... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. IT is not often that earnest filmgoers have an oppor tunity of comparing the past with the present. Ours is an ephemeral art. What is here to-day is gone to-morrow-- and it seldom returns. But for once there is a return that is worth while, and one that does afford a certain amount of interesting comparison. At the London Pavilion is a revival of Miss Hedy Lamarr's first ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. TO dislike something very much does not neces sarily mean that one likes its opposite. But as a rule a strong prejudice in one direction does imply a corre sponding predilection in the other, and this is certainly true of Sir James Barrie, a selection of whose letters has recently been published under the dis cerning and vigilant editorship of Miss Viola Meynell. Barrie ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. A FEW years ago escap ist literature was regarded in some quar ters with an air of slight moral disapproval, as though to turn from things as they are to things as they might be was an act of disloyalty to life, and therefore wrong. Now. however, these puritanical voices seem to be stilled, and an author can label his book escapist without incurring reproof. Mr. Louis ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. YOU will have noticed an in creasing ten dency of late to make films about groups of people-- marines, A.T.S. girls, munition workers, nurses of Bataan. In the old days, it used to be considered sufficient for one beautiful girl to have one love-story in each film. Nowadays we study the emotional problems of half-a-dozen in a batch. Whether it is just reaction, or the ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. HOUSE BOUND is a war novel, as all fic tion that sets out to describe the contemporary scene must be, in some degree. Rose Fairlaw's role has hitherto been the passive one of anxiety for her children, who are just of an age to be closely in volved-- Mickie, her husband's son by his first marriage; Flora, the only child of her first marriage; and Tom, who belongs to her ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. IT is not every film director whose name be comes part of the currency of our language. We do not, for example, speak of a typical George B. Seitz situation, or de scribe an atmosphere as being genuine Sam Wood. Yet Mr. Seitz has been directing pictures for twenty-nine years, and Mr. Wood, whose record can be little, if any, shorter, has handled some of the biggest ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. I YOU can see-- if you can find it-- THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, the second film made by Orson Welles, whose Citizen Kane so delighted the intelligent filmgoer and so shocked the exhibitor and the complacent audiences. All I can tell you is that it is to be found somewhere in Acton, somewhere in if urn t uak, somewnere m Haves and Chingford, and somewhere in Brighton. ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. MR. JAMES AGATE claims to be the only ex-novelist who has rewritten his first book. He goes on: I am an ex novelist, and through sheer artistic integrity. When my third and last work of so- called fiction appeared in 1928 I had become enough of a critic to know that this was not novel-writing, but thinly- disguised autobiography. I stopped because my critical sense ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. BETTE DAVIS'S directors are said to have said that for Bette to get going at her best she needs to play an intelligent female who is either wrong on wronged, against a background of earthquake, upper-class murder, or historical crisis. Personally, I like my Bette wrong and hopping mad a cross between Jezebel, Mildred of Human Bondage and Regina of The Little Foxes which may ...

... . Starred by The Sketch. highest value. WATCH ON THE RHINE (Aldwych). Diana Wynyard, Anton Walbrook, Athene Seyler, Margar etta Scott. Anti-Nazis in U.S. 44 FLARE PATH 44 (Apollo). R.A.F. ops. Adrianne Allen. BLITHE SPIRIT 44 (Duchess). Noel Coward's play. Kay Ham mond, Cecil Parker, Irene Browne. 44 PINK STRING AND SEALING WAX 44 (Duke of York's). 1880 Brighton comedy. Iris Hoey, ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THERE is good news this week for all the good people who have written from time to time to ask, Can't we please have a revival of 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'? Beauti fully in time for the Christmas holidays, the most beloved of all Disney films comes back to the New Gallery. I make it my Number One item on this page, because I feel sure it will be the Number One ...

... . Starred by The Sketch. h ighest value. **Adelphi: THE DANCING YEARS. Ivor Novello in his romantic musical play, with Muriel Barron and Roma Beaumont. Aldwych: WATCH ON THE RHINE. Diana Wynyard, Anton Walbrook, Athene Seyler, Mar- Karetta Scott. Anti-Nazis in the U.S.A. Ambassadors A LITTLE BIT OF FLUFF. Revival with Henry Ken dall, Chili Bouchier, Olga Lindo. Apollo: FLARE PATH. R.A ...