The Cinema
THE arrival of the talkies gave film producers new musical opportunities, but they have seldom been very happily seized. We have suffered too often from that tap-room Chorus of yokels who suddenly break into three-part harmony, or from the sickly interruptions of some Hollywood crooner, cast as the hero of an inconsequent musical comedy. The problem of blending music with screen narrative is certainly not easy, but it is well worth tackling, for an effective musical background is able to giVe film imagery a peculiar vitality, Carrying the story along on a flowing current of sound. One solution is to make your heroine a prima donna, as is done in Evensong ; but even so a considerable degree of skill is necessary if the arias are not to hold up the action.
Evensong, freely adapted from the novel by Mr. Beverley Nichols, has a fairly conventional plot and attempts 110 great originality in its treatment of human character. But Victor Saville has directed it with uncommon ingenuity, and Miss Evelyn Laye, as the prima donna, reveals unsus- pected powers both as a singer and as an actress. The story follows her career from her early ambitions through her mature triumphs to her final decline ; and Mr. Saville is particularly successful in using the musical interludes to punctuate and illustrate the flow of time. A strong cast includes Fritz Kortner as Irela's sardonically loyal manager ; Emlyn Williams as the unlucky friend of her early Irish days ; and Madame Conchita Supervia as the youthful rival who at last takes all the applause. It is greatly to Miss La,ye's credit that she faces this formidable competition with courage and success ; she and Mr. Saville have together produced a picture which is perhaps the best British musical drama yet made.
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