... 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 ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon Lunch Italic! (Arts Theatre Club) AMONG the discoveries of this war, not the least interesting from the point of view of the theatrical manager is the lunch hour. Miss Myra Hess led the way with her National Gallery Concerts, which have been for many an oasis of culture in a waste of vulgarity. Very good sandwiches at a reasonable price and very nne music at a ...

... The Theatre By Herbert Farjeon The Magic Flute (Sadler's Wells) A WEEKLY article in praise of Sadler's Wells and of the Old Vic would not, in these days, be out of place; for let us never forget that if the protection of the body is important, no less is the protection of the mind and of the spirit, which must be fortified to withstand a state of siege that seeks to batter them with deafening ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Dear Old 1940 (New Vic), being an extract from the Bystander of October 2nd, 2040 THIS diverting and instructive play takes us back to the last elysian days of overground life, when there was no civilian who did not daily see the sky, breathe the fresh air, and enjoy the beauties conferred on a now subterranean world by nature. The war, as every school- child knows, had ...

... Films of the Day M. Boyer, an Ape, Stunt Fliers, Some Wives 13 y George Campbell L'EPERVIER was French; Charles Boyer was in the cast. That was enough to raise hopes that even the press-agent's murmured admission, It isn't quite Boyer's latest, you know, only slightly damped. With the appear ance of dear old George Grossmith's face on the screen, and the recollection that he died in 1935, ...

... The 6 4 Bystander Bookshelf The Stupid Sex Bv V. S. Pritchett Now that Simenon is being trans lated-- and admirably translated, too-- from the French, I foresee the ruin of English detective fiction, with Agatha Christie's shorter pieces alone remaining untouched among the wreckage. What is it that makes English detective fiction so deadly? Fundamentally its dullness is due to its immorality ...

... The Bystander Bookshelf Innocence and Villainy V. S. Pritchett THERE is a growing form of child exploitation which I hope will die of the fury raised among rival parents. I mean the habit, which novelists are getting, of pushing out wistful works of literary charm about their own children. I thought it quite enough when Mr. Nichols insisted on sharing his cottage with us; now it has gone ...