CINEMA
46 The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend." (Odeon, Marble Arch.)--" South of St. Louis." (Warner.) WESTERNS, those simple unfrustrated sagas of manly men and womanly women, have, I know, a wide and popular appeal. Nevertheless, though it is doubtless wise to serve the customer with what he likes best, this particular dish could surely do with some fresh garniture. Granted there must be horses, guns and stetsons, there must be rough heroes and smooth villains, but is it absolutely necessary for every single Western saloon to sport a sultry blonde sheathed in sleazy satin ? These ladies are stock characters. Their wigs are outrageously curly, their shoulders as flaunting as flags, and it is as certain as a quick shot from the hip that they will prance down the length of the bar singing rip-roaring songs to the baying " boys." Influential, flamboyantly jealous and dressed in diamonds at dawn, they are as essential to Westerns as horses ; and they are far more predictable. Personally, I don't believe these glamorous creatures ever existed. Mr. Preston Sturges, it is true, has tried to caricature them in The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend—indeed he has had a shot at parodying the whole familiar set-up—but he has by no means succeeded. A parody should surely be subtle with a fine humorous edge to it, but here we have nothing but exaggeration of a most obstreperous kind. Every joke, and the main one is about getting shot in the pants, is repeated several times. Miss Betty Grable has to do battle with situations more suited to the Crazy Gang, and as an admirer of hers—for her talents are by no means confined to her legs—I am filled with resentment. As noisy a slab of entertainment as you will find anywhere ; and I can only recommend this picture to the very young who, I am glad to say, can laugh at anything
* * * *
They will have a job, however, In finding cause for mirth in South of St. Louis, a solemn film about three pardners, Messrs. Joel McCrea, Zachary Scott and Douglas Kennedy, who get mixed up in a gun-running racket during the Civil War. Except that they wear little bells on their spurs, these somewhat owlish Texans resemble their predecessors down to the last bullet. If laid end to end they would make a nice addition to the long line of stereotyped cowboys which stretches across the past. And here again is the saloon singer, this time Miss Alexis Smith in green sateen and a red wig. She organises the gunning business,
CONTEMPORARY ARTS
she sings though her heart is breaking, she drives about the prairie in a barouche wearing a cartwheel hat, and she gets her man in the end. Miss Smith does not seem very happy in this part, and has the air of one accustomed to a more ladylike life. But in all fairness it must be said that she is not alone in failing to fulfil the seductive requirements. I believe the part to be unplayable, and I have never yet seen one of these glittering tramps touch even the hem of
probability—yes, one, Miss Mae West. VIRGINIA GRAHAM.
MUSIC
Scuumar's Winterreise contains some of the saddest music ever written. It has neither the elegant melancholy of Chopin nor the frenzied, self-pitying misery of Tchaikovsky, neither Brahms's fundamentally comfortable gloominess nor the sweet .autumnal flavour of Mahler. Compared with Schubert, all these composers are conscious self-dramatisers, making copy (and what marvellous copy!) of their different forms of dysphoria.
Schubert shares with Mozart the quality of absolute naturalness in sadness. Neither protests or exaggerates, beautifies nor in any way deforms the feeling, which lies too deep for such surface re- actions, and is perhaps ultimately traceable in each case to the coincidence of youthful genius and extreme physical debilitation. Such spontaneous, intuitive artists as they have in any case a quite precociously intense and profound vision of the true nature of human life, its potential joys and its potential sorrows ; and it is not fanciful to suppose that this vision is greatly intensified by the sub-conscious, or half-conscious, knowledge of death's imminence. It is interesting to notice that in both Mozart and Schubert the most poignant impression of sadness is very often associated with the major rather than the minor mode, a much more remarkable fact at the end of the eighteenth or the beginning of the nineteenth century than seventy or eighty years later. In the Winter Journey there are many examples—the major section of Auf dem Flusse, the 2/4 section of Friihlingstraum, Das Wirtshaus. or indeed the last verse of the opening Gute Nacht, where the change from minor to major adds the last touch of poignancy to the song.
Hans Hotter, who- sang these songs at the Wigmore Hall on March 19th, artificially intensified their dark colouring by trans- posing them to suit his baritone voice. The performance was thus handicapped from the start, though in the hands of Gerald Moore the piano part was given every iota of its significance, whether in; -,(Alk-stIti At ?
"Yes—I'll fly at once!'-", Businessmen with global interests depend on regular Speedbird service to all six continents. They know that a decision made today in Hong Kong, for example, may mean a conference there next week. They know, too, that 175,000 miles of B.O.A.C. routes to 51 countries makes this kind of prompt action possible. They fly without delay, swiftly and in comfort—on one ticket all the way. These same advantages can be yours, too Complimentary meals served en route ; no tips or extras. It's part of B.O.A.C.'s3r -year-old tradition of Speedbird service and experience.
B.O.A.C. TAKES GOOD CARE OF YOU BOOK NOW ! No charge for advice, information or hoofing: by Speedbird to all six continents at your local B.O.A.C. Appointed Agents or B.O.A.C., Airways Terminal, London, S. W..r. Telephone: VICtoria 2323.
FLY some Si tokc BRITISH OVERSEAS AIRWAYS CORPORATION WITH QANTAS EMPIRE AIRWAYS LTD., SOUTH AFRICAN AIRWAYS & TASMAN EMPIRE AIRWAYS LTD*,
Previous page
