CINEMA
The Beggar's Opera. (Rialto.)—The Captain's Paradise. (Plaza.) —Single-Handed. (Odeon, Marble Arch.)
BEING a classic, The Beggar's Opera, however it is treated, is bound to Promote controversy, its advocates, defending the memories of their Youth like tigers their cubs, being swift to denounce the smallest change. Severely censured for never having read Pickwick Papers, it appals me to have to admit that I have never seen The Beggar's Opera 'either, though I am able, if pressed, to sing in my lilting contralto nearly all its tuneful airs. To my untutored but also un- cluttered mind Mr. Peter Brook's production seems an uneven piece of work, sometimes realistic, sometimes artificial, at times stirring, at others dull. In his handling of crowd scenes he is superb, but his moods are uncertain and his speeds variable, a confusing mixture of satire' and musical comedy, the blame for which, no doubt, can be shared with John Gay. Sir Laurence Olivier's Macheath is a trifle too thoughtful for a swaggering amorous highwayman, too solemn for a carefree deceiver ; but his charm is overwhelming. It was a mistake perhaps to match his voice with those of professional singers—the Misses Dorothy Tutin, Daphne Anderson and Athene Seyler's larynxes are intermittently loaned to opera stars—and yet on its own it is a pleasant light baritone, giving no cause for concern as to whether it will reach the high notes ; a comfortable drawing- room voice of endearing quality. And what lovely songs there are to sweeten the squalor and bawdiness : fresh as primroses on a dunghill, though such an epithet is exaggerated for the light-hearted depravities of Gay's London. In sum, three films in one ; boisterous colourful, enchanting musical, untidy disappointing.
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The Captain's Paradise is a bit disappointing too, although with Miss Celia Johnson, Mr. Alec Guinness, Miss Yvonne de Carlo and Mr. Charles Goldner as its stars there is enough lambency to keep the shadows at bay. The idea is a funny one, that of a man finding heaven on earth by having a domesticated wife in one port and an exotic one in another, slippers and cocoa in Gibraltar, cham- pagne and kisses in Kalik, an idea substantiated, of course, by many a sailor before now but not quite so successfully as by a suave Mr. Guinness. The heaven is made infernal by the eventual reluctance of the two women to continue in their roles, Miss de Carlo acquiring a'fervent desire to settle down and cook and Miss Johnson an equally fervent one to dance the samba. This samba, by the way, is executed by our leading tragic actress with such glorious abandon and such unexpected talent the ranks can scarce forbear to cheer. Certainly Miss Johnson relishes a comedy part and is wonderfully good and delightful in it, yet even she cannot distract one from seeing all the Jumps ahead, from anticipating the situations long before they take place. Though there are some nice touches, both visual and froin the pen of Mr. Nicholas Phipps, this film is not, I feel, nearly as
amusing as it could be. •
Single-Handed is a film built, with excrescences and ramifications, on the basis of Mr. C. S. Forester's great novel Brown on Resolution, the record of how one young sailor, a British prisoner in a German battleship which has taken shelter in a land-locked bay to make repairs, delays the ship for eighteen hours by escaping to the hills and potting off the enemy crew one by one with a rifle. Directed by Mr. Roy Boulting, this picture, after strolling somewhat lethargically through a romance between Miss Wendy Hiller and Mr. Michael Rennie, becomes extremely good, exciting, and indeed inspiring. The brave youth whose impudence in taking on the ' Essen ' by him- self capture every heart, is played by Mr. Jeffrey Hunter, Imported to represent that vitally necessary Canadian hero without whom America finds British films unacceptable. Ho acts a foolproof Part very adequately but nevertheless looks and sounds incongruous among his shipmates. Still, nothing can alter the excellence of all the active portions of this film, this David and Goliath story told with simplicity and with a reverence for valour far outweighing
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