who could have
'MIDDLE EAST DIARY. By Colonel R. Molnertzhogen,
Cressot. 35s.
ON
N June 28, 1939, Colonel Meinertzhagen had an interview with Hitler in Berlin. There was NIR RALPH RICHARD-
SON, Hugh Griffiths, nothing in the least remarkable in what the Fuhrer and other British actors said to him. Are to appear in Otto Preminger's
Alm "Exodus."
Which means that none of the book'e anti-British feeling will bo brought out in the film, For when it was nanounced that the story was to be filmed, British actors intimated that they
would refused to appear.
It was the usual 40-minute térrant of nonsense fran who was already, in Molner- tzhagen's opinion, hell-bent on
War.
But in one
was
KEDS
by George
audience"
respect the noteworthy. Meinerzhagen had a loaded automatic in his pocket.
"I had ample opportunity to QUOTE: An actor gets the chi both Hitler and Ribben- thing right by doing it over|trop," he wrote in his diary. "I and ovor. Arguing about this war breaks out, then I shall motivations and so forth is feel very much to blame for not
killing those two." a lot of rot. Amarican direc- Fors encourage that sort of thing too much, Parsonally, I loathe all abstract discus- sions about
theatre. the
Ashamed
1#
killed
Revolt, "Little of it was strict truth," Lawrence told. Meinertz hagen, "though most of it was based on fact. He hated takes but had been involved in a huge lic, and his friends and admirers intended to keep him there! 'I
Hilter
ter varied from time to time, his opinion of his military career is trenchant: "Lawrence has never commanded anything but at looting rabble of mur- derous Arab levies; ho took part in no major military operation,
slightest Allenby's campaign"
Malcolm Thomsonwonder if all established reputa- and his desert exploits had not
tlons were founded liko mine, the on fraud.
"I suggested that he should start with a clean slate. He promised to think it over, but I fear he has gone too dar, poor
Although
Meinertzhagen's
witnessed a pogrom and rescued a Jowish girl who was being dragged along the gutter by her hair. There
and then he "resolved that whenever or little man." wherever I can help the Jews I shall do so." He has not a drop judgment of Lawrence's charag of Jewish blood in his veins,
He landed at Halfa at the moment when the British were pulling out of Palestine, and Buslly Jews and Arabs were fighting.
A BIT OF
Today,
Meinertzhagen thoroughly ashamed of the in-
with its mixture of In the ship with him there MANSFIELD They bore me. arsure you the
I shall never write a book bravido and ineptitude. As a travelled a company of Cold- mangue, be cannot stream Guards who were being Jayne about my theories of drama- assassin ALTHOUGH
SIR LAURENCE account for his stupidity: nor landed to protect government Mansfield's newest tic art:
does he seem certain which is stores. From a Guards private film "Too Hot To Handie," OLIVIER.
the more blumaworthy-carrying too sick to go ashore, Meiner the gun or failing to are li, Lzhagen borrowed uniform and
equipment.
in which the bosomy blonde Frank Loesser, the man co-stars with Leo Genn, was who wrote the music for "Guys He had exposed the weakness Dolls" and Where's of Hitler's security arrange- completed last September, and
Explained Richardson: "The by Britain's censor chief in auditions
The search began in a small, barely furnished offer two floors nbové a Soho back street, where . Osborne and Richardson, who
have paid Miss Delancy £20,000 whole to Mm her play, were interview ing the first of the 300 young actresses who want to play Jo, unmarried the pregnant, heroine.
John Trevelyan.
the
Ger-
Opened fire
it still has not been passed Charley is in London holdments, especially as the
for his latest mans must have known that musical, "Most Happy Felia." Meinertzhagen was + British nim really depends on
And Loesser, a man with Intelligence agent, a kind of "I soon found the front line, of this girl The
In fact, the picture has been formidable reputation, has been respectable spy.
about twenty Haganah (Isravi) the impact
to be made to
in sand. 1 After resigning his commis- well-entrenched audionce has keileve that it is really watch in and out of the censor's office sitting happily relaxed through
Singers, Irression, in the Royal Fusiliers in scraped a hole and lay low for with monotonous regularity, each audition.
time
censor's poctive of talent, are encouraged 1920, he had devoted his life to
a bit." ing Jo, a Salford teenager, un-
and there And each loved and unlovely, isn't a star in Britain who could selssors go snip and a little more to fight through to the last note. birdwatching in many lands, as
Suid Loesser "By the time
But not for long. Along with a cover for political intelligence, three Haganah he opened fire on Five years ago; of Miss Mansfield is left, behind
a singer gels to the eighth bar. play the part.
Impulsive nature, re Arab anipers; his firat shot was would have on the floor, Joan Plowright
Yet when the film was being 1 know whether she's good or vealed when he omitted to mur-
Then I just tune myself der Hitler, was demonstrated a bull's eye. made the cenzor spent some bad.
It's the only me. I can once more in an extraordinary, out. the studios giving Ume advice.
Said the censor the olher
episode at Halfa in 1940.
Meinerzhagen is a fanaticni Zlonist. In Odessa in 1910, he night: "It seems that not all the advice I offered was taken."
The search in fascinating, for It is at part of the new pallem in Brith picture-making-the been ideal.
vivid Lowards trend
realian but fur the searchers it is
painful process,
1
a
Said Osborne "I tremendous gamble. The fact is,
"Why must she be ugly? Well, this is essentially a story of loneliness. And if she were pretty, she isn't likely to know much loneliness, is she?"
