THE CINEMA
" Fire Over England." At the Leicester Square Theatre- " Maid of Salem." At the Carlton—" Theodora Goes Wild." At the Regal HERR POMNIER, the German producer, and Mr. William K. Howard, the American director, of Mr. Korda's great national Coronation-year picture of Elizabethan England have dont one remarkable thing : they have caught the very spirit of an English public-schoolmistress's vision of history. Fire Over England should be enormously popular at Roedean and Cheltenham, and Miss Robson catches the very accent and manner of an adored headmistress, that blend of refined authority (alas ! for great Harry's daughter), of familiar crotchets to set common rooms buzzing, and a hidden his- trionic tenderness towards the younger worshippers. I know I find myself in a tiresome minority (there are always a few
sour disloyal spirits in every common -room).. It is not, I am sure, Miss Robson's fault : she has only too faithfully carried
out the suggestions of the script, and it must be remembered that the screen play is by the author of Will Shakespeare and the novel by the author of The Four Feathers.
From neither of these authors do we expect a very pene- trating or realistic study of the Queen, but at least they might
have avoided a few of the absurdities which mar this well- directed and lavish picture. No headmistress, leave alone Elizabeth Tudor, would have allowed quite so much cuddling and kissing in her presence, and a little study of court etiquette might have assisted the actors in deciding when they had to kneel and on what occasions they could sprawl negligently at her Majesty's feet. The occasional suggestions that all is not quite straightforward in the Queen's character are only embarrassing ; they don't belong, they have strayed out of history ; one doesn't want this sex stuff in common-room.
As for the story of a young spy sent to Madrid to discover the names of English plotters, it belongs to the good old horse-hair tradition of Charles Kingsley and the low church romancers : the distinction is between papists who burn their prisoners in the name of religion and the honest Protestants who sail round the world and singe Philip's beard, sportsmen all. No stench from Campion's quarters offends the nostrils here. • Nevertheless this is the best production to come from Denham yet. The sets are magnificent (in the case of • the English court too magnificent, if we are to accept the dramatic theme, presented in the opening lines by Burleigh, of a small poor island rashly threatening the wealth and power of a great empire), the direction, until the closing scenes which are spoilt by the absurdity of the story, spirited, and the acting is far better than we are accustomed to in English films. Mr. Laurence Olivier can do the hysterical- type of young romantic hero with ease, Mr. Leslie Banks is a Leicester who might have been on the board of governors of any school, and Mr. Raymond Massey presents a fine and plausible portrait of King Philip. Mr. Massey is the only memorable thing about the film.
Maid of Salem is historical romance in the American manner, a story of the witch hunts in New England. Fire
Over England has the easier dialogue (Maid of Salem is pom- pously period) and is more pleasing to the eye, but as a story the American picture derives from Hawthorne not Kingsley, and a little authentic horror is allowed to creep in. Miss Bonita Granville, as the child who pretends for her own mean motives that she has been bewitched, gives -a performance equal to her earlier study of evil adolescence in These Three. Miss Claudette Colbert and Mr. Fred MacMurray as the Puritan girl and her rebel lover are a little out of place : but not so that magnificent actor Mr. Edward Ellis, a fierce and austere player who strides through this picture with a terrifying conviction.
' I have it on my conscience that I have not yet recommended Theodora. Goes-Wild. Miss Irene Dunne will be remembered for many -patient, womanly and rather_ smug performances (Roberta and Magnificent Obsession are the worst cases on record)-; now she has been re-groomed and appears as one of the best comedians on the screen in the best light comedy
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