... : Reviewed by Trevor zydllen EVIDENTLY it is fruitless, these days, to go to Corsica to write about bandits. Denis Clark did so, with wife and small daughter, after release from the R.A.F. He heard of only one who might still be lurking in the hills, but was told stories of the notorious Spada by one Dominique, who said it was all hooey-- the report that he was caught in his parent's house ...

... . by Rupert Croft- Cooke By Rex Warner. (The Bodley Head 9s.) IT is a curious fact that the more individualistic and original a modern writer may be, the more one finds oneself searching for possible precedents and influences. For Mr. Warner's one must go back a century or two. His cold, lucid prose, his starkly silhouetted narrative, recall Swift or, at moments, Defoe, while the general ...

... adam's rib. A coyly streamlined comedy on the old theme of sex privilege, in which Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, as husband and wife, both lawyers, find themselves on opposing sides in a trial for attempted murder. A very good supporting cast and a general air of smooth competence distract one from the basic belief that the leading characters need smacking. it 's a great feeling. A ...

... by CYRIL BUTCHER WE were told that the production of The Scarlet Pimpernel, by Baroness Orczy and Montague Barstowe, would be the result of miracle-working by all concerned: producer, cast, scene-designer, cameramen, sound engineers and stage-hands. It was to be a two-studio affair, meaning that every inch of space at Alexandra Palace would be devoted to it. That information struck a nostalgic ...

... . By John Lodwick. (Heinemann 9s. 6 d.) IT begins to look as though Mr. John Lodwick has found a formula for his novels which satisfies him. A casual murder or two, a collection of raffish and vicious characters, a protagonist who is no better, a sensational story with a dash of brutality in it set in a sunny climate and you have the matter of most of his recent books. The present one is no ...

... THE CINEMA REVIEWS By C. A. Lejeune TWELVE O'CLOCK HIGH. As we have been warned, a new wave of Holly wood pictures about World War II. is breaking over the screen. A few weeks ago we had Gary Cooper as a Rear-Admiral, in a film celebrating the exploits of American aircraft-carriers in the Pacific. Now we have Gregory Peck as a Brigadier-General, in a film recording the first daylight missions ...

... . By Nieel Kneale. (Collins 8s. 6 d.) THIS is a collection of short stories by a writer who is still in his twenties, and is sponsored by a Fore word from Miss Eliza beth Bowen. Mr. Kneale is a Manxman, and frequently uses his own region as a background with results not unlike those of other regional writers Mr. Rhys Davies, for example. But he has a truly original turn of mind and is not ...

... . By Bernard Falk. (Hutchinson 63s.) IT is surprising to find that this is the first published biography of Rowlandson. There have been critical studies of his art and Mr. Falk readily acknowledges the value of the works of Mr. Paul Oppé and Dr. Edward C. J. Wolf, but it seems to have been generally assumed that the facts of Rowlandson 's life were either too obscure or too discreditable to ...

... Daylight Oil a Dark Legend Elizabeth Boiven THERE will be, we may take it, no end to books about Byron. Some have been invaluable, many outstanding, few (so far as I know) totally futile. There is, however, the danger of a number of readers knowing Byron only at one remove; through the medium of other, explaining minds. Let us miss no opportunity of direct approach. Such approach is offered by ...

... THE THEATRE J. C. Trewin LARGER THAN LIFE. And what title could be more reason able? For this is a play about Julia Lambert, the fashionable actress of forty-five or so, who is the centre of Maugham's novel, Theatre. It is an amusing, malicious book-- if not, maybe, Maugham at his strongest-- and it comes now to the theatre, surprisingly, I feel, as an amusing, malicious play. Surprisingly, ...

... (Mr flfc- Aullioin Cookman Hamlet (New) MR. MICHAEL REDGRAVE'S Hamlet in the Old Vic's new production has been highly praised and roundly con demned. A possible explanation of the wide difference of opinion is that the performance on the first night was incomplete. The actor did not manage to give sufficiently exciting theatrical effect to his own interesting idea of how the part should be ...

... MISS MARGARET KENNEDY is sparing of her talent and has written comparatively few novels and plays, although, in the main, these have added to her reputation. It must, of course, be difficult to follow up a success as worldwide as The Constant Nymph, and perhaps the author showed wisdom in her long literary intervals that have, be tween them spread over much more than twenty years. Perhaps, too ...