CINEMA
Julius Caesar. (Carlton.)—Wife for a Night. (Marble Arch Pavilion.)—Second Chance. (Odeon, Marble Arch.) WHAT a magnificent play is Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and how greatly enhanced are its virtues by the mobility and range of a movie camera when, as in this instance, it is dedicated solely to the glorification of the text by an artist of integrity. -Joseph Man- kiewicz's work is always impressive, 'and here, with the rich material at hand and with actors of talent and authority, he has pro- duced a Julius Caesar worthy of the highest praise, a film which, while scrupulously adhering to the original and disdaining the spectacular, yet projects all the passion and excitement more peculiar to Hollywood's monster epics of Rome. The sets are simple, the action subducd, but the drama is continually heightened by Mr. Man- kiewicz's sup zrlative eye for this effective.
The cast is uniformly exc 11.nt, English and American accents having mysteriously lost their identity under the spell of the Shakespearian metre and flowing har- moniously together. Sir John Gielgud sets the tone with his perfect Cassius, singing that sour man's music in an exquisitely subtle variety of keys. At home in poetry he walks his part at ease, as in a garden, plucking syllables from the air and offering them to us drenched in beauty. When he is with us we can remember him in no other role, whereas the others, for all their excel- lence, we tend to admire as actors. Less golden-tongued, less accustomed to a rhap- sody of words, they have, each in his way, triumphed, Marlon Brando in particular sweeping his streetcar off the tracks by a. powerful performance as Mark Antony. His appearance is superb and his oratory, surprisingly, matches it. James Mason is, perhaps, a little uneven, though in his big moments—Caesar's murder, his quarrel. with Cassius—he flashes out brilliantly and does indeed seem the noblest ' Roman of them all : at other times he cannot entirely disperse the twentieth-century atmosphere with which some actors, however good, are fated to be encompassed. Louis Calhem paints a vivid touching portrait of Caesar, Edward O'Brien slaps on Casca with the correctly blunt palette knife, and the ladies, Greer Garson and Deborah Kerr, add their small feminine touches with grace. In sum, an old master skilfully renovated and presented in all its freshness to a public one dares to believe will appreciate it.
An Italian film not remotely concerned with the problems of the underprivileged, but frivolous and funny, is something of a novelty. Wife for a Night, starring Gina Lollobrigida, Nadia Gray, Gino Cervi and Armando Franciolini, follows /.he classic comedy lines of mistaken identity, imper- sonation and amorous intrigue, the central figure of fun being a portly nineteenth- century Count d'Origo who has escaped for a couple of days from his rich but ugly mistress and seeks a livelier, if of necessity, a briefer, attachment. Directed by Mario Camerini, the film cast a cheerful, some- what ironic eye on a number of human activities; in particular love, both sacred and profane, and opera singing receive mischievous attention. Not as vociferous as most Italian films, and played charmingly by charming people, it bubbles along, some- times twisting down unexpected tributaries, and •as one follows them, guided by an engagingly ridiculous Signor Cervi, even the dankest November spirits are persuaded to bubble sympathetically.
•• • Should you not care, however, either for Shakespeare or Italians, you will find at the Marble Arch Odeon Linda Darnell and Robert Mitchum having a truly hair-raising experience trapped in a funicular car hang- ing over an abyss. Slowly the threads of the cables snap one by one until one's nerves are forced to follow suit. Jack Palance; who has only to appear for half the audience to faint front fear, is also in the cast, and, as the bits of the film not devoted to the funicular are spent in his chasing Miss Darnell, the strain, not to say the anguish, is almost insupportable. The film is in 3D, a much calmer variation compassionate to the eyeballs, and if you feel like a thrill, here it is on your lap.
VIRGINIA GRAHAM
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