The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 38

Friday July 23 1993 GUARDIAN Personal 14 The glory that was Rome in CinemaScope pe Obituary Jean Negulesco animated postcard settings of Rome, with the Oscar winning title song on the soundtrack. Soggy it might have been, but it provided a vicarious holiday for millions. (Negulesco A A A A was cope, early NYONE De glories concurrent Luxe whose of Color with CinemaS- adolescence and the stereophonic sound, will remember with glowing affection the 20th Century-Fox films directed by Jean Negulesco, who has died aged 93. Impossible to fully savour on TV or video, and difficult to see in the format in which the films were made, they remain as nostalgic exhibits in the mind's gallery of fifties Hollywood memorabilia. Notwithstanding that, they were candyfloss movies pretty to look at and sticky inside.

The size of the screen, to a large extent, dictated the content of the movies, but unlike those directors who tried to cram every inch of it with spectacle, Negulesco allowed his actors plenty of breathing space, usually in large apartments or palazzos. He plunged the shallows most effectively in his tetralogy on the theme of three women in search of happiness. It began with the entertainingly instructional How To Marry A Millionaire (1953), starring Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable, then on her last legs in films. Marilyn's measurements were stretched with particular success by the wide-screen process. Three Coins In The Fountain (1954) had Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters and Maggie McNamara encountering Latin lovers against lush remade it dimly as The Pleasure Seekers a decade later, shifting the action to Madrid), The pre-feminist Woman's World (1954) might irk some three wives (vamp Arlene Dahl, sweet June Allyson, sophisticated Lauren Bacall) trying to advance their husbands' business carcers but The Best Of Everything (1959) dealt with three career women (Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker) clawing their way up in a Manhattan publishing firm.

One of the most cultured of men, Negulesco's beginnings were a world away from the glossy tosh with which he would always be associated. Born in Romania, he went to Paris as a young man, where he made a living as a painter and became both a friend and pupil of his fellow Romanian Brancusi. He went to New York at the age of 27 to exhibit his works and remained there until Hollywood called in the early thirties. There he had various jobs as second-unit director, screenwriter and producer, and also filmed two of Leonid Massine's dance pieces: Parisienne and Capriccio Espagnol, before Warner Bros put him under contract. Most of the eight movies he made for Warner's were fine examples of the hard studio-style.

The Mask Of Dimitrios (1944), The Conspirators (1944) and Three Strangers (1946) all featured the irrepressible duo of Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, and were photographed in atmospheric chiaroscuro by Arthur Edeson. Humoresque (1947), a superior melodrama made with panache, starred Joan Crawford at her most predatory, lusting after violinist John Garfield (whose fiddling was dubbed by Isaac Stern). The illusion was created by cutting a large hole in the elbow of Garfield's jacket through which passed one violinist's hand to take care of the fingering, Studio style Negulesco in 1933 while a second, hiding behind Garfield, did the bowing. The climax, with Crawford walking into the sea and to her death, as Garfield plays a transcription of the Liebestod, is a moment when Hollywood kitsch is elevated to art. Negulesco's final film at Warners, Johnny Belinda, was one of his biggest hits.

He managed not to overplay the sentimentality inherent in the story of the brutal rape and subsequent pregnancy of a deafmute girl, played with heart breaking conviction by Jane Wyman, who Editor rooted in rural India IRILAL Jain, who has died aged New Delhi, was one of India's most influential figures over the last 20 years. He was editor of the Times of India for 12 years and since his retirement had written extensively. His books include India Meets China In Nepal, Panch Sheela And After and What Mao Really Means, and he was finishing a new study on Hindu nationalism at the time of his death. For the past 10 years he had devoted much time to the study of comparative religions, especially Islam and Hinduism. He was born in Haryana State and was one of the few Indian intellectuals to rise from an underprivileged Another Day July 23, 1926: Lunched with Ramsay MacDonald at the Athenaeum raised the question of LiberalLabour co-operation and getting out of each other's way at elections where cither of us had no chance.

He said any sort of co-operation, for however limited a purpose, was very difficult because of the extreme hatred by Labour of the Liberal Party, which went so far that many of the men in Parliament said that they would rather co-operate with the Tories than the Liberals. I said I quite understood that they should dislike us as being their only serious competitors and a standing refutation of the myth that there was nothing to choose between Liberal and Tory. He said that was part of the reason but far from the whole. They regarded us as tricky and unreliable false friends. The Government was absolutely discredited in the country.

It was the feeblest and foolishest within memory and a real discredit to the country. "I see a good deal of the younger Torics," he said, "and you should just hear the things they say of the Government and the Prime Minister. They would never say such things in print or in public, but they relieve their feelings to me. As to poor Baldwin, I was talking to him the other day about something and he was entirely at sea. I said, 'You're not well' and he said 'No, I'm not very well'.

