... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE Around Sherlock Holmes LET me confess that I found myself, the other evening at the Regal, thinking about anything except the film in front of me, a film which purported to deal with Sherlock Holmes. It didn't. Instead it dealt with Mr. Basil Rathbone's exquisite profile in the part of Holmes and the broad, moony meadow of Mr. Nigel Bruce's countenance in the part of ...

... Books: Reviewed by T revor Allen Gentlemen, the ladies! is the literary toast this month. They have been impressively busy. Not lightly would I undertake Miss Erica Beal's immense documentary industry in making Royal Cavalcade (Stanley Paul; 16s.). It spans nearly a century, from Queen Victoria's Coro nation to the post-war years; presents ample portraits of the lives and times of Vicky, ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. ENGLISH audi ences to-day are getting tired of fairy- stories, a weather- wise film man said to me recently. The war is giving them a sense of reality. They know that the world isn t one eternal Vienna Congress, full of gilt and gingerbread and flashy blonde women. They want to see pictures about England and English life not just documentaries, but dramatic stories, full ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. DOUGLAS CAISE was a nervous and introspec tive little boy, the most satisfactory moments of whose waking existence were passed in a dream world. One of his fantasies took the form of murder-massacre, one might say, since the rules of the game allowed, indeed demanded, five victims. These were generally chosen from the visitors to the Bodmin Museum, where his father was ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. Tyrone Power. In DAYTIME WIFE (Odeon) she appears as Mr. Power's young wife, who discovers that her husband is running IT hasn't taken long for Linda Darnell, the sixteen-year-old brunette who made her film début in Hotel for Women, to win the prize award for good little girls in Hollywood-- the privilege of play ing leading lady to around with his secretary (Wendy ...

... 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 ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. WHAT a genius the Americans have, at their best, for interesting foreign audiences in things that really aren't their business! There could hardly be a film more remote from the British temper and experi ence than THE ROARING TWENTIES (Warner Theatre)-- but does it matter? This is pure Americana, and rather specialised Americana at that-- a résumé of the days of bootieg ...

... Films of the Day Mines-- Coal and Diamonds By George Campbell ONE'S first reaction to The Proud Valley is that it comes a little too late or too early. If we hadn't seen The Citadel and The Stars Look Down, it would have been pretty terrific. But one Welsh mining valley, one pit scene, looks very much like another; and once again we watch, with respect and awe, risks taken and disaster faced ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. A YEAR or two ago one would have said that Mr. Graham Greene's attitude to the human lot, as expressed in his novels, was more despairing than the facts justified. More despairing, that is, if he meant his stories to be taken as a criticism of life in general, and not as individual works of art in spired by or relating to a special set of circumstances. Rather perversely, ...

... The Theatre: By Herbert Farjeon The Beggar's Opera (Haymarket) SIR NIGEL PLAYFAIR'S production of The Beggar's Opera was, in the view of some of us, just a pretty taradiddle. If it was not true, it was taking. It lifted the eighteenth century out of the Wardour Street rut, gave it a thorough dusting and a new coat of paint, substituted cerise and apple-green. for the old snuff and plum, ...

... IPil I Me vvifieiM-O. In and Out of Bilgevvater By JAMES AGATE SOMEWHERE I wrote the other day: A film magnate once in vited me to luncheon with the ulterior motive-- he frankly ad mitted it-- of getting my views about a proposed screening of 'Westward Ho!' Still more frankly, would I tell him what the book was about? I went to lunch, and throughout the entire meal my advice was not asked ...

... FICTIONAL VARIETY of the WEEK A Blood; A Story of the Air; The Study of an Explorer; and Others -By Vernon Fane IT seems only a day or two ago that I was reviewing a book of Mr. A. G. Macdonell's, and here he is again with THE CREW OF THE ANACONDA (Macmillan. 7s. 6d.), a grand ''blood, which is none the less authentic for lacking lurid, illustra tions. I heartily recommend it-- indeed ...