... frw/rt ISruvt' M^ovkhttrt MEMORY is sometimes merciful. When I came out of the Leicester Square Theatre thinking Highly Dangerous must come high among the silliest films of 1950, there was danger of forgetting horrors endured earlier in the year. Out of fairness, then, while refreshing my memory of the best and worst films of the out going year, I jotted down without difficulty nine other ...

... Summing Up Paul Holt 1950 turned out to be the Year of Canasta. Other things happened, of course. Baby Brumas turned bad-tempered. The French won all our classic races except the 2000 Guineas. There were Flying Saucers to be seen, and Boswell's Diary to be read. Sibelius celebrated his eighty-fifth birthday by a grand silence, and Bernard Shaw died in his ninety-fifth year for no other reason ...

... SOME PORTRAITS IN PRINT Beino the lucubrations ol your most obedient scribe, Mr. Gordon Beckles IF anything be certain in this New Year of ours (which it is not) at least the end of 1951 should leave us better informed on the wisdom and folly of fairs. Down in the Waterloo Bridge Road, only a stroll from the Festivalof Britain site, they are giving us a taste of what fairs meant to London in ...

... G Kl'Ut'V hftflillll ft FANTASY and fairy-lale are die film indus try's fumbling concessions to the Christmas spirit; followed of course by pantomime. Connections with Christmas may be vague enough, but the convention does make for that nice change synonymous with a holiday. Nobody is likely to question the suitability of Disney's Cinderella (Prince of Wales); especially when coupled with Seal ...

... Motoring: Oliver Stewart IT is said-- and I confess that my own experience of making calls in the City of London bears this out-- that when the car is parked, the best place to leave it is under a No Waiting sign. It is argued that this is so for two reasons: first, that there will probably be room there, and, second, that the police are less likely to object. For similar reasons, it is ...

... When the Pathaiis Came E. V. Ano.v THE difficulty of presenting a scene of carnage in the idiom of a modern novel is immense; and I should have thought that the emotions of fear and pity were more easily evoked if the whole tragedy were seen through the eyes of a single participator, or, if through the eyes of more, that their accounts should be taken separately. No writer can bring the Indian ...

... Been wondering if I could sell 'em to some of these Indian rhaps who have to sleep on nails'' By Wyndham Robinson ...

... 1 f f fi f/ut tt u f 'Mnd ott> to add to my surprises Behold the Demon Kins arises. IF pantomime of the true Victorian vintage, rich in doggerel verse with outrageous puns in every couplet, is to your mood then Ali Baba and the Thirty Nine Thieves is the best thing of the season. At the Players Theatre in Villiers Street, now presided over by the ingenious Mr. Don Gemmel, there is being ...

... CUr Lace Oil Her PdlicoaC' (Amlinvsnriors) MRS. AIMÉE STUART gives us a charming new version of the play that has been a frequent visitor to the London stage since the early sixties when Tom Robertson introduced it as Caste. The children of castle and cottage meet and play together for a happy hour, and then the cruel gulf dug by cast-iron social convention opens up between them and there are ...

... 5L D. B. Wyndham Lewis BRITANNIA (or somebody) destroying Lust, Civic Consciousness overthrowing Envy, Abundance and Harmony presenting Sanitary Engineering to James I, Progress handing Chastity to Fortnum & Mason-- truly the great allegorical Rubens frescos from Whitehall, lately cleaned, restored, and on view at Kensington Palace, are a feast of glowing opulence to any reasonable eve. As the ...

... SIXTH REUNION Of THE MEN WHO FERRIED THE ROYAL NAVY'S EITTLE SHIPS In 1942 Admiral Sir Lionel Preston, K.C.B., Director of the Small Vessels' Pool, directed the forma tion of the Ferry Crews, who delivered all the R.N.'s trawlers, launches, fleet tenders and similar ships to naval bases and ports from builders' yards. Not a single vessel was lost during this enterprise, which included ...

... SOME PORTRAITS IN PRINT Beina the lucubrations ol your most obedient scribe, Mr. Gordon Beckles HE was almost the first man with whom I talked on the first morning of the year. I have known him for over forty years. We used to go to the same children's parties. He was a mild sort of fellow then, and still is. One of his hobbies has been the painting of flowers in water-colours. We passed the ...