The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 15

THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1959 15 The Helping Hand AT THE THEATRE March to the Scaffold A THE FILMS Strumpets and Drums By C. A. LEJEUNE By ALAN PRYCE-JONES puzzling exception of this Bongo, I thought the film a brisk and lively piece of satire, and it's a long time since we heard numbers in a British musical spring so naturally from the script THE films put out in this country by Walt Disney Productions, a vast organisation which retains its charming telegram address of Mick-mouse, Piccy, London, fall into three classes: cartoon, nature study, and boys' adventure stories. The Third Man on the Motnstain (Leicester Square, director Ken Annakin) belongs in die last class. Simple, a bit old-fashioned and extremely moral, it recalls the sort of tale we used to relish in' Tiger Tim's Annual." St Nicholas." and the "B.O.P.

Lovingly it shows, in Technicolor, how a Swiss guide's teen-age son attempts to scale the mountain on which his father- dies. And sow, with the peak in sight, he realises that a good guide doesn't climb for fun or vainglory but to help the clients who depend on him. This is a simple, wholesome, reasonably exciting pretence to which any grown-up can take a child without worry. -v With a touch more imagination, it miaht suggest even a This is a melodrama of the most violent kind, which takes realism by the throat and forces the audience to a foregone conclusion. Mary Kerridge and Michael Atkinson do what they can; but they can do very little more than release an uncomfortable number of decibels in a confined space through the vagaries of a plot which defies description.

Bruckner was a Viennese dramatist who went into exile in 1933; he took up the kind of theme which inspired Wedekind in Frilhlingserwachen and Lulu a dark vision of life based on experience, of Berlin in the 1920s and the commotions which have shaken Central Europe ever since. But he was very much a child of his period; and if we are to be given on the London stage German plays of what used to be called the neite Sachlichkeit school a kind of neo-naturalism seen in terms of 1930 let us first be given some kind of perspective in which to set a totally unfamiliar kind of drama. Late Bruckner is the wrong point at which to begin, when there is so much of Wedekind himself, and of Toller and Kaiser and Fritz von Unruh which we never sec: not to speak of the far more accessible plays of Schnitzlcr and Hofmannsthal. This may seem an ungrateful reaction to Richard Duschinsky's enterprise in adapting and. producing A Man's Job," but the fact remains that it cannot stand on its own feot as a play, and does not sufficiently represent the German TTieatre of its period either.

Just as it has taken this country a whole generation to discover the visual arts of modern Germany, so we are hopelessly slow in going beyond a few key-names, like those of Reinhardt and Brecht, in the world of the stage. Possibly wo should be grateful even fox a start at the wrong place. IMPORTANT parts are played in the Australian farming musical Kookaburra (Princes) by a dog, Bruno, and a separator. The dog is brought on early, presumably in order to win sympathy which it does but my immediate neighbours lost it again when the separator was not washed after use. In any case, the separator in Charles Macarthur Hardy's head has worked all too well it has drained away the cream of Australian life and left only the thinnest of skim, held together by music and lyrics which are no more exhilarating than the' text.

The JAZZ RECORDS Victorian Blues By BENNY GREEN THE Modern Jazz Quartet is one of the most astonishing cultural phenomena of the post-war period. For the last five years four men have sought with painful eagerness to trans-. form the racy art of jazz into something aspiring towards cultural respectability. The photographs on the covers of their best-selling albums show three bearded men and one bespectacled man in morning-coats, looking at the camera with the studied gloom of four eminent Victorians who have just heard about-" The Origin of Species." The attempt of their pianist, John Lewis, to make jazz socially acceptable is an excellent idea. Better morning-coats and gloom than tales of Al Capone and bootleg days.

The snag is that this courting of respectability has drained away so much of the vitality of their music that there is little left but a few flickers of animation from the brilliant vibraharpist. Milt Jackson, and occasional passages reminiscent of Bach of all people. THE group's instrumentation is piano, drums, bass and vibraharp The sound is necessarily so introspective that ten minutes after the opening of their concert in the Festival Hall last Saturday one became acutely conscious that the quartet had only two degrees of dynamics, soft and very soft The earthiness of jazz has been replaced by a fey tinkling which sounds inadequate when the quartet treat traditional forms like the Blues, and even worse in rendering original compositions like Lewis's three sketches of characters from the commedia deWarte, blended into a suite called Comedy." Lewis's integrity as a jazz musician is unquestioned. He has vast experience as a musician with, most of the outstanding soloists of the last ten years. He has decided, however, that jazz must become international in the sense that it must be made to portray people and places generally considered incompatible with jazz.

Most of his theme titles are French, although there is rarely much connection between the title and the music. The one essential element in any jazz performance, the preservation of the illusion of improvisation, he has cast to the winds, pursuing instead rarer and rarer refinement, like a man attempting to gain entry into an enchanted garden. THERE was one moment during the concert when the irony of the situation would have been enough to make a cat laugh. The group played a tune written by Duke Ellington called It Don't Mean a Thing if it Ain't Got that Swing." The tune is one which respects the edict of its own title, being constructed in such a way that provided it is taken at the intended tempo, it cannot possibly be played in a dull manner. Or so I would have thought.

The quartet did a better job of musical demolition on Ellington's theme than any other group, band or orchestra I have come across. They meddled with the time-values of the notes un-oardonably. and in their interpre AST Sundav nioht "amine of Murderer's uuai ourrj was put on for a single performance ny the English Stage Society. There was no scenery properties were minimal and the play was announced as a documentary: the reconstruction of the 'trial of three convicts condemned for a murder in New Zealand in 1866. In the circumstances it is hardly surprising that there were emptv seats in the theatre.