IL
Roderick Mann
TOP COLUMN OF SHOW BUSINESS
It's great to be
hated, says Mr. Baker
DINNER with Stanley Baker is a stimulating
affair, and the service one gets from the waiters quite startling.
This is because Mr Baker-with his rock-cake face and falcon's eyes-always looks as though he is just about to hit somebody, and the waiters take no chances.
It is this air of suppressed hostility which is currently mak- ing Mr Baker a rich man, as well as getting him better service than me. I have experimented with reverat, f-an-about-to-lit- out looks, but in each case I appear merely to have some rather distressing eyc-trouble.)
Last time I saw John Wayne he told me: "Son- the reason people pay good money to see me is because when I walk out there in front of the camera, I clank."
It la true. He does. And Mr Baker clanks too.
there'd be a terrible scene, and I'd lose my club membership).
If you want a young actor who looks as though he would enjoy torturing pedestrians and maltreating stray dogs-who can you get?
Not Dirk, Not Kenny, Dirk and Kenny love pedestrians and stray dogs.
No, Blanicy Baker must be your choice. There is a man who could kick hla Own grandmother down the stairs and enjoy it, (IKis grand- mother would probably enjoy is too). There is the man to mefe out punishment.
The other night we clanked our way into a fashimable new club in Whitehorse Street, W., and white Mr Baker laid about the svelters and stared at Princess Alexandra, I congratu- laled him on establishing a new tradition of tough acting in British flras.
"They told me: 'Get lost. Buy a barrows"
house on Wimbledon Common, drives an American Buick, and is refreshingly frank about his success.
"Mine," he says, "is a hell of
a face. But it keeps me in work becnues there aren't many like it about. I have no
The ilusions about my work. way to build a career is to make tols of Glans.
"Sure, I've made some stink- crs. But I've made some good ones too. It takes screen time to make a star. Nothing else. All the publicity in the world won't do it. You've just got to go on making film atber
arm:"
"And that, it seems, is what Mr Baker is doing.
"She's pretty," he said. Then: "Yes, it was tough at Arst. But thanke the work of actors
FOOTNOTE: In Mr Baker like Brando, the tough, realistic
he is at school of acting became accept- just as tough when
home? ible over here.
"Not at all," says his "And I began to get work. pretty wife Ellen. "As a matter Now I never stop.
Since the of fact, he's a complete pet."
big success of Yesterday's
1
after the other and I'm now Enemy I've made two is one ERROL'S ERROR about to start The Guns of Navarone."
¦ He raised, a big Welsh hand to scratch his check. All around.
us walters stiffened on their
⠀⠀ Errol Flynn's last film Cuban Rebel Girls--which he made in Havang after the Castro revolu- tion is getting a pusting from the American crities..
Writes the Minneapolis • Trb-
bune review:VS
find to think about business. make some pretty big-decisions during those last 30 bars."
-London Express Service).
I
.His
„Pjeturs by MICHAEL WARD
A peasant life for Marianne
BRITISH ACTRESS Marianne Bene? in fortunate enough to possess
the sexy, Continestal look which in preferred of the moment by British film producers to the more homely appeal of English girls.
Mis Benet-ged 23—is new playing her first leading m part as a Spanish girl in How To Steal a Million, which is on location in Spain. She is married to Spanish sculpter Xavier Corbetto, and lives in Barcelona. They fire in a peasant house,
She said: "It has one top which works occasionally, otherwise wa pet our water from wall. We are hoplop to keep savosal chickens, a goot and a donkey.“
Miss Tanet la not following any local fashion in thtë choles of homa, She is creating one Spanish artists and actors pen cather middle ciest," the sold, They prefer to live comfortably in the suburbs."
London Express Kervice.S
"The picture, le interesting his friends Trevor Howard and Frenchman is interesting. You
It took some doing. I can launching pads.
anty ce an example of the Peter. Finch as commentators, ace, in France. you never... - DOU tell you," he said. "At flest "I met. Brando! once at a depths to which Errol Flynn Because of prior compliments, your husband. American couples nobody wanted to know me. party with Richard Burlon." had fallen before fils death, but however, neither was able to believe in' togetherness. But not Show businew appeared to be faker reflected.・ "I remember not interesting enough, to war- help. peopled exclusively by slender young men in · jodhmuru,' all drinking toa, 'You're 100 tough,' they said. 'Go to
the Fretici, French couplén belleve in separateriess."{{
They, wittd'occasionally, I supporo, REMINDER
we ungued fiercely, durant anybody's sitting all the
File was being the big klar way through it. Flynn's soun
Will it ever be shown over expecting all of us to fall at paramour, Beverly Madland, is here? many wAAAVANJA his feet and sgros with every, listed as the star, of the gim-. To date, I gather, no one, has America, Gios: lost. Hur think he said. I wouldn't and she does appear in front of oven inled to book it.. barrow. That was the kind; i have that... Bas, ka Tany, Fin the camera, much of the time, of helpful advice 'X got.”
grateful to people like him. Nothing the did up, to the time SUZY'S VIEW IT His eyes narrowed. "is that : för paving the way."UNIN I walked out of the film,
Thirty-two-year-old Baker ever, could be called
The delightful Suzy Parker is has everything calendar, ko yes, I said warily (you the was poly 25 when he anter This was the film for which, married, "end"-lives in Paris, remind him when the paymenta nover know with Walahi notore, td his way to success in The the dying Flynn desperately She likes living in Paris, Sho are due. He might be anti-royal and Cruel Sea) lives in a large tried to recruit the services of
-"Hoