... The Magistrate (St. Martin's) By Horace Horsnell APOLLO'S bow was not always bent, nor was Sir Arthur Pinero always on his high horse. The social and domestic imbro glios he so firmly dramatized were not his sole preoccupation. Far from it. He began his long, mountingly successful career in the theatre as an actor (did he not once play the King to Irving's Hamlet?) and continued to practise ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. AFTER a diet of the rich, piquant dishes of Holly wood, there is a lot to be said for a nice, plain British documentary like WESTERN APPROACHES (general release shortly). 44 Western Approaches was made for the Crown Film Unit by an extremely talented young man called Pat Jackson, and acted by serving officers and men of the Allied navies and merchant fleets. There isn't a ...

... Reviewed by Trevor zj{lle?i DID you know that, according to legend, Beautiful Bath was founded by pigs? Bladud, son of Lud Hudibras, King of Britain, was driven from his father's court by leprosy. He duly came to Keynsham, six miles from Bath, to work as swineherd. The swine caught the leprosy, and, dreading his master's anger, Bladud drove them over the hills to a place where there were ...

... Scandal at Barchpster (Wyndham's) By Horace Horsnell WHY is it, I wonder, that stage versions of popular novels tend to resemble Tuesday's hash of the Sunday joint? And that the more faithful the réchauffé, the less succulent, at times, the dish? The film, we know, has a wanton touch in this matter, and can so transmogrify basic material that little but the title of the original remains to ...

... The Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa Training Ship Happiness, peace, security, instead of sadness, turmoil, danger. These are the aims of the Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa Training Ship. Would you like to feel another little one had been rescued from stark tragedy Then will you send a donation to the Shaftesbury Homes and Arethusa Training Ship, 164, Shaftesbury Avenue, W.C.2 ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. SO the mammoth Technicolor HENRY V. has arrived on the screen at last. Now we can appreciate the meaning of those tasty posters, silver fleur-de lys on an azure ground, that have popped up for weeks on the London hoardings, between advertisements of a certain brand of gin and adjurations to Cut our Gas and Electricity. Henry V. (Carlton) was Produced and Directed oy ...

... Reviewed by PHILIP PAGE SHAW REVIVALS (Lyric, Hammersmith).-- I wonder that when Shaw decided to put Shakespeare into a play, as he has in The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, he was not ruder about him. And funnier. For I imagine this little piece, which also introduces Queen Elizabeth, was to a large extent intended to be funny. I thought it rather dull, in spite of some good acting by Mr. Nigel ...

... INTRODUCING his book of essays, composed over a number of years, most of them war years, Mr. A. L. Rowse says: I am a little surprised to find how consistent and strong is the theme that runs through them: something more than pride in, a deep love for, English things, for our country side and towns, with their memories of the people who inhabited them and of the things that took place there-- ...

... AS Christmas approaches, the bookshop is our Mecca. We are looking, of course, for light and neutral stuff that will do just as well for Auntie Maud if we decide to give that tray- cloth to Auntie Dora after all. We hardly think in terms of weighty volumes like Lewis Mumford's THE CONDITION OF MAN (Seeker and Warburg. 25s.), which nowadays only America has the paper to print. But it is the ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. FAIR STOOD THE WIND FOR FRANCE is an escape story. Fly ing Officer John Franklin and his crew of four sergeants are returning from a raid in North Italy when the airscrew fails and the aeroplane crashes in Occupied France. Franklin's arm is badly cut the rest are unhurt. After one rebuff they are taken in by a farmer's family and hidden in a mill- house (the river plays ...

... TU Anna Christie (Arts) By Horace Horsnell ADMIRERS of Eugene O'Neill, the American dramatist, will hardly need reminding that seafaring men, in drama at any rate, are apt to have strong feelings and to express them with passionate simplicity. In the stokehold, for instance, and the heat of the moment, tempers can be short and choppy, like the sea; and spades are less often apostrophized as ...

... TO produce a war correspon dent's diary at the end of 1944, and to make it vivid and informative enough to deserve a really enthusiastic recommen dation, is quite a feat-- of journalism or optimism or just sheer performance. Mr. Alaric Jacob has done just that with A TRAVELLER'S WAR (Collins. 15s.), in which he describes his exDeriences from Tune 1941 to June 1943. I must say that I had ...