... IT is clear from the beginning that Alexander Korda's new version of Anna Karenina has an admirable purpose: to bring Tolstoy's novel to the screen as meticulously as may be within the limits of theatre-time and film con vention, and to build up a sense of a period and a society which conditioned the tragedy. This is something new. In all the earlier Hollywood versions, Anna Karenina was ...

... persuaded Noel Coward that he was a heaven-sent revue ir-t-A writer By Collie Knox BEHOLD, there is not one Cochran but many Cochrans-- all sizzling within the body (Incorporated) of one Showman, whose failures have been more magnificent, and much more expensive, than the successes of lesser beings. The successes of Charles B. Cochran (B for Blake) had for years thrown the traffic round ...

... By John Courtenay THE HIDDEN YEARS (Fortune) is a story of forbidden friendships whose author, Travers Otway, has sworn by the oaths of judgment and reason. That is to say, Harlston is a credible school, and this particular case- history a plausible business, though I still find the doings in the common-room-- where the beaks assemble-- more plausible than those in the studies (men only) ...

... . Compiled by Russell Palme (Skelton Robinson 18s.) From page 137 of this book I learn that Cecil James the Bassoonist is the son of Wilfrid James the distinguished bassoonist, and the nephew of E. F. James and Frank G. James, J respectively eminent bassoonist and trur.i- 2 peter, while he married Natalie Caine, tie oboist. Small wonder that he has been most active in the world of chamber ...

... At The Pictures (■la morons Legend Freda Bruee Loekliart IN our age the word glamour has taken on a cupro-nickel tone. But have we another to describe the mysterious magic which rare people shed about them as they go, the sheen on their own personalities, the spell they cast on others? If I were playing one of those paper games which used to pass the family time, and were asked to name the ...

... LIL, now on view at he Prince of Wales's, is a flower of the Bowery at a time when (so we gather) a bar-room night was a blend of white-slaving, incidental murder and lusty communal song-- A Bicycle Made for Two or The Honeysuckle and the Bee preferred. It is more important to know that Lil, belle of New York, is here Mae West. She wrote the play and she stands firmly at its centre. Stands ...

... OUR REVIEWER'S CHOICE SCOTT-KING'S MODERN EUROPE. By Evelyn Waugh. Chapman and Hall 5s.) THE HUNTED. By Albert J. Guerard. Longmans Green 9s. 6 d.) AURORA DAWN. By Herman Wouk. James Borr/e 9s. 6d.) CLOSE QUARTERS. By Michael Gilbert. Hodder and Stoughton 8s. 6 d.) Rupert Croft-Cooke SCOTT-KING'S MODERN EUROPE.-- Mr. Evelyn Waugh has been called a Quixote among novelists, but it some times ...

... . By Austin K. Gray. (Harrap 12s. 6d.) Ostensibly a biography of Guiccioli, who was Byron's last mistress, this book is remarkable for its brilliant portrait of the poet himself. It is carefully documented and the author is a realist with a merciless turn of phrase. ...

... Elizabeth Be wens Suddenly at His Residence Land Without Heroes Lady Shane's Daughter British Wusic TALK, these days, seldom turns on reading in general without somebody introducing a fierce note either for or against the detective-story. The ensuing argument tends to run off the rails because, quite often, both parties are not talking about the same thing. Those against-- who view the reading ...

... Cbt Mountain Air Comedy GOOD humour covers a multitude of short comings, provided that the author has sufficient skill in passably natural dia logue to keep the audience basking in its warmth. This comedy of a Swiss holiday has few positive merits, but by virtue of the pleasantness with which it is acted, the be comingness of its dresses and its quite unfalt ering good humour it offers the ...

... ^Aetc/i -$ocd BEVERLEY BAXTER. AS a matter of meteorological interest, I feel compelled to report that here in North America there is a considerable amount of snow at this time of the year. I am writing these notes in one of those Canadian homes in Toronto where cooking is done by a process of sleight-of- hand in the kitchen and the central heating seems to come from nowhere and is very cosy. ...

... By C. A. Lejeune THE UNFAITHFUL.-- Our story, announces a disembodied voice on the sound-track, takes place in Southern California. The problem with which it deals belongs not to any one city, town or country, but is of our times. The film never quite justifies this portentous statement, but is a well-told and handsome melodrama about a soldier who comes back from the Far East to find ...