... The Prince and Petronella The Prince and Petronella By John Brophy. (Ghatto and Windus; 8s! 6d.) This lhatto and Windus; 8s! fid.) this short and entertaining trifle concerns a Prince, a little monarchy with a Casino, and a beautiful girl. Coincidence ends there. The bank has been broken, the State is broke, the Prince turns resource fully to dustbins as a possible source of national revenue, ...

... Fear is the Same By Garter Dickson. (Heinemann 15s.) The time is the late eighteenth century; the place, a house appropriately sited off Berkeley Square. Jennifer Baird meets Philip, Lord Glenarvon but surely not for the first time Haven't they known each other in the tiventieth century Wasn't he something to do with boxing and with being a scholar, too, and wasn't she an actress It is all ...

... MR. JOHN DIGHTON'S new farce, Man Alive! at the Aldwych, has come in for rather rough critical handling, but I would give it two-- though assuredly not three-- cheers. It has a good farcical idea, and the author has striven gallantly to work it out in terms of its own logic. But the consequent strain on his ingenuity has unhappily been so severe that he has neglected to consider his comedians. ...

... OEDIPUS COMES TO BEANKSHIRE ACTORS and producers in the jolly Edwardian days, and for long after, were the despair of serious authors. They might, as readers, profess enormous admiration for plays that sought to lay bare the mysteries of the universe, but as men of the theatre they knew better than to put such plays on to the stage. The boot now seems to be on the other foot. Mr. T. S. Eliot ...

... New Lindsey Dense fog. A collector's piece of incom prehensibility. ...

... New Leslie Caron is clearly a nice girl and an agreeable actress. But I cannot pretend that this anecdote (by Anita Loos from a Colette novel) gives much opportunity to anyone. 's grandmother and great- aunt arc anxious to train her in the family tradition it can be summarised as always a mistress, never a wife and it is a pity she is unconventional enough to prefer marriage. ...

... Piccadilly A play that joins the writer s theatre to the dramatist's with triumphant ease. Peter Ustinov's smallest state in Europe call it Ustinovia is also the happiest; time stands still, Archbishops of the Unorthodox Church take miracles in their stride, and when the daughter of the American Ambas sador and the son of the Soviet Ambassador fall in love, there has to be a happy evening (it ...

... Carlton Another Hollywood treatise on the harm that Mom can do. This time there are two harmful Moms, his and hers, and Guy Madison and Jean Simmons have quite a time getting the dual influence out of their married life. The scene is a small college town. Mr. Madison is an honest building contractor; Miss Simmons a professor's daughter who has learnt to drink, smoke and do other things in the ...

... Odeon I^icesler Square Bette Davis in a small town political drama which revolves round the refusal of a little middle-aged librarian to remove, at the Town Council's request, a Communist book from her library. As a study in the effect of McCarthyism on a small com munity it may seem a little strange and difficult to British audiences, but it makes its point in punches, and should have a ...

... London Pavilion Psychological study of American soldier waiting to go into action in Italy, and in particular the problem of a religious fanatic (Don Taylor) whose friends have kidded him into falling in love with the local prostitute (Nicole Maurey). Mickey Rooney, winning a fortune in a crap game, introduces a touch of berserk comedy which has been highly praised, though not by me. REVIEWS ...

... Escape from P.O.W. Camps -By VERNON FANE A Factual Account from the R.A.F. More Memoirs by Negley Far son and Meriel Buchanan Heroes and Villains Elizabeth Goudge's New Novel and Other Fiction DURING the war, the business of escaping from prison camps was not a question of rash or foolhardy attempts. A highly organised, elaborately planned system was worked out to deal with any of the obvious ...

... Si. Martin's The confidence trickster may not break the drought on a Western American farm, but he can transform the plain-jane daughter (and there is rain at the end for good measure). A pleasant night, with a lovely performance by Geraldine Page. ...