The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 11

THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 1940 11 tle 13 la? BY IVOR BROWN Mtusic and ttusiciarts BY WILLIAM GLOCK MINISTRY OF FOOD BY C. A. LEJEUNE THE DRAMA DISPERSED REBECCA It Is hard on Alfred Hitchcock, and scenes, like 'the struggle of numbed to take out secular entertainment on the old Thespian lines, just as the Pilgrim Players have taken thejr religious drams on us, too, that his nrst Hollywood rum hands to coax from flint, the exile should have come to England at a time listening to. her home town' singing at BULLETIN N9 4 on whatever road would offer a welcome. There has been no similar circumstance CLIFFORD CURZON RECITAL A rather uneventful week was given sudden interest near the end by Clifford Curzon's recital at the National Gallery on Friday.

Mr. Curzon played when few of his countrymen are really in the mood to appreciate it. For Rebecca (Gaumont, Haymarket) is a in recent years, but now the day of the strolling player has come aeain. and those who take a chance with a tent or fine fUm, the Hitchcock film we have been waiting for, and at any other tune a Darn, outside all the official organisations, might find their reward. Ghristmaa time, -'that are almost physically painful.

In their truthfulness. The thing isn't quite happy or quite sad, but a poignant combination of the two. It belongs to the films of a great Francp in the days that seem over. If you go to His Girl. Friday (Regal) and have a nagging feeling you have seen something like, and yet quite unlike those of us who have backed ham Beethoven's Eroica variations and Schubert's first four Impromptus with through the leaner years would have got a considerable amount of satisfaction out of finding ourselves so richly justified.

Daphne du Maurier's story of the Fortune UNDER TWENTY-ONE Book and Lyrics by Anna Sploer Music by Dennis Blood It has been observed by the facetious Of Old that chantv unmvprc mnltitnHo an astonishing subtlety of rhythm, and with a variety of accent which showed as much imagination in seizing on refinements of detail as mastery in carrying them out. There are few who achieve such a range of effect between "ppp" and it, before, don't be distressed. It's not one half of your mind running ahead of nameless young girl haunted by the ghost of her husband's first wife is, of course, natural screen material, in the style of which Hitchcock is a master. No one knows better than Hitch how nr land if Mr. Curzon is always ready, bv the other half.

It's not a hallucination. It's a fact. His Gibl Friday is a remake of The Front Page, with the sexes reversed, and Fat O'Brien's part of the wise-cracking reporter made over for to cast a Poe eeriness about a scene, TJZ means of theatrical contrast, to make undergraduettes suggested by the mter-each end of the dynamic a uttle mittent fury of their dancing tihat a new; more vivid than the music requires, one sister college must be added to those of cannot help thinking it a good example St. Hilda and St. Huph nnmeW ihat nf'to the many pianists who apply them- Rosalind Russell.

how to use the commonplaces of life to deadly effect, how to Isolate a detail so that It shouts drama in your face. Hildy Johnson, the touehest lournalist ever sent to cover a murder trial, has be St. Hotcha. Youth in this affair was cer-is5lves to almost every piece as though come miss nuoegarde Johnson, and she From the opening shot of Rebecca he builds up the mood of the doomed house tainly at the helm: one wished, at times is pretty tough, too. His managing editor has become her ex-husband, who of Manderley, so that every stick and stone, every flimsy knick-knack about is determined to get the lady back to tackle one last assignment The famous ON THE KITCHEN FRONT We must make the best use of our food supplies.

It is not only the amount of food that matters. We must eat the right food. Our choice should be varied too. We should think of our foods in these four groups and choose something from each group every day (1) BODY BUILDING FOODS: tggs, meat, fish. (2) ENERGY FOODS: Potatoes, bread, flour, oatmeal, rice, sago, sugar, dried fruit, honey, cheese, buttery margarine, dripping, suet, lard, bacon, ham.

(3) PROTECTIVE FOODS (Group i): Milk, buttery margarine, cheese, eggs, liver, herrings (fresh, canned or salt), salmon fresh or canned). (4) PROTECTIVE FOODS (Group 2) Potatoes, carrots, fruit fresh or canned, but not dried), green vegetables, salads, tomatoes, wholemeal bread, brown bread. 1L LUC UKJUllliy VII dll East Anglian cathedral with the flatness of the view to be seen from it. Mr. Curzon has perhaps not quite enough weight or natural eloquence for Beethoven.

