... By Horace Horsnell The Merry Widow (His Majesty' s) The Merry Widow, Daly's Theatre, Leicester Square in June, 1907: what different days, what brighter nights this revival recalls! Though lively, the pace was somehow less swift thirty-six years ago, when Léhar's melodies first entranced, and Lily Elsie's flower-like charm created, as the stage historian reminds us, a perfect furore. ...

... THE WAR HAS NO PLACE IN THIS WEEK'S SELECTION Regency Odds and Ends The Parson's Wife through the Ages H. E. Bates' Multum in Parvo Miss Eiluned Lewis's Romantic Story of the Sea --By Vernon Fane WITH the possible exception of the everlasting Victorians, there is no period in English history so well documented as the Regency. The artificial elegances of the eight eenth century had already ...

... --By Vernon Fane How to Enjoy the Victorians Charles Graves's Seven Pilots A Who' dunit with Humour Vicki Baum Can W rite Bye, Bye, Blackshirt Eric Knight's Sam Small Flies Again Bucolics and Evacuees MR. HENRY WILLIAM POLDEROY, whose diary is featured in POLDEROY'S PAPERS (Michael Joseph. 10s. 6d.), is described in the blurb as an eccentric gentleman, but by no means a fool. Mr. C. E. ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE OLD CHELSEA.--So strongly do I dislike on the stage almost any form of pseudo- historical romance, the flavour of which is poison to me, that I would feel like dubbing this pro duction at the Princes Theatre Arsenic and Old Chelsea, were it not for its music and the admir ably picturesque stage-setting. Mr. Richard Tauber, who has composed most of it and plays the ...

... THE PSYCHOLOGY OF VISION By Vernon Fane Aldous Huxley and the Art of Seeing An Articulate Farmer Love in the Blitz Polish Adventure and Irish Romance Revolution without Tears AT the age of sixteen Mr. Aldous Huxley had a violent attack of an eye illness which left him, after eighteen months of near-blind ness, with one eye just capable of light perception, and the other with enough vision to ...

... By Horace Horsnell Brighton Rock (Gnrrick) HARDLY for family consumption, I feel, this Brighton Rock, which is ruthlessly adapted from what I am assured is quite a good book. Good, that is, in the read able, rather than the ethical sense. A common trouble with plays that are based on novels is that-- as with the boarding-house hash of comic fiction-- original virtue is apt to esćape in the re ...

... By Horace Horsnell The Merchant of Venice (I\etc) ALTHOUGH The Merchant of Venice is one of the most popular of the comedies, the professional playgoer seldom looks for ward to it with great expectations. He has been disappointed too often. Poor productions litter his memory, in which actors, having no music in their souls, over-rationalized or threw away such lovely verse as the text, in ...

... DEBRETT'S PEERAGE. In the fourth year of war we are not unfamiliar with the war substitute commodity. Debrett, however, most famous book of reference, has succeeded, in spite of immense difficulties, in carrying, on in its old style. The 1943 edition is now on sale at the pre-war price of 105s. net, cloth-bound. Special features of this year's issue are the War Honours Supplement, containing ...

... . 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 Horace Horsnell What Every Woman Knoivs (Lyric) THIS revival of Barrie's long-neglected comedy refreshes controversy as to his merits, status, and chances of immortality. Was he a first-rate dramatist, and will his plays live? Such speculation in futures is a harmless game, and does at least exercise the player's prejudices. But it's a tricky business anticipating the verdict of posterity. ...

... . 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. ...

... TU By Horace Horsnell Old Chelsea (Prince's) I OLD times, sentimentally approached, are apt to display ye olde veneer; and there are writers whose quality may be judged by their attitude to the past. This may be patronising, which is bad; snobbish, which is worse, or just plumb whimsical, which but it is late in the day to flog that poor lade, the musical-comedy libretto. Good ness knows ...