... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE DU BARRY WAS A LADY.-- Although there is plenty of crudely farcical fun-- quite enjoyable if one is in the mood for it-- in this American musical-comedy at His Majesty's about a cloak-room attendant who, having seen a film about Madame Du Barry, dreams that he is not only at Versailles, back in the eighteenth century, but is Louis XV himself, I found my self not only ...

... NOVELS IN VARYING MOODS -By Vernon Fane Civil Servants and the Blitz Miss Georgette Heyers Literary Diversion A Weighty 7\[ovel by Taylor Caldwell A 7\[ew Story by Barbara Goolden TWO things are certain about the author of DARKNESS FALLS FROM THE AIR (Collins. 8s. 6d.); he knows a great deal about the London blitzes, and he knows a great deal about the activities of temporary Civil Servants. ...

... Murder from Memory (Ambassadors) STRANGE that in a world war, with its universal killing, so many plays should be produced, for alleged entertainment and relaxation, in which killing is the main motive. I am not suggesting that in war time only the lighter stuff should be seen on the stage; that would rule out, for instance, Hamlet and Macbeth. But it is hardly necessary to add that ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. IN amongst the feature films, the newsreels and the Ministry of Information shorts, a number of sizable documentaries are turning up these days to lend variety to our programmes. Probably the most important, the most skilled and the best photographed come from the Government's own Crown Film Unit, which has, naturally enough, priority in subjects. Crown does not employ the ...

... By PHILIP PAGE BEST BIB AND TUCKER.-- Among the strictly minor inexplicable twists of the war is that in its earliest days we heard, and saw, much of stage economy. Plays were pre sented with a minimum of expense, ancient scenery or no scenery at all, and, in musical shows, strictly rationed finery (or no clothes at all). With the exception of the portion in brackets in its application to ...

... 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 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 ...

... By Horace Horsnell Home and Beauty (Playhouse) THE revival of this frivolous comedy should help to correct the view that, as a satirical artist, Mr. Somerset Maugham draws directly from the life. Its characters-- Victoria and her two husbands, at any rate, whose tangled affairs the plot unravels-- can hardly be credited with so prosaic an origin. They are of imagination all, or nearly all, ...

... MYSELF AT THE PICTURES Fox and Geese By James Agate ONE can imagine 20th Century-Fox saying something like this: You have now for some considerable time been seeing films dealing with brutal crimes portrayed by crea tures even less than sub-human; you have been fed on this diet until you are now arrived at a state which might be described as fed up. Good. We now give you an entirely different ...

... -By Vernon Fane A Shrewd and Vivid Chronicle by an American Correspondent Sketches and Personal Reminiscences by Eric Benfield An Interesting Collection of Short Stories The 1943 Saturday Book TIME RUNS OUT, by Henry Taylor (Collins, 10s. 6d.), is another of those inside Europe books by an American correspondent, written around the events of last winter. Mr. Taylor was one of the first to ...

... m JBBH. mHraBNff^sw mliBS .v/^ t> V Books: Re-viewed by T revor Alle?t IN the past century the Portuguese Braganzas of Brazil were all we expect a Latin dynasty to be, both in political intrigue and court scandal. Dom João's queen, the giddy Carlota, is credited with having plotted the murder of her lover's wife and-- possibly-- that of her husband; when, finally, she left Brazil she ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. COMPARATIVELY few works of fiction have had elderly heroes or heroines. But there are excep tions: Pere Goriot, for in stance, and, in the drama, King Lear. Mr. Frank Swin nerton has not only taken the title of his new novel, Thank less Child, from King Lear, he has also followed Shake speare's lead in making an old man the chief person in his story. There is no need to ...