There is sometitmes an intensity of attack which seems extravagant because thrown at the music rather than directed by it, and sometimes a curtain-iine or tne original That -so- the house, has its place in the pattern that fire ultimately devours. that it had been studying at the Tiller. However, to combine professional tap-dancing with Modern Greats might savour too much of years ill-spent in statu pup." The amateurishness of this display, in which hope continually failed to triumph over inexperience, might be taken as good augury for next year's Schools. Th r-atlp that Vna nrmmj4Al -1 and-so (only the word wasn -so-and- so) stole my watch has gone, but much of the old Hecht-MacArthur -dia All this we expected of Hitchcock, the logue remains. It is the best part of the delicacy which comes from a more picture, wnicn is otherwise crisp, crack purely sensuous attitude towards tne technical tricks of emphasis and reiteration, the suggestive use of sound, the rapid little sketches of personal idiosyirt-crasy.

What we didn't expect, what we riiprs nf EVanr-a I pianoforte than Beethoven ever con ling, and a little frenzied. Youngsters who didn't see The Front Pace, and who a spirited raid'on the inrm nf thi templated. But these faults do not spoil can stand the strain of Dace' and nen nave only once glimpsed before in a The West End ol London is, from the' play-goer's and the "straight" actor's point of view, very nearly a desert. Shaftesbury Avenue has one oasis, where Rebecca continues to offer its exciting glimpse of a very odd corner in the Cornish Riviera. Actors meanwhile must hope to serve with E.N.S.A., to "get a tour," or find a niche in a film.

The drama is dispersed. Of course there was dispersion In the late summer. Players departed to summer theatres in Cornwall or to Festivals in spas. This year, although there Is a fair chance of the Old Vic opening its autumn work at Buxton, the scattering will be rather different and iar wider. Since the war has come home we shall coon have some two million soldiers under arms in the fortress-island, and we can hope that they will be awaiting battle on these shores rather than participating.

Consequently, spare time needs fllung properly, and for the enter-tajnment of such a host, many of whom are stationed in and around small and scattered villages instead of being near garrison towns with Garrison the resources of E.N.S.A. can hardly suffice, especially if that organisation is to take on civilian work as well end to be responsible for factory concerts and the like, as the Ministry of Labour has suggested. There should therefore be great scope during the late summer and autumn for travelling companies and barnstormers of all kinds. That halls and premises end a public can be found for such tours has been proved by the work of the Religious Drama Society, whose two teams of Pilgrim Players were formed last year, and kept on the road all through a very difficult winter. They ere professionals, and they offer such plays as Tobias and the Angel," by James Bridie; D.

H. Lawrence's David "Terror of Light," by Charlef Williams; and "England's Green," by Morna Stuart, the authoress of Traitor's Gate." One of the companies Is now busy in South Devon. Of course, such work means hard going and small reward. But our leading players have followed the dispersion. E.N.S.A.

has enlisted Mr. Gielgud in Coward comedy, and may also be responsible for presenting the Old Vic ballet and opera. Interesting plans are also being made for autumn tours of industrial areas from which the professional drama has long been banished. In these such players of high London reputation as Dame Sybil Thorndike have volunteered to take a part, although the work may have to be done on improvised stages and will involve some roughing it." Definite arrangements are not yet complete, but the Old Vic has been commissioned by the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts to draw up plans for two such journeys. South Hitchcock picture, is the curiously lyric will probably themselves with' His GiRt Friday.

Oldsters like myself may look back to 1931 with a certain wistful- which most needs the slick, assured pro-1 1e. P.leas"re, his playing as a whole, fessional touch To stage a revue may whlch 15 scholarly, effervescent, and un-seem to the audacious to toe easier than failmg lts sen3e of beauty, putting on a play, but it needs far morei ponMlTNAnP rTMririlT! organisation. Mr. PROMLINAUt dUNutK I quality ot tne tning. kebecca has ten derness, too, as well as drama.