Yet I found this uncmpnatic and predictable drama far more dramatic than most of the commercial successes now running in London. The game is given away at the Mart, since we are toid that the final scene takes place in the execution srd. The verdict being announced in advance, any surprise the play can bold is of an inner order. Was it a just verdict? Were the criminals more than ordinary thugs who robbed and killed an old man in particularly horrible circumstances? THESE questions are best answered in retrospect. At the time, the even development of the trial a first act devoted to the case for the prosecution, the second to the case for the defence, the verdict and the execution had a hypnotic effect, relieved by outstanding performances, from Ken--neth Mackintosh and Colin Blakely as two of the accused.

It seemed rossible that the author, Frederick. Bland, was doing no more than streamlining a transcript of the trial itself. But, looking back, on the cumulative effect of the play a few days later, I suspect that a great deal of skill has gone into the construction of a kind of mental time-bomb against capital punishment For one. or two scaring moments remain in the mind's eve the evidence offered by the chief witness for the prosecution, Bryan Pringle, who establishes himself as the most culpable man in court; the mning alternations of bravado and defeatism shown by Kenneth Mackintosh conducting his own defence; and the terrible inarticulacy of Colin Blakely leading towards a final outburst on the scaffold. There is no pretension about this plav at all, and yet, by abstaining from comment and from any attempt to enlist our sympathy for the men in the dnck a moving accusation is brought against the harshness of man to man.

all the more effective for th? fact that the criminals in question are on trial for an indefensible crime. F. -V Bland has explored the world of Kafka; the world in which people ire caught in inextricable coils. The extent of his success can be Been when it is compared with Ferdinand Bruckner's A Man's Job (Arts). GERARD TT is a shock when an actor who is a smbol of youth and itahty is suddenly killed in an accident.

It is a still greater shock when tie dies a natural death. Since his first great success as the adolescent in Le Diable au Corps," Gerard Phihpe, who died last week of cancer, had tended to remain typed as a young actor. He was outstanding in the name part of the French film ersion of Dostoievsky's "Idiot," but that was a more complex role than he was usually to play in films. Sometimes he was the successful young imp, as in Fanfan-la-Tulipc," "Til I- ulenspiegel and Belles dc Nuit sometimes he was the anguished nco-romantic hero, as in Une Si Jolie Petite Plage." Perhaps he was just unfortunate in not being given an opportunity to rise again to the heights he had achieved in his two early films. His most recent part was that of the rone, Valmont, Vadim's modem version of I.cs Liaisons Dangercuscs." He was.

however, predominantly a theatre actor. He was said to have left-wing sympathies, and he devoted himself for many years to the Theatre National Populaire. where he regularly played lead parts in the company directed by Jean Vilar. He had a tremendous- following among the very keen public of that institution, and the young audience will miss the Gallic dash, and his but sensitive and boyish voice. It would be wrong, all the same, to regard him as just a ieune premier.

He was already more than that, and his earlv death has robbed the French stage of an actor who might have a't. nned major stature. J. G. W.

OPERA BALLET ADFLPHI. "Irm "Ml GALA WTEK OF ITALIAN' OPTRA Hh nil Italian Siar CM nw' Tucit Tain. Ncn A. Ja a Mat Sat 2 10 LA BOHEME 14 If, IS and Mat. I1)) rvvMORF lOc.

I5. 17. 10). DmA Nn. COW GARDEN.

THE ROYAL BALLET, 1 lulls 7 in. Ondlnc iln Fontcyn. Smri lues The Elrehlrd, Lei Patlneurs, Antlsn'ne. Sit 2 H. Slrln.

(Cov lnftn) ADELPHI THEATRE, Efl IMIT. Vk MLse Photottapfu br JOE WALDORF The Modern Jazz Quartet. Above Percy Heath (bass), and Connie Kay drums). Below Milt Jackson (vibraharp), and, in the background, John Lewis (piano). AT THE GALLERIES NORTHERN LIGHTS By NEVILE WALLIS singers sing unusually well: Maggie Fitzgibbon puts some moments of life into the story of an English, wife who finds it hard to settle in.

Queensland; and Julia Shelley does what she can with a heroine of almost inconceivable gentility. Perhaps the basic mistake was setting this piece in 1913. Or perhaps the whole thing is a mistake. PHILIPE Gerard Philipe in Eilenspiegel." Till WING to circumstances over which I had no control, I was forced to miss the beginning of Espresso Bongo (Carlton, director Val Guest). The owners of the film, forewarned, were very kind.

They kept a seat, for me. It is pleasant to, be able to repay this civility by saying that thought the film well done. Brash it may be at times, but brashness is in its nature, and the whole thing swings along with pace and gusto. For those who didn't see the play and the author, Wolf Mankowitz. has adapted his own work for the screen I should explain that Expresso Bongo is a musical satire on the entertainment crazes of our times.

The leading character is one Johnny Jackson, a glib and -quite unethical young agent, who has a genius, as the girl who loves and knows him best observes, for finding talent that turns out to be un talented After a Ions spell of bad luck, he discovers a lively prospect in a Soho jazz cellar. This is a boy prodigy who moans "beat" numbers while the teenagers scream with joy. His name is Bert Rudge, but Johnny soon changes that As Bongo Herbert this dumb youthr-for dumb he is, save for the noises fancied by him to be singing signs a highly illegal contract with the cheerful stranger, whereby the said stranger undertakes to give him half of all he earns. AND very soon that's plenty, for Johnny is a quick and able teacher. Before long our boy Is the new hit of the town.

