light, bright, and, as is to be expected where Miss Diana Morgan and Mr. Robert MacDermot are largely concerned, better than most. Of the twenty-seven items, half a dozen are really good, which may not seem a large number, but the general effect is excellent. And ...

... The Theatre liy Herbert Farjeon King Lear (Old Vic I IN these days of artistic as well as every other kind of crisis, high praise is due to the gallant stars who have rallied voluntarily to the cause of Shake speare. Headed by Mr. John Gielgud, who could command as big a salary as any actor in England, and who is always thinking of the theatre first and himself afterwards, they are appearing ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon White Horse Inn (London Coliseum) IF it's not a revue, it's a revival. So somebody, with, more or less, truth. The assumption would seem to be that what was good enough for 1914 will, or should, be more than good enough for 1940. One manager even announced the other day that he had a play which did quite well in the provinces last war, so he was thinking of ...

... Films of the Day History by Guitry George Campbell This is ordinarily the season when film producers, with a smile of ineffable benevolence, unload all the junk in their cellars, and eager aunts drag tolerant nephews to see it. Things are different this year. Of seven new films, only one is rubbish. The rest range all the way from Sacha Guitry's witty improvisations on the theme of royal ...

... \^7H1TAKER S Almanack (published at VV 12, Warwick Lane, E.C.4 12s. 6 d. [leather], 7 s. and 3s. 6 d. [abridged]) is one of the few books of reference that almost any one can pick up any time and find something not only that they did not know but that they would like to know. It takes the world as its matter and presents it to you concisely taped in 1130 pages. As well as favourite and useful ...

... The ninth edition of this invaluable book of reference has at last appeared, compiled and edited as usual by John Parker, pub lished as usual by Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd., Parker Street, Kingsway, at 30s. Who 's Who in the Theatre is, of course, far more than a collection of biographies of everyone connected with the stage it con tains a directory to London Playbills, 1936-9 the late J. M. ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon High Temperature (Duke of York's I WHAT I say three times, quoth the Bellman, is true-- for getting, by the way, to say it more than once, so perhaps we needn't believe him. But on a similar principle Mr. Avery Hopwood, the author of this depressing scramble, would appear to hold that what is done three times is funny, and what is done three-and-thirty times ...

... The Bystander Bookshelf Salvation in Fleet Street Bv V. S. Pritchett Two Biblical Salvationists are rein carnated this week: Mr. Douglas (Jeremiah) Reed, the only man to be always right about Hitler, and Mr. Malcolm (Ecclesiasticus) Muggeridge. But perhaps Mr. Reed is not Jeremiah, but the man with the Salvation Army drum telling us how he found the Way and calling us to Repent. In his ...

... Films of the Day Strong Spring Makes Watery Coffee By George Campbell IF the credit-list is evidence, My Son, My Son! is good. After dazing you with Madeleine Carroll, Brian Aherne, Louis Hayward, twenty-four other stars and featured players, the producer, director and original author, it goes on: Screen Play Lenore Coffee Photography Harry Stradling, A.S.C. Dialogue Director Stanley Logan Art ...

... By V. S. Pritchett THE autobiography of Constancia de la Mora, In Place of Splendour (Michael Joseph; 12s. 6d.), is a delightful, intimate and spirited account of the struggle of a rich and beautiful Spanish girl to get out of the Spanish Doll's House of upper-class life in Madrid before the civil war. I doubt if many people in England can imagine exactly what that life was like indeed, to the ...

... The Theatre: By Herbert Farjeon Lights Up! (Savoy) RE-ENTER Mr. Cochran. And about time, too. For-- speaking as a dramatic critic-- London isn't really London without him. And a war-- remembering the revues he put on during the last one-- isn't really a war. Those early Cochran revues were the first over here to combine wit with intimacy-- only when peace came did Mr. Cochran start making ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Peril at End House Vaudeville THE ideal solution in a detective play takes you completely by sur prise and makes you feel a fool not to have thought of it; combining, like all the best things in the theatre, the un expected with the inevitable. What, however, usually hap pens in a detective play is that you guess the answer or, being told the answer, don't see ...