... THE THEATRE J. C. Trewin KING'S RHAPSODY Much of the action of this new Novello piece, at the Palace Theatre, passes in the kingdom of Murania. It can stand as a symbol of all musical romance; in that realm Novello, for many years, has been King Ivor. No one on our stage can contrive, more frankly, a best-selling musical play that does not pretend to be other than it is: an expert, popular- ...

... .- r --Good remake of one of Hollywood's best early psychological thrillers, Blind Alley, with excellent performances from Ree Cobb and William Holden as psychiatrist and killer. ...

... .- --An attempt at a British western, set in the South African diamond fields in the days before they were conceded to the British. With David Farrar, Honor Blackman, and a new girl of some promise, Diana Dors,] it fails to add up to more than a rough-and-tumble. ...

... .- --A not-quite-successful attempt to carry Margaret u Brien over tne awkward age between childhood and adolescence, with slightly self-conscious charm and etiolated Technicolor. J4. ...

... . By Neaio Marsh. (The Crime Club 9s. 6 d.) IT is from just such ornate and outré fal-lals as Mr. Brooke's that I expect to find an escape in crime fiction, but in this case I find myself bewildered by another kind of firework. Why, I cannot help asking, does Miss Marsh rob her story of all probability by a cast of characters so eccentric and puppet-like that no one could seriously pretend to ...

... . By John and Emery Bonnett. Michael Joseph ;8s. 6 d.) This is a reviewer's paradise-- a convincing novel about a murdered writer. ...

... .-- -A very moving film indeed, about men of the Burma Army in a hospital shack in the jungle, with a startlingly accurate performance from Richard Todd, British screen newcomer. FILMS IN BRIEF ...

... . By C. P. Snow. by Rupert Croft-Cooke Faber and Faber 12s. 6 d.) DURING the second decade of this century and for some years after wards, a great number of books were published which told, with laboured details of background, the story of a man's youth. Some of them followed Mr. Compton Mackenzie and described this in a public-school and university setting; others were indebted to Mr. Gilbert ...

... . By Dennis Gray Stoll. Collancz 9s. 6d.) A rambling and shapeless novel set in India, of which country the author writes with infectious nostalgia. Books in Brief ...

... THE Pre-Raphaelites are having a renascence of popularity, at least in so far as literary discussions of their work are concerned, and Professor Oswald Doughty's important new volume on Dante Gabriel Rossetti is yet another step in the re discovery of that remarkable and vital group of poets and painters. A Victorian Romantic I (Frederick Muller. 25s.) is literally a ponderous volume in its ...

... Elizabeth Mtowen VASCO PRATOLINI is one of Italy's foremost novelists: A Tale of Poor Lovers (Hamish Hamilton; 12s. 6 d.) is the first of his books to be translated into English. The scene is a street in Florence; time, 1925-26 --between the two wars, with Fascism in the ascendant. Pre-eminently, this novel is not a study of political conditions, nor is it a diatribe against political evil. ...

... 8 y Collie Knox I FIRST met Cecil Beaton in the Adriatic. Venturing too far on a swim from my base in Yugoslavia, I was failing visibly. Was there no Weissmuller in the sea that morning? There was A clear, incisive voice cried Hold on I'm with you. Swimming with the ease and grace of a champion, up popped Mr. Beaton, the darling of the photographic gods. Resolute, calm and with, of course, ...