It sings ness, arid feel that, after all, you can't along. Much of this quality comes from improve mucn on success. the beautirul performance of Joan Fontaine as the nameless wife. Miss Fon tion had managed to impose upon his' The forty-sixth season of Promenade eager team a good sense of pace, and concerts has just been announced. It is nothing was allowed to en on tno due to begin on August 10.

and has much taine has moments when she is as cap tivating as tne young Garbo hersell. FILMS IN THE SUBURBS The sketches, however, were too sketchy the same scheme as usual, except that and the songs at times inadequately there will be no Sibelius evening, and sung. The most promise was shorn h'v much the same brigade of executants, But in the end every great film is its AND PROVINCES Miss Yvonne Martin, while Mr. Anthony' except that Sir Henry Wood's chief Woodruff developed a line of rrwneriv accomplice will be the London Svm director's film. Rebecca is Hitchcock's film.

Not so startling, not so showy in its individual sequences, not such a bravura piece as many of its predecessors, it is the best whole that Hitchcock has ever made. Most foreign directors who go to Hollywood seem to lose their pleasantly suggesting the ingenious iii- phony Orchestra and not that of the genuity of Mr. Oliver Wakefield. iB.B.C. Instead of Sibelius we are to avid Copperneld (American).

Reissue of the careful classic that started this business of filming books page by page or have a Scandinavian programme, which Aik your local Food Office about cookery demonstrations being held in your district. ISSUHD ST THE MTNTSTTT OF FOOD, OI. WESTMINSTER HOUSE, S.W.I i includes Grieg's Bergliot (a ballad for nearly. wim a neagiing reddie Bartholomew and a.W. C.

Fields Micawber. oauier 3 wens declamation with orchestra), and Palm- I A i gren's fourth pianoforte concerto, op. 85 Morooco American). Reissue of the 70A and in addition to the weekly digest of foreign Legion melodrama In which Mar-lene Dietrich set out to tramp the desert individual touch in the film city embarrass de richesses. Hitchcock has merely used the riches to give his own style greater fluency.

Less of an occasion than Rebecca- but Wagner there is to be a solid helping Like other fine institutions, the Vic- in nign-neeiea suppers. Wells Ballet has- been hit by the storm i Richard trauss with Scnabins But the present season, which began those who have vwuui uegan appetite for still further splendours. My Llttla Chickadee (American). The modern W. C.

Fields and Mae West in a broadly burlesque western. Liveliest of the almost as deftly managed in its small. DAILY FROM MONDAY. 1st, JULY uuicjiauuj, crna re-1 i hree luesday evenings will be devoted bitter-sweet way, is the new French film new films, it not quite among the Fields uweicu, is iu oe completed, such a to Haydn and Mozart, three Thursdays nous lbs jeunes, at the Academy. The classics.

to 1 schaikowsky. On Ortober 2, ten performance as that of Coppelia directors are Jean Benoit Levy and Barrlcada (American). -Yellow bandits which the company gave last Tuesday, Pianists be. employed in a Bach v. red-blooded Americans In China.

Warner programme, whicn includes the fifth Marie Epstein, who made those touching films of childhood. La Maternelle and La Mobt du Cvgne. The studv this time Baxter's blood is reddest. Alice Faye, of ail people, is a mystery woman. Helps to explain why.

The ballet itself is old and mellow. Its leading role is one for which ballerinas must often sigh. Marv Honer Muslo In My Heart American V- Brandenburg, plus the concertos in major. minor, and A minor for two. three, and four pianofortes respectively.

now is adolescence, its pains and dreams and passionate futilities. A band of lads Romantic comedy of New York's Humbler people. Tony Martin golden tenor wins and it sujLs her. She danced Coppelia fu, are qul.te, v.aIuab superbly. Robert Helpmann is much 18 eSIi tendency Such orgies are quite valuable to Bach and girls from the cities, convinced, like all youth from the morning of time.

among him American citizenship. Alan Mowbray regard as an ana t-nc more, who can make faces, make more than a talented dancer that they can do the iob their fathers .3 a But the most invigorating laces. first-rate actor: and no matter whethpr fumbled, build themselves a Utopia nigh' up in the snows of the Swiss Alrjs. aspect of this forty-sixth season is its generositv living English composers. Konga (American).

