... . By L. P. HARTLEY. THE Song of the Cold contains all the poetry that Miss Edith Sit- well has written since the war, besides three poems that have not hitherto been printed in a book. To these she has added some earlier work, Gold Coast Customs, and poems from Facade and The Sleeping Beauty, thus enab ling us to guess at the develop ment of her mind and art. To say that once her chief ...

... . By JOHN RUSSELL. MEMORY has been shaken like a tree in blossom by the announcement that opera and ballet will before long be seen at their natural home in Covent Garden. This much-loved building, for so long misused as a dance-hall, will thus precede by a few weeks its partner in revival, the Scala at Milan. A great French novelist, who was also a great lover of the theatre, once said that ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. THE programme of THE BANDIT OF SHERWOOD FOREST (Gaumont and Marble Arch) carries a comprehensive dis claimer The characters and incidents portrayed and the names used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person is entirely accidental and unintentional. Did I say comprehensive? I erred. Not quite comprehensive. The ideal, ...

... . By K. JOHN. IN the world of fiction peace has not yet arrived; it rears its head for a moment, and then vanishes beneath the waves. And still the waves come on. That is to say, we are still being inundated with war novels; which is only natural, though it does not allow for the recoil of the human mind. There comes a moment when we want to read about something else when we need what is ...

... . By JOHN RUSSELL. SOME plays exact a certain physical intimacy be tween actors and audience. Ibsen's A DOLL'S HOUSE is certainly one of these-- a play in which the audience ought ideally to get right inside the tight little box of a house and sense, not only each change of temperature in the living-room, but every footfall in the adjoining study and up the frosty path which leads to the ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. SARATOGA TRUNK, packed three years ago in Hollywood, was opened at Warner's Theatre last week, and proves to have something in it for everybody's taste, except the exigent few who look for a touch of greatness in their pictures. This big, handsome, sprawling, crowded story follows Edna Ferber's novel pretty closely, and has for leading characters two of the types she does ...

... . By K. JOHN. WE in this country are now pretty well re signed to the peace. We have accepted the fact that it is peace and no more; that it is and will go on being accompanied by an almost total absence of what were once thought the fruits of victory. Discomfort is unabated security remains a pious hope and we are equally without that least substantial of per quisites the glow of national ...

... . By JOHN RUSSELL. NINE weeks remain in which to enjoy, at the New Theatre, a production which is not merely the best that this winter has given us, but one which, in my view, offers one of the greatest evenings which one can ever hope to pass in the theatre. The coupling of ŒDIPUS with THE CRITIC has been called over-audacious; and managers have recently kept us upon a diet of such ...

... . By K. JOHN. IT is strange but certain that the modern novelist finds it hard to rouse our interest in a love-story., Ten to one we don't care. That Elizabeth should marry Mr. Darcy, that Anne Elliot should marry Captain Wentworth-- that seems important; that is very exciting, even when you know it all in advance. But now the introduction ol the love-interest is too often 1 eicmul for a drnn ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST (Carlton) is the sort of sea-adventure yarn that Hollywood has always done well. For one thing, it forces the actors out into the open air; which is good for their souls, their health and, gener ally speaking, their ego, since it is extraordinarily difficult to put on airs and graces when drenched to the skin or blown by a 60-m.p.h. gale. For ...

... . By C. A. LEJEUNE. MR. RANK'S organisation, as you may have heard, is working on a plan to make British audiences French-film-minded, by showing a selection of choice French subjects in regular programmes up and down this country. The new arrangement, it is hoped, will result in the country wide popularity of French stars and screen technique. The idea is admirable, although a few cynics, ...

... . By L. P. HARTLEY. THE PURSUIT OF LOVE is one of the rare novels that mean more than they say, and also something rather different from what they say. Miss Nancy Mitford tells us about the household of an eccentric English peer who cracked stock-whips before breakfast, to whom abroad was bloody, and anyone he didn't like, a sewer. Daunted but not quelled by the flash of his blue eve. ...