His record sales soon shoot up to the top of the Top Ten. He learns to drink champagne cocktails in Mayfalr, and Is wooed by a slightly tarnished American star who likes her young men young. In short, everything looks set for Johnny's shameless triumph. But he has reckoned without the wits of an equally shameless woman. Laurence Harvey's Johnny strikes me as the best thing this steadily improving actor has done yet on the screen.

Impudent, shabby, fast-talking, deplorable, a combination of Archie Rice and arch romance, he leads the picture in a fast gallop all the way. Close on his heels comes Meter Tzelnlker, as a disc publisher whose heart is in the classics, but his swelling bank account in rock roll. Cliff Richard plays the bewildered Bongo. His performance is something too, found bewildering. I'm told he is beloved of the teenagers.

To me he seems a little pitiful: a sad-faced youth delivering sorry songs with an air of odd abstraction not wholly due, I fancy, to the nature of the lyrics. He worried me more than anything else in "Expresso Bongo. Are we meant to laugh at him? It seems rude, somehow. With me a certain verdancy to Primrose Hill, even becoming prismatic in' a few studies of a nude, though the figure structure is wrought with the same grim and purposeful energy, and in one version the model resolves herselfearth to earth into clay. Stefan Knapp's new paintings at the Hanover are at the opposite end of the scale.

Joyous in colour, these non-figurative designs belong in spirit to the Ecole de Paris. They are a considerable remove from Knapps earlier hieroglyphics woven into patterns, though the brilliancy of his polychromatic range, which he orchestrates with certainty, derives from his previous experiments with enamel. Titles such as Fractionating Image" and "Organic Formation give the clue to these weaving patches of puce and lemon, violet and jade, clustering at times like precious stones in Aladdin's cave. While they are no more than beguiling decorations, their hedonism combined with an unerring sense of scale have on me a tonic effect. FOR Cecil Collins, painting is a metaphysical activity.

His themes have been the exile and tragedy of humankind, and his dramatis personae impassive queens anrl rrl and wanaenn roots. creating their own complex patterns and emotive associations. Clearly not all these outward and visible ART GALLERIES Ac. indicate, open on Sunday DUNOYER DE SEGONZAC, ArU Council exhibition, koyaju alaucmi uuruuvtn GALLERY. Extended to vecsmoer Weekday 104; Sun.

2-6. Adn. 26d. AGNEW. 1.

Anthony Devaj, A.R.A. Menrrrlal Exhibition. Z- utnstmas rrcaenci txnioiuun, un to 10 guineas. 43. Old Bond Street.

W.I. AIA Christmas Exhibition, 15 Usle W.CA cards. Ooen daily 11-6. Including Saturdays. Pottery, routs, small pictures aznaji pni.

PARIS BIENNALE, Paintings A Prints from tne sntisn aecuon vsu-oivx, Tlil ft, VJ ftnen 11-6 dailv incl. Sat. BEAUX AMIS bauaai, V. BEN URI GALLERY. 14 Portman Street.

W.l. EPSTEIN bronze, sun z3. iiw. Till 52 D- COLNAGHIS, 14 Old Bond Street, W.I. Re cent water colour ura wings oy tsenrara seaao.

Daily 10 a.m. -5 .30 o.m. (Sat 10 a.m.-l P.m.) COMEDY, Oxendon Haymarket. From wed. 2nd paintings or uennta-7AMPA in-6 dxllv: 10.1 Sata.

CRANE KALMAN GALLERY, 178 Bramp ton Rd, S.w.3 paintings oy ranun-Latsur, Diaz. Matisse, Marquet. Vlamtnek. Dofy, J. Marcband, Lagar.

Buffet, etc; Sicken. Smith, Hitchens, etc. Daily 10-7. Sat. -10-t.

COMMONWEALTH INSI1IUIE. "Sil Western Australian Artist." Last day. Adran free. 2.30-6.0. DRIAN Gallery, 7 Forchetter Place, Arch, w.z.

LAgAsaK cm sin uec. lu-o ua. FINE ART SOCIETY LTD. 18th-20th Century Paintings A Water Colours. 148.

New Bond W.l. 9.30-5.30. Sat. 9.30-1. FOYLES GALLERY.

Charing Cross-road. A CENTURY OF. PICTURE-POSTCARDS AND THEIR BACKGROUND (1840-1940). 9-6 dlv. (Inc.

Sata.) until 24th December. GALERIE de Sens. 1 1, West Halkin St. S.W.I Ficara ana cropi; rirsi ijuaon cjcnioiuon. GALLERY ONE.

W.l. (GER. 3529.) F. N. SOUZA FROM 3rd NOV.

GIMPEL FILS, 50, South Motion W.l. Recent Oil paintings ey louis ue arocouy. Closes December GRABOWSK1 GALLERY. Patatings by J. Mn.

iRANWIU Czapsld from ran. luraiewicx Hum Datty HANOVER GALLERY. 32a. St. Geotw W.l.

orcPAr JlMArr sieccnt pamunaj. Until 12 December. Dally Sat. 10-1. ICA.

17 Dover W.l. PICTURE FAIR. Buy a ticket for 15 tns, and win an original work by Delvaux. Man Ray, Patmore, Picasso. Piper, Turnbujl.

2-17 December. Dally 10-6. Saturdays 10-1. Admission free. AllTHUR JE FFRESS GALLERY.

2fr Dariei Street, W.l. Etchings by J. I. TJSSOT and 19th-century Fashion Plata by JULES DAVTD. Private View Tny.

lDecernber. dM KENSINGTON GALLERY. A arid atleetjoa Blind folk do net vraat to ba fussed and they don't want pity What they do need and tTernen-doualy appreciate it practical help, and thi i what tie R.N.I3. crista to Ktre. It i our privilega to provide schooling, rehabilitation and vocational training, to aoppty Braille, taJjcing books' and apecatlised equipment for work and uitas toe, and to maintain a boat of services which help aU Britain's blind to live happy, useful live.

the helping hand for all Britain's blind The Royal National Insrittite for the Blind 224 Gt. Portland Sc.LondonjW.i is accordance wills' the Aaristance Acs, ifrtt) fflEMGS BYBENSONS Diamonda 75 Diamond 17. Diamonda 140 Diamonds 15 Sapphics and Diamonda 100 Sapphire and Diamonds 50 Ittutratti CaSalafot axrtdlehU on itfusal J.W. BENSON LTD 25 OLD BOND STREET. LONDON Wl or CHBRRY, DRAWDY A I 6 a TONE-KENT Specialists in KINGSIZE THE LONDON 3 CENTEE 13 RrotTipton rM.

KNiaHTSJRrUDaR rfff WADDINGTON GALLERIES recent paintings LEON ZACK 10-6. Satt. 10-1. 2 Cork WBOTECHAPEL ART GALLERY i Cedl CoUtas A retrocpeciive exhibition of paintings, drawings and. tapestries 1928-1959.

Waskdars U4t Sand ys 2-6; closed Maa-dayt, Adnn. free. Ad). AMaaie East Station WOODSTOCK GALLERY. 16 WocKljtock Su, WX Mar 4419.

PalnUngs JEANNETTE IACKSON and the QUINTON GROUP. Ib-DeC. 5. OAKOIA-ULUK tmtU 1ANBT GREEN 30-Dec. 5.

ate. 5.1 WKays. ih. sata. io-i.

ja utcnneiq w. i LAND. BRATBY. MEADOWS. etc.

BRIGHTON ART GALLERY rfnntrefi Ssmm ACTUMN EXHIWIIOI lAlh NmiMhv tn ttth Weekdays: 10-7. Sundays M. Admtaatoa fraa. ON Wakar Art Caalary, DaOy 10 to 5 a tat 4s aaaaaaaRaaaaaaa woraa a PISSAM inJUNK minor Stevenson. James MacArthur, an etiker vounc American, is well- mannered and intelligent enough to make a decent boys hero.

Michael Rennie olavs the great English moun taineer, whose only trouble is that he becomes accident-prone the moment be sets toot upon a mountain, jjis-suiited as a dastardly snide, there is also Herbert Lorn. I can't conceive of a British film industry without Mr, Lorn. And I should like to take this chance of telling him that for years; mostly wasted in very stupid parts, he has brought comfort to this column. IN The House of the Seven Hawks (Odeon, Marble Arch, director Richard Thorpe) an American skipper, who earns his Hying by chartering his cruiser to clients in British waters, has the unpleasant experience of finding one of his clients murdered in his cabin. Across the corpse's chest is taped a map which leads the skipper, and a lot of nther nutnle.

to a cache of diamonds looted from the Dutch during the Nazi occupation. This harmless but quite undistinguished thriller, in black and white photography of no deep interest, is haH nn Victor Canning's novel. The House of the Seven Flies." The change of title, suppose, is due. to rtift i-Mwnt revelation by Hollywood that flies, like nuns, prostitutes and juvenile delinquents, may turn out to hf. Pmnle.

The nlctiire's one distinc tion is that veteran Robert Taylor as the ikiooer. with a minimum of material, can snu snow ms successor how a dull job may Be weu aone. signs of his inward consciousness have been recorded at the neces sary pitch of intensity. But the Whitechapel Gallery's exhibition of Collins work over the past tnirty years reveals the consistency of his romantic vision, variable as its expression has been. In his earlier quasi-Surrealist phase, his dreamy imagery could attain a poetry without any wilful perversities.

Where it has sometimes suffered, I believe, in the intervening years is in crossing an arch medievalism with a Picassoesque or other linear stylisa-tion to produce a misleading mannered effect The tapestry representing "The Fools of Summer" reproduces these stilted characteristics. "There is another Fool," observes the catalogue preface, "who picks his nose, deftly, in front of a nor is he one to be suffered gladly. NEVERTHELESS, at Whitechapel one gains a clearer perspective as well as an insight into the artist's mind in his many moments of exaltation. The Return," a pastoral owned by Julian Trevelyan, is one of the most lyrical of these; while the flowing line and luminosity of some golden paintings of ten years ago prefigure the artist's most significant development in the freedom of handling and splendidly inventive colour won in the last year or two. There are passages in these pictures reminiscent ot "action" painting, though the discipline is still, felt, and the apocalyptic vision of "The Golden Wheel or Angel Greeting the Sun remains perfectly consistent, it omy mis new-iouajponianwf at expression emu uccu earlier.

Cecil Collins reputation might now be standing as high as it seems likely to stand hereafter. EXHIBITION. Fine Old the Dutch. Flemish and It van Goyen, Solomon van TtrnffhJ the elder. Ian BT eta Philips wouverman, neoa, Fran Post, P.

de Netachar. 10-7. satnr. LLfcKy. 37puk St.

Jans HI 9349. 'fell' tn suuuni w-i vi I REVOLT GER 1905-1925! Kirchner, Klee, Maro. Adrnn. aid oi 10-12. Sey- Nov.

