... STRANGE that the only two theatrical enterprises launched in Central London since it became a mighty uncomfortable and dangerous place should have been Shake spearean. And yet, perhaps, not so strange. It was wisely pointed out the other day that times of stress have invariably seen a revival of interest in the classics although I have not the space here to furnish the reasons for this, I am ...

... MEMORIES AND MERCHANDISE --By Vernon Fane Compton Mackenzie's Islands; Vicki Baum's Department Store and Some Melodrama MRS. COMPTON MACKENZIE'S first volume of autobiography ended with the year 1918. The second volume, MORE THAN I SHOULD (Collins. 12s. 6d.), takes up the story at the Casa Solitaria, Capri (Too-- too-- oh, beloved Solitaria ), where Mr. Mackenzie was recupe rating from ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. I MAKE no bones about it. I am a Hitchcock fan. I go to a Hitchcock picture expecting something special, and nearly always I come away satisfied. Only twice in his long career has the chubby director really let me down. It is a great talent for drama Hitchcock has, and, unlike so many European film directors, he seems to have found in Hollywood a new success in implementing ...

... TO run a revue through 138 editions is pretty heroic going, even in peacetime. Although the majority of these editions of Revudeville at the Windmill have taken place during peace, for the show has been running since the Windmill Theatre opened nine years ago, the last batch has been seen since the fateful September 3, 1939. The present and 138th edition has been produced since London's ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. MANY people have their favourite century, with which they claim a spiritual kinship. Perhaps few would wish to have lived in the Dark Ages, though their friends can see how well it would have suited them. To be told, in an after dinner game, that you belonged to the Middle Ages, might be a compliment or not, according to the speaker's tdne of voice. If we suppose the modern ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Itevudeville Windmill) PLANES may come and 'planes may go, but the Windmill, brookfully, goes on for ever. Hail to thee, Windmill! Oft have we tilted at thee in the past, even as Don Quixote him self, but to do so now would indeed be unchivalrous. Honour to thy sails, which cease not from revolving, and honour eke to thy most rescuable nudes, who wink not a lash even when ...

... Films of the Day 44 We Burn You, Heine! We Burn You, Einstein! Bv George Campbell WHAT else could I do? screams the Nazi in The Mortal Storm, who has just shot his half- Jewish sweetheart for trying to escape across the frontier. And her half-brothers have no answer, for there is none. Given the Nazi doctrine that the State thinks for you, takes charge of your conscience, owns you body and ...

... THE CINEMA By JAMES AGATE First Nights in the Country THEY have been working all day, hundreds of them, thousands of them. They come back from their work in droves, so noiselessly that unless I am sitting at my window I should not know that half-past five has struck. For they are all on bicycles, and as they are all going one way not so much as the tinkle of a bell is heard. Now I know ...

... The 4 4 Bystander Bookshelf The Haunted Rectory By V. S. Pritchett TWO or three years ago, the Press, the B.B.C., and groups of observers, who ranged from members of the Society for Psychical Research to under graduates, and from undergraduates to the scrupulous Dr. C. E. M. Joad, investi gated the haunting of the Rectory of Borley, near Long Melford. A compre hensive account of all the ...

... Films of the Day Suspense Without Sense, by Hitchcock By George Campbell KEEP your lights going-- they're the only lights left in the world, cries the hero of Foreign Correspondent, broadcasting to America from London, as the lights go out and the studio rocks to the roar of bombs. Just what he meant I don't know. Some critics interpreted his exhortation as an appeal to America to join in; ...

... THE CINEMA Hollywood Catching Up By JAMES AGATE LAST week on this page I made some apparently rather distracted observa tions-- at least, an old and valued friend has since written to assure me that I wasn't quite myself!-- on Hollywood's con tribution these days and nights to our general cheer. Well, Hollywood has twice more con tributed, and has once again distracted me enough to make my pen ...

... THE CINEMA Overdoses By JAMES AGATE THERE has been quite a deal of dis cussion as to whether or no America has done and is doing all it can to make us win this war for freedom. So far as my own particular coign of film criticism is concerned, let me declare my opinion that America is behaving marvellously. We are all of us told that, unless we are actual war workers, the thing to do at this ...