Naive and rather disarming tale of an old horse-breeder's the role be modest or spectacular, he fills it witn art and fire. Two huts and a water-wheel for power, The corps de ballet, too, had many TTJ 10 love for. the wild colt he rears. Pleasant animal scenes and a satisfactorily happy a nome-'Duilt radio and a home-made law. While the first glow lasts, it's a beautiful world.

But of course the glow doesn't last. opportunities to excel. When these had been taken in the first act rallies, and the murky workshop of the puppet-maker had concluded the plot, the betrothal divertissements paid homage Introduction and Allegro for two pianofortes, Elisabeth Lutyens's three pieces for orchestra. Six Choral Songs for chorus and orchestra, bv Vaughan Married and In Love (American). The title tells the story.

Barbara Reed, one of the original Three Smart Girls, is the best Two boys find themselves watching the reason lor ootnering about it. same gin. Anotner girl breaks her heart over a lad who means to become are, as usual, available in wales is a likely site for one. So It seems that there Is a good chance1 cow for such adventurous barnstormers will readily sing for a simple supper A Woman II the Judge (American). Frieda Inescort is the woman.

The case to tne past ana rounaea on the show. -m, Here June Brae and Pamela Mav werefe1" Dmulh- Elizabeth Maconchy's excellent -A for pianoforte and orchestra. H. II. I and Edmund Rubbra's third symphony.

a monk. The leaders Quarrel over the words of a communal song: You can is a not very edifying one in which see the party politicians of to-morrow in woman tries her own daughter on a murder the youths of to-day. cnarge. rne nim is exactly cast and sym Heroes in Blue (American). A couple CARPETS, FURNITURE, FABRICS, HOUSEHOLD LINEN, WALLPAPERS Ch i a lass etc.

pathetically directed. There are little more imurpnys gioriry trie American police THEATRE NEWS ait6 Artists BY JAN GORDON Dr. D. S. MacColl has long been almost a monument in contemporary Art, Keeper of the Tate and the Wallace Collection, critic, rrime mover in Parlia SHOPPING by POST AH orders by post are executed by Departmental Experts and Hamptons guarantee that, to every Customer, the same careful selection and value are secured as when goods are chosen personally in the Departments.

Tel. Whitehall 1020. WO CATALOGUE being ISSUED mentary enquiries on Art. and so on. A ACTIVITY IN THE PROVINCES While there is still considerable activity in the provinces, the West-End theatre list goes on shrinking.

Other powerful deterrents have added their weight to the usual midsummer check. It is the more notable, therefore, that the Vic-Wells Ballet is not only continuing its season until July 12. but will present on Thursday next an entirely new ballet. This is Ninette de Valois's The Prospect Before Us." Rehearsals of this Rowlandson-in-spired frolic are well advanced. The dances have shaped themselves to the xenaepcy to overlook his gifts as a painter must be excused, since only now and then did the monument bring out and exhibit a modest watercolour or two.

The present exhibition at the Leicester Galleries of over a hundred paintings is a belated reminder, celebrating, as it does, his eighty-first year. The impression is still one of modesty. In comparison with the -brass and wind of some modern effort he seems to blow a wistful oaten pipe. His best effects depend on a delicate placing of shapes in the composition and the nuances, clean, unlaboured washes in watercolour. Time.

music by Boyce. Roger Furse's spirited I miiicu su oiien cnerisnes suouety more settings enliven the scene-painters' dock, man 'uiHvura, snouia rememoer mm as nmonir thi A9rlv rnnlioU mv, and the costumiers are fitting the i brought back English watercolour to at dancers with his Regency modes. ui-ie ol its senses. RAYMOND COXON At the same gallery Raymond Coxon has made nAw stone In -n mnvrvuM. studies of tihe Yorkshire Dales, and has a delightful TirvrtT-oit rx Tut, 7kTl4 Lunn; his.

interesting experiments in 1 mt- waurituiuur seem snii, hi limes, a little out of control. A very remarkable collection of lithographs by Toulouse Leicester Galleries that should on no 1 rAhOU account oe missed. At the Fine Art Society Bertram Nioholls, P.R.B.A. has an exhibition of rpfflflt rn intinerc ayA tt: rraKlWIUUlD. 1 i .1 outstanding characteristic, a suave and The opening night, of Distant Point," by Arinogenov, at the Unity Theatre, has been postponed from to-morrow until July 9.