16. Dae. 5. OHANAGA1 vww rwi I Until Dae. Pnrtnlti add by Jose de AhneMa.

Paimlng I ey cervem. Dairy irx satur- nccuDtrXT gallery, im cort gum. w.l. paintings oy crnue nine ana uuiki Mussclt until 14UT December. REDFERN GALLERY.

20, Cork Street, W.l. Constellation by MIRO; "Papier Cones by MATISSE; Lithographies by DUFY; and 1,000 gravurea en couloir. in-A Sat. 10-t Until Ian. 8th.

19fr. ROLAND. BROWSE DELBANCO, 19 Cork Street, Christma Present ExnlMtkm -CHARMING SMALL pictures by English A French artists. (Wkdva. Sat.

10-1.) ROYAL SOCIETY of British Anita Winter Exhibition sunonc street, rau Man cast. S.W.I. Daily 10-5 (NOT SUNDAYS) Adrnr-alon 176. Last week. Concert with lunch Wednesday 2 Dec.

12.30 to- 115. ROYAL SOCIETY of Portrsot Paasters. The 66th Exhibition is being bald at the ROYAL INSTITUTE GALLERIES. 195 Piccadilly. W.l.

Dally 10 till 5 (Not TUP. uinrTV nf Portrait akaaasnaa R.W.S Galleries. 26 Conduit Street, w.l. November 17 December 5. 10.5.

Sats. 10-1. riDI RNCI.tait nslwTNCI aa CHRIST. MAS PRESENTS. Opening Tuesday.

Dally 9.30. 5.30. Sats. 9.30, 12.30 SABIN OAI EHIES. 4 Cork Bond W.l.

OLD ENGLISH WATMsCO LOURS. logue available. Monday-rnaay p.io-o pjn. Sats. 9.30 a.m.-12 noon FRANK T.

SABIN. Park House. Rotund Gate, S.W.7 THE RELIGIOUS THEME i Contemporary Art Society Exhibition. South London Art Gallery. Peckham Road.

S.E.S. 29 Novell Dec. Weekdays 10-6. Sunday 3-6. Free.

LIPCHTTZ Sculpture. An Art Council ex- hibition. TATE GALLERY, Tfll Deeenv ber. Mon. Wed.

FN. Sat. Tours, lo-g sun. z-e. rvomiaaton-io.

-TOOTHS i RECENT ACQUISITIONS XIV Paintings by Hi COROT. RENOIR. SISLEY. PICASSO ate. Daihr 9.J0-& 31 Bruton Street.

WTl. TRAFFQRD GALLERY. 119 Mcmt Street. w.l. paintings oy JOtm majuuui I.

Hboth www by FJeaTC ANVR MAD TtAatCTSAN. 4-M many" okoact vona Keruree rear. frrnt GALLERY. 4 tea: MirM. Areh.

W.l. Turkish TB Things to Come in London LrJL. Jjd Gallery. Naturally there are gaps in the adventurous cross-section British art at LiverpooL There seems, for one thing, to be no representation of that school of earthy, elemental expressionism which has drawn inspiration from the late David Bomberg's independence, and has lately been courting speculation in the Young Contemporaries exhibition. The most mature and conspicuous in this kind are Leon Kossoff and Frank Auerbach whose kindred aims have been made clear at the Beaux Arts Gallery.

MR. Auerbach's recent paintings here of building sites illustrate one of the various imaginative ways of seeing the new London. Its canyons can, of course, be visualised as fanciful towers of Babel, the toy-town windows turning to golden nuggets at night in the manner of Fred Uhlman or the more abstract style of Turkiewicz. On the other hand, if the artist's feeling is for the dense mass and inertia of forms, he may peer down into the building craters, as Auerbach does, and so bulldoze his thick, glutinous pigment across the canvas as to convey an exact sense of the intractable mounds of clay, and the thrust and strain of tackle. At the same time, more light and colour are creeping into his painting.

Light flows into a building chasm, and colour gives CINEMAS ACADEMY (GER 2981). Two delightful comedies. PERSONS UNKNOWN J. 4.30. 8 15.

CHARMANTS GARCONS (A). 6.30. ASTORIA, Ch. X-rd. Ger.

5385. Yul Brynner, Gina Loilobrigida. Solomon ft Snena (A) in Super Tecbnlnunt-70. Tdy. 4.30, 8.

Wkdys. 3.0. 8.0. Orch. 2.10.

7.10. All Bkble. BERKELEY. MUS 8150. LA BELLA MUGNAIA (A).

LESSON IN LOVE (X). CAMEO-Poly. Lan. 1744. France's Fabulous Film THE LOVERS 00 QLt Amants).

We Dl Aloata (A) CAMEO.RoyafC.XJtd. WHI 6915 Bardot BABETTE GOES TO WAR (A) (Scope A Colour). The funnleat film ot the year. CARLTON. WhL 3711.

Laurence Harvey. Sylvia Syma EXPRESSO BONGO (A) Cliff Richard. Today 4.30. 7.13. Wkdys tr 1.10.

CASINO. Ger. 6877. Cinerama's SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE (U). Tdy.

4.45 A 7.30. Orch. 4.20. 7.5. Dly.

2.30, 6.0 A 8.40. CINEPHONE (opp. Selfridges). MAY 4721. THE MATIN URGE (A) A Sbnone Signoret EVIL EDEN (X).

Adits. Color Frog. COLUMBIA. Shaftesbury Ave. REG 5414.

