... By Vernon Fane Monica Dickens as a Probationer A French' Adventure Story Cherry Kearton's Photographic Safaris A Pre-war Paris Detective Kathleen Wallace's Romantic 7\[ovel George Sava's European Reminiscences A Period-piece by Margaret Trouncer HAVING in peacetime ex plored the rigours of life as a cook-general, Miss Monica Dickens on the outbreak of war could think of nothing less arduous to ...

... By Vernon Fane Johan Fabricius' Malayan Tragedy Peter de Polnay's Satirical Fantasy Another Tough from the Cheyney Gang; The Charming Memories of a Soldier A Collection of Poems for Children THE work of Mr. Johan Fabricius is readable almost to the point of hyp notism, since it is not until one is about a hundred pages along in a novel such as his latest, A MALAYAN TRAGEDY (Heinemann. ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. THE Years of Endur ance are the years between 1793 and 1802, when the Revolutionary Government of France, having overpowered resistance at home, attempted by force of arms to spread its ideas over the world. As the war went on it tended to become less ideological and more imperial istic. Napoleon was con queror first and J acpbin second. But he too promised a New Order to ...

... Playbill Looks at the Shows Whitehall Follies (Whitehall) JUDGING from the title of the above revue, it was a pretty safe bet that there would be a smack at the Civil Service and its alleged inefficiencies, which are so much under fire just now. And, sure enough, there was. But it was not a very funny smack nor a very convincing smack. Indeed, there is but little in this show, qua revue, that ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Comus (New) ONCE more to the ballet-- perhaps, more specifically, I should say once more to the Sadler's Wells Ballet, since there are so many second, third, fourth and fifth rate ballets roaming around and coming to rest that it would be a pity to confuse Ninette de Valois's organisation with its competitors, offshoots and derivatives. Not that, in these difficult days, the ...

... By Horace Horsnell The Petrified Forest (Globe) ROBERT SHERWOOD'S drama of the Arizona desert (as filmgoers will remember) is less stony than its title suggests. Though its scene and most of its characters are primi tive, there is nothing prehistoric about the plot. The petrified forest is a local landmark, and only remotely symbolic. Dreams, they tell us, are fraught with symbolism, but ...

... By Horace Horsnell It Happened in September (St. James's) BUT not, one feels, quite in this way. The dramatist who bases the action of his play on topical history is liable to give hostages to realism. Particularly when that topical history has to carry and colour a personal story. Such dramatic surprises as the action must spring will depend less on those basic events, since they are common ...

... By Herbert Farjeon Goodnight Children (Netvj As a butt for his latest play Mr. J. B. Priestley has invented an organisation which he has named the English Broadcasting Company, known as the E.B.C., and which, we are warned on the programme, is not to be confused with the British Broad casting Corporation, known as the B.B.C. This, I must confess, was, in my own case, more easily read than ...

... MYSELF AT THE PICTURES Who Reads Film Criticism By James Agate WHY have our highbrow critics failed to perceive that the entire charm of the cinema lies in its quality of being ephemeral? Sit through a serious play in the theatre, and you will undergo an experience which lasts. Certainly until you get home, sometimes all next day, and sometimes for the rest of your life. I can think of pieces ...

... By Horace Horsnell Macbeth (Piccadilly) DRAMATIC criticism is not what it was. It is kinder, if not more competent. Gone are the days when the physical defects of players, and shortcomings in their art, were equally vulnerable to the critic's shafts. Much that the older masters wrote of the actors in their day, though possibly deserved, might be libellous in ours. Yet their compliments could ...

... MYSELF AT THE PICTURES Two Big Films By James Agate FOR some time I have been inveighing against those of our smart playwrights who have thought to write war plays by trotting out the old familiar characters, the old stale plot and the old dreary wise-cracking, and putting them into a war setting. The result in every case has been a shallow catch-penny success-- with the unthinking. |V[OEL ...

... By Horace Horsnell Murder From Memory Ambassadors) GHOSTS that walk and talk were com paratively common in the old drama. They are seldom seen on the stage today. An impetuous thriller here and there may blend the quick and the dead, but such ghosts as a rule are of the red-herring order, more talked about than palpable. Few are cast for such important parts as that of the Ghost in Hamlet ...