He is an extraordinary failure. He does not know what he wants to do and, if he did, he has no power to assert himself the weakest prime minister within memory The Political Diaries of C. P. Scott, edited by Trevor Wilson (Collins, 1970) Birthdays PHOTOGRAPH KOBAL COLLECTION received an Oscar. The director's inexplicable sacking by Jack Warner prompted his move to Fox, and the change to a softer style.

In 1971, Negulesco went to live in happy retirement in Paris with his second wife, the ex-model Dusty Anderson, and wrote his autobiography, Things I Did And Things I Think I Did. Ronald Bergan Jean Negulesco, born February 26, 1900; died July 18, 1993 to jail during the 1942 Quit India movement, led by Mahatma Gandhi. Later he became disillusioned and came closer to the Radical Humanists, from whom he also soon distanced himself. He was a cut above his contemporaries in the depth and breadth of his writings. He was considered one of the best political writers in the Anglo-American idiom in India.

I differed with him on many of his political positions including his exposition of hindutta and the fondness for hindu nationalism he acquired after his retirement from the Times of India but even his most severe critics have to concede that he was one of the most cogent and fearless exponents of whatever cause he chose to espouse. One could find fault with his ego and his strongly expressed views, but he was one of the best editors the Times of India has had in recent decades. K. N. Malik Girilal Jain, born September 21, 1923; died July 19, 1993 Sir Nicholas Barrington, High Commissioner to Pakistan, 59; Alan Barnes, saxophonist, 34; Gloria DeHaven, actress, 69; David Essex, entertainer, 46; Michael Foot, for.

mer Labour leader, 80: Graham Gooch, cricketer, 40; Betsy Haworth, deacon and non-stipendiary minister, 69; Sir Harry Hookway, pro-chancellor, Loughborough University, 72; Elspeth Huxley, author, 86; Sir Charles Kerruish, president of Tynwald, Isle of Man. 76; Viktor Korchnoi, chess grandmaster, 62; Brian McDermott, actor, 59; Clive Rice, cricketer, 44; Sir Richard Rogers, architect, 60; Prof Andrew Rutherford, warden. Goldsmiths' College, 64; Richard Searby QC, deputy chairman. News Corporation Ltd, Australia, 62: Sir John Stokes, former Conservative MP, 76; Andy Townsend, footballer. 30: Peter Twiss, former test pilot, 72.

GirilalJain rural background to international eminence. His origins gave him an uncanny feel and insight into rural India. After graduating in history from Hindu College, Delhi University, he served the Times of India in a range of positions, including chief reporter, foreign correspondent in Karachi and London, and assistant editor before being appointed editor in 1976. He believed in the editor's prerog. ative to shape the newspaper.

When that right was challenged by Samir Jain, son of the proprictor, he refused to let him meddle in editorial policy or management. He also refused to succumb to pressures from government, business or industry. His one blind spot was his belief that the best thing that happened to India was the coming to power of Indira Gandhi. Many thought that the soft spot for Mrs Gandhi displayed in his writings was due to pressure from his proprietors. My own view is that he strongly believed in her leadership and genuinely supported her against her old cronies in the Congress Party during the split of the party in the late 1960s.

He also lent support during her emergency regime in 1975-77, even though it cost him some close friendships. His attitude to Rajiv Gandhi, however, was somewhat ambivalent. Jain thought that Rajiv was a mediocre leader compared with his mother, but he was better than most other Congress Icaders of his time. He thought prime minister V. P.

Singh was a disaster for the country. He flirted with socialism and went Death notices HOOK, Richard (Dick). On Monday July 19, 1993. suddenly in his garden in Norfolk. Richard be Hook, in East teacher at Raynham Norlington Church, School Norfolk, The funeral all on Tuesday.

July 27. at 2 pm Flowers to Gordon Barber. Funeral Directors. 317 Aylesham Road, Norwich, or conations to Toynbee Hall. MEHTA, Kirtilal Manilal.

On Tuesday, July 20 1993. peacelully passed away in Antwerp Kirbilal, beloved Husband of the late Lilavatibur. Husband ol Esther and Father of Vijay. Prabod" Kishor. Aashmi, Anila, Rekha and Liza Funeral ceremony was held Thursday.

July 22, at the crema. torium Jules Moretuslet No 2. Wilruk, Antwerp. at 2 45 pm Condolences to 74 Vestingstraat. Antwerp Fax Antwerp 234-0539 PETERS, Stanley Frederick.

On Tuesday, July 20, 1993. at a nursing home in Gloucestershire and formerly of Nether Alderley and Wilmslow, Stanley Frederick, aged 90 years. the beloved Husband of the late Paula Peters, the dear Father ol Timothy. Ann. Michael, and the late Jonathan, and loved Granpa Funeral at St Mary's Church, Nether Alderley on Wednesday, July 28, at 12 noon, prior to interment in the churchyard Family flowers only.

but if desired donations to the Cancer Rebel Macmillan Fund All inquiries and donations to Jannings Son, Cheltord Road. Warlord Tel Alderley Edge 10625) 584199 To place your announcement telephone 071- 611 9000 or 061-834 8686..