CHU CHIN CHOW" "Chu Chin Chow," that redoubtable veteran of the last war, has re-enlisted for this, and will come in its mammoth glory to the Palace Theatre on Wednesday. Desire Under the Elms," with Beatrice Lehmann. will be at Golders Green this week. Gilbert and Sullivan continues at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith, for anotiher fortnight, where audiences are as large as enthusiastic. The Tempest finishes its run at the Old Vac on Saturday.

This production of the loveliest of plays should not be missed. Peggy Ashcroft now plays Miranda, and plays her beautifully. Miss Letty Littlewood is producing with Miss Nesta Brooking a ballet company under the title of Ballet Vignette." Performances will be given on Wednesday and Thursday, at 8.30 p.m.. and on Saturday afternoon at 2.30, at the Chanticleer Theatre, Clareville-grove. South Kensington.

John Gielgud has offered his services to E.N A. for immediate war work. A tour of a number of Army and R.A.F. Garrison Theatres has been organised. Beatrice Lillie and Ivy St.

Helier are in the company, and the tour uiiBiiuiiig aiscipiesnip or Cotman, modified by some Japanese influence, is -here at its best, and, within such limitations as he twits on 'Viirnclf Clouds" is a feat. He has also made sun lurmer progress in overcoming the stage-scenic effect that his methods risk-good examples are "Tenby Castle and Harbour." Viw from TJnr-f o-i: i poors open Assisi," Manobier Castle." and ViW of Durham. Ml I I I 1 I King's, Hammersmith GILBERT AND SULLIVAN As eggs are to bacon FULL STEAM AHEAD! These are days of action momentous days. This is not the time to recall past achievements stern, vigorous and constant endeavour for our Nation must be the order of the day. In Mr.

Herbert Morrison's words, we must all Go to it." In that task Ford shoulders its share. The vast resources human and mechanical of the great Dagenham factory, are on urgent National work to the utmost. We will return some time to telling the fine story of Ford engineering genius just as we shall return to the making of ever-better cars for the pleasant highways of peace-time. Meanwhile FORD MARCHES ON FORD MOTOR COMPANY LIMITED LONDON AND DAGENHAM spinach so is Gilbert in the combination that counts, and the canon is the thing. Hammersmith is revelling in three weeks of it Tho joys of "The Gondoliers" darken to opens as soon as the Old Vic season ends.

Herbert Farjeon's augmented Nine Sharp" revue is on tour with members of the original company, including Hermione Baddeley and George Benson. This will be at Manchester tomorrow, and at Liverpool, Birmingham. Bristol, and Cardiff in succeeding weeks. H. Tennant, have arranged extensive tours of plays by Shaw, S.

Brhrman and Ivor Novello. The tour; tari ai oniv and will continue through hi- autumn H. H. The Mikado and The the classical simplicity of "Trial by Jury" ushers in the romantical Pi loianine, Kuddieore." and Patience" follow, and "Pinafore completes tne list. Time tnlrQ tnll rr a while later designers have been at work STARTS TO-MORROW Take advantage of this sale.

In addition to the many bargains offered, our well-known fitting service is available. This service is unique. It means FOOT, COMFORT FOR ALL CUSTOMERS. Buf wbili tbt stock lasts. Pricis "ri rising.

SaU CataJogu on rtquest. 302-308 REGENT ST- 140 REGENT LONDON, W.I in ic iiiu uiere, ana a quip or two mav i-r-eak there are wit and humour in abundance, and that wealth of sparkling melodies which delight generation after generation. The D'Oyly Carte Company are faithful guardians of tradition. Sopranos, tenors, and baritones sing as their predecessors sang of old, and their names are now famous. The comedians, both broad and staccato, emulate the Old Masters, and the contraltos' rich sonorities are tradition itself.

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