Anatomy of MM (X). Today 4.30. 7.40. (Doors 4. 7.20).

All seats bkble. or at doors. CONTINENT ALE. MUS 4193. Erie Hem and the Beast (U).

Th Heal of Imaii (X). CURZON. GRO. 3737. THE SAVAGE EYE (X).

Fran. 4.30, 0.25. 8.25. DOMINION. Tot Ct.

Rd. Mtn 2176. Todd-AO. Rodgera A HamrnersUln's SOUTH PACIFIC (U). Today 6.

Orch. S. Weekdays 7.45. Orch. 6.45.

Matinee Toes. Wed. Than. Sit. at 2.30.

Orch. at 1.30. AU eau bookable. EMPIRE. Oer.

1234. Last Day Today. Progs. 4.30 A 7.25. Caiy Grant to Alfred Hitchcock's NORTH, BY NORTHWEST (A).

EVERYMAN. Hampstead 1525. Fflma by Fellinl. Today It BTDONE (A). Mon Masina In NOTTI DI CAKRIA OO.

A.B.C. FORUM. Fnjbaro Rd. KEN. 5234.

SUN ONLY. B. Bardot THE LIGHT ACROSS THE STREET fX). LOST A. LEIC.

SQ. TH. THIRD MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN (U). in Tech. at 3.20, 8.10.

LONDON PAVILION. tdy 4J5. 7 20 THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE (X) A INVISIBLE INVADERS (A) ODEON. Leic-Sq. Dirk Bosarde, Olivia de Havilland.

LIBEL (A). Progs, at 4J0. Ja ODEON. M. Arch.

THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN HAWKS an. at 5.20, 8.10. PARIS-PULLMAN. Ken 5898. tatt Odays.

INGMAR BERGMANS taaamar aeartad (A). waive Aacry Maa (UK Comm. Tbun Jean-Paul Sartre' CM RIALTO. Ger 3488. FIVE GATES TO HELL (X).

Today at 4.50 and 8.20JNTBNT TO KILL (A). Today at 6.30 only. Dlfl 1,4,. fifl nr 1914 r.ir.l IA). Today 5.15 a'8 30.

(Organ 4TJ0. 7.45.) Wkdys. 5.45 A 8.45. All aeats bookable. ROXY BAYSWATER 2345.

LOVE MY PROFESSION (X! ROYAL M. ARCH PlYTF.MKrN IKl TTimn niuK. Ian Peter Sellers, terry-i nomas. 1 all auvns. 4 30.

6.35, 8.40. Last prof. 8.20. Drs. 4.0.

WARNER. Ger. 3423. Today at 4 30 A 7.25. raw.

v.m.t. STnDV aw Technicolor. Weekday 10.20, 12.25, 3.5, 5.40, 8.20. tation of the harmonies proved yet again that for all their good intentions, and the courage and resource with which they put them into practice, the extreme limitations of their tone colouring renders tEem impotent much of the time. The National Jazz Federation augmented the quartet with two British saxophonists, whose comparative vulgarisms tore the unity of the quartet into shreds, although it was hardly their fault.

The quartet plays music from the twilight corridors of a dream, and saxophones have rto place there. The reaction of British audiences has been hysterical, audiences comprising the same people who abandoned Ellington to half-empty houses last year. My own feelings coincide with those of a fellow-musician I met later on Waterloo Bridge. It suddenly occurred to me," he said, that there were three thousand of us sitting there watching a man with a small beard hit a small bell with a small stick." The last concert in the Wind Music Society's Bruckner Festival will be given to-morrow in the St Pancras Town Hall. Dr.

Robert Simpson will conduct the Festival Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 6 in A. Alastair Sim has directed the new Michael Gilbert play A Clean Kill, which opens at the Criterion on December 15. THEATRES ADELPHI. Tern.

761J. Com. Box Day Dee. 26. DICKIE HENDERSON.

JUNE LAVERICK In musicil WHEN IN ROME. Book Now. ALDWYCH. Tem 6404. 7.45.

Sat. 3 30. 8.30. Thurt. 2.30.

THE SOUND OF MURDER. Sellari. Cushing, Jessel. Most ingenious murder yarn tor years." D. Sketch.

AMBASSADORS. 7.30. Tu. 2.30, Sat. ,8.

8th Yr. ot Airatha Christie's MOUSETRAP. APOLLO. Ger. 2663.

Evgj. 8.0. Fri. A Sat. 5.30 8.30.

Kenoeth Williams, Fenella Fieldini PIECES OF EIGHT. New Revue. ARTS. Tem. 3334.

Tue. to Fri. 8.0. Sat. Sun.

5.0 A 8.0. A MAN'S JOB. Mems. CAMBRIDGE. Tem.

6056. 8.0. Sat. 5 8.15. Th.

2.45. THE CROOKED MILE. Musical. COLISEUM. Tem 3161.

Com" Dec. 17. Cole Porter's ALADDIN with Bob Monkhouse. Ronald Shiner. Doretta Morrow.

Book Now. COMEDY. Whi. 2578. 8.0.

Wed. 2.30. Sat. 5 30. 8.30.

C. Morton, E. Peel in' FIVE FINGER EXERCISE. Astonishing First Play Star. Masterly "Daily Mail.

2nd Year. CRITERION, WHI. 3216. Evgs. 8.30.

Thurs. at 2 30 Sat. 5.30 and 8.30. Shelagh Delaney's A TASTE OF HONEY. A smash hit success." D.

