Contemporary Arts
CINEMA
A KID FOR Two FARTHINGS. (Plan.)—THREE CASES OF MURDER. (Warner.)—UNTAMED. (Carlton.) LIFE is full of disappointments and it is foolish to expect too much from anyone, even Carol Reed. Yet his A Kid for Two Farthings falls so far below the high standard he has so consistently maintained, it is impossible not to feel cheated. The pith of Wolf Mankowitz's book, a sentimental whimsy about. a Jewish tailor, a little boy and a kid which the boy mistakes for a unicorn remains charming, the three champions of illusion, David Kossoff, Jonathan Ashmore and the kid displaying a poignant innocence which is very touching. Encircling them, however, are a gaggle of Petticoat Lane characters, each a bit over- drawn, a bit too eccentric to be convincing, there being a Damon Runyonesque quality about them and their activities which gives a false edge to the film's authentic background. Celia Johnson, Diana Dors, Joe Robinson and Sidney James are good in their way, but they seem just a millimetre on the far side of credi- bility. Away from the tailor the fabric has an ersatz feel to it, and even some delightful Reed embroidery cannot hide the flaws.
Also of uneven texture are three murder stories at the Warner. Lord Moundrago, by Somerset Maugham, directed by George More O'Ferrall and starring Orson Welles. studies the lethal influence of dreams. As both a pro- moter and victim of the 'haunts,' Mr. Welles, rumbling beautifully like an operatic lion and compelling undeviating attention with the slow swivel of an eye, gives authority to the mystic properties of this fantasy. He is magnificent, but as usual crushes his surroundings into the shadows. You Killed Elizabeth, by Brett Halli- day and directed by David Eady, is an ordinary whodunit starring Emrys Jones and John Greg- son, and it is not a bit good. in the Picture, by Roderick Wilkinson, is. on the other hand, excellent. Macabre and frightening, it gives us Alan Badel as a dead artist who lives in the picture he painted and enviegles a museum guide into stepping back through the frame with him. Wendy Toye has handled this sinister story with considerable deftness, catching the shivers as they leave the screen and pinning them to one's spine.
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VIRGINIA GRAHAM
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