Sketch Last 2 wks DRURY LANE. Tem. S108. Anne Rontrs. Alec Clunes, James Hayter in MY FAIR LADY.

Evs. 7:30. Mali. Wed. Sat.

2.30. Now booking until March, 1961. DUCHESS. Evs. 7.30.

Sat. 5.15 8. M. Th. 2.45.

Nigel Stock. Mary Hlnton, Jane Orimtha. THE UNEXPECTED GUEST. Agatha Chriaiie's newest whodunnit. 2nd Yr.

DUKE OF YORK'S. Evga. 7.30. S. 5.

8. Th. 2.45. Margaret Lockwood, Yblande Donlan. Frank Lao-ton.

And Saddenlr It's Spriag. An enchanting and hllarioui comedy. FORTUNE. TEM 2238. Evs 8.

5. 8.30. AUNT EDWIN A by William Douglas Home. Funnier Aunt than Charley's." D. Sketch.

GARRICK. Tem 4601 Evgs 7.30: Sat 5.30. 8.30 Th 2 30. Margaret Rutherford. Peggy Mount.

FAREWELL. FAREWELL EUGENE. CI ORE. fier 1505 Monday to Friday 8.0. Sata.

6 0 and 8.40. Mais. Wed. 2.30. RaiBh Richardson.

Paul Scoficld, Phyllis Calvert. The Complaisant Lover by Graham Greene. HAYMARKET. Whi. 9832.

8.0. St. 6. 8.40. Wed.

2 30. Nigel Patrick. Coral Browne. Barry Jones The Pleasure or His Company. As gay and entertaining a comedy as can be found in London Sunday Times.

HER MAJESTY'S. Whi 6606. 7.30. Wed. 2.30.

Sat 5 A 8 WEST SIDE STORY. A Musical with full New York cast. IRVING. WHI. 8657.

GLAMOUR ft GIRLS. Non-Stop Revue now in 4-yr. Today fr 4 m. Wkdys fr 2.30. Send 276 for Mems.

tckt. LYRIC. (Ger. 36H6 Evs 7.45. Sat.

5.15, 8.30. Mat. Tucs 2 30 Elizabeth Seal. John Neville' in IRM LA DOUCE. Musical.

LYRIC. smtth. Riv 4432 8.0. S. 5, 8.15 Th.

3. Willis Hall A GLIMPSE OF THE SEA. almost faultless. D. Ei.

Success. D. Ml. LYRIC H'smilb. Riv.

4432. Com. Dec. 10. tot riPMnv niDRFR.

a New Musical. MERMAID CIT 7656 to Dec 5 LOCK UP YOUR DAUGHTERS 6.10 8.40 Dec 14 TREASURE ISLAND. Book Now. THE John Moores Liverpool exhibition has brought to the forefront both the current methods of art patronage and publicity and, at the same time, the dispersal of artistic enterprises to-day. It is well for complacent Londoners to be reminded that the major exhibitions in the land are quite liable to take place outside their metropolis, and whenever the Guibenkian largesse comes to be distributed the critics may spend half their time on British Railways.

While Liverpool is still being discussed, it should not be forgotten that students of medieval art were as indebted to Dr. S. D. Cleveland for making Manchester this autumn a centre of Romanesque study, as they were earlier beholden to Professor Talbot Rice for organising the Edin-' burgh exhibition of Byzantine art which London was afterwards privileged to see. Indeed, a bolder enterprise is confined to the great museums in the country.

It is worth noting that the little Bear Lane Gallery at Oxford is now holding William Johnstone's new show of paintings and drawings, a distinguished catch to support the claim that this lines "the increasing importance that provincial galleries are now playing," and which Cambridge endorses with its recent addition of the King Street NEW. Last 2 wks. Evg. 8.15. Tue.

2.30. Sat. 5. 30, R.30. Vivien Lcisn.

Antnony wuayie. Max Adrian. Robert Stephens. Merlel Forbes. LOOK AFTER LULU 1 by Noel Coward.

Com. Dec. 16. Make Ma An Oiler. Musical.

OLD YIO. Wat. 7616. Evgs. 7.10.

Sat. 2 30. sac im-nniii. Fri. Ai Yoo Like It.

Sat. Richard II. PALACE. Ger. Fri.

Sat. 6 IS. 8.45. BENNY HILL. In Flu Fettle.

Sbani Waltli. Robercwn Hare. "A bit' E. Standard. PALLADIUM.

Ger. 7J73. and 8.45. Mix Brtraveg In Swfcttat Down the Lea. Let wks.

Com Dec. 23r" Hamotj Draptj." PHOENIX. Tem. Still. Evgs.

7.30. Sat. 5.0 8.0 Mati. WerL, 2-30: Roar Like a Dove. Now in Its THIRD YEAR.

A resounding self-evident hit." Ken Tynan. Obaerver. PICCADILLY. Qer. 4506.

8.0.- S. 5.30, 8.30 Tb. 3J0. Kay Hjmaiiond, John aetnenti, THE MARRIAGE-GO-ROUND. It la a ioy to watch two such great artists.

D. Ex. AMERICA'S GREATEST COMEDY HIT! PRINCE OF Whi. 8681 Evgs. at 8 50.

Wed. Thur. Sat. at 6.15 A 8.50. THE WORLD OF St 'ZIE.

WONG. The Smash hit of the Season." S. Timea. PRINCES. Tem.

6596. Evgs. 8.0 Fri. A Sat. 5 45.

8.30. KOOKABURRA. New Musical. QUEEN'S. Ret.

1166- Evgs. 7.45. Sat. 2.30. Michael Redgrave, Flora Robaon.

Beatrix Lehrainn THE ASPERN PAPERS. ROYAL COURT. SIo. 1745. 7.30.

Th. 2.30. S. 4.30 A 8.1S. Peggy Ashcroft.

Eric Porter. Mark Dignam In Ibsen's ROSMERSHOLM. ST. MARTIN'S. TEM 1443.

8.0. Tue. 2.30. Sat. 5.30 and S.30.

Joan Greenwood, Hugh Williams. Rachel Qurney In THE GRASS IS GREENER. Directed by Jack Minster. SAVILLE (Tem 4011). Com.

9 Dec. Evelyn Laye, Walter Fitzgerald. Hugh McDermott, Stanley Baxter in Farcical Comedy THE AMOROUS PRAWN, by Anthony Kimmins. SAVOY. Eva.

8. Wed. 2.30. Sat. 5.30.

8.30. David Tomlinson, Margaret Johnston, Irene Browne. John Slater. THE RING of TRUTH. The funniest play for young and old." STRAND.

Evgs. 7.30. Th. 2.30. S.

5.30. 8.30. ROLLO. ENGROSSING A EXCITING COMEDY," Sun. Timea.

LeoMcKern givea the comic performance of the year," Sun E. TH. ROYAL, E.15 Mar. 5973. 8.

S. 5 A 8. MAKE ME AN OFFER. Last two weeki. Transfers to NEW Theatre Dec.

16. UNITY 5391. Anna Christie." W. Indian cast. Sun.

7.45 Mems. VAUDEVILLE. Evs. 8. Th.

2.30. Sat. 5 A 8.15. Last 3 months. SALAD DAYS.

By SLADE A REYNOLDS. VICTORIA PALACE. Vic 1317. 6.15 A 8.45. Craty Gang in new revue CLOWN JEWELS WESTMINSTER.

Vic 0283. Lat week 8.0. Thur. 2.45. St 5 15 A 8.30.

Paul Rogers, Robert Shaw. ONE MORE RIVER, by Beverley Cross. Tense, tough A terrific." WHITEHALL. 7.30, W. 2.30.

Sat. 5.15. 8.15. Rlx A Franklvn. Sim rile Somen.

2nd Yr. WINDMILL. Pice. Circ. REVUDEVTLLE.

28th yr. 309th ed. (6th week). Coot. dir.

12 Last nerf. 9 p.m. A Van Da mm Production. "WE NEVER CLOSED." WYNDHAM'S. 8.15 Sat.

5.30. 8.30. Wed. 2.30. Brendan Kenan the uusiaue.

As funny as ten comedies." Observer. Superb entertainment." Dally Sketch. From Dec. Men to Dec. 19th.

ORGANIZZASIONE TEATRALE ITALIANA- Sir Laurence Olivier will present a new play in the West End in January the play, Patrick Kirwan's A Lodging for the Bjude, is described as an attack on newspaper sensationalism. The cast is to be headed by Robert Shaw and Roger Livesey. Theatre Workshop's production of Make Me An Offer, Wolf Manko-witz's new musical, will transfer to the New Theatre on December 16 ADEIPH1. Ten 7611. Evs.

8.0. Mais. Wed. 2 in Sat. 5 A.

K.30 Ballet de Pans de ROLAND PFTIT in Otado de Berjemc. COVE.NT GARDEN OPERA. Wed. Sat. 7.

A IDA. Hammond. Lane. Vickerj. Shaw.

Cdr Downcs Fri DER ROSENKAVALIER. SADLER'S WELLS. Ter. 1672. Evs.

7.30. Tuett. Thuri. CINDERELLA (La Wed. KATVA KABANOVA.

Fri ANDREA CHENIER. Sal. DON GIOVANNI. STRF. VTIIAM 7 10.

S. 2.30 D'OYLY CARTE OPERA Co. To-mor. Gondolier. Tn.

Mikado. Wd Cox Box, Pinafore. strand. W.Ci. TEM.

7611 -ROME Shaftesbury Avenue. 2. Tel! TEM 6596 nd nsual AgenH. MAibK A GALA WEEK OF ITALIAN OPERA Itah's OPERA STARS and Leading Artistes from 1 Sea la. Milan: San Carlo.

Naples; Opera of Rome and The Metropolitan Opera House. New York. incliitlinK Tacliawhi. Tucci. Tajo.

Ncri, Jala, Fioravanti, Dalla Spezia, i Monachesi, De Taranto. Conductor NAPOLEONE ANNOVAZZI. I A BOHEME L'ELISIR D'AMORE E.cv 7.30-Dec. 14. 16 end 18.

Evil. 7.30Dec. IS. 17 and 19. Sa, Mai.

'-jfr NQW Bar 7611 PRIVCI.S IIIKTRE SITV'DAY, 6th DECEMBER, at 7.30 p.m. Final Appearance this season of the Inimitable ANNA RUSSELL Wacner to Jarr with IAMES MOODY and hlj MISERABLE FIVE. In The Gordon Hnuir Trust tnr the physically hnndlrappea. 21'-. 156.

126. 106. 76. Unre. 3-.

Proceed From PRINCES THEATRE, SAVILLE THEATRE COMMENCING WED. 9lh DEC. at 7.30. EVELYN LAYE WALTER HUGH FITZGERALD McDERMOTT STANLEY 6i The Amorous Prawn A FARCICAL COMEDY BY ANTHONY KIMMINS WITH ERNEST CLARK BOOKING NOIV BOX OFFICE TEM 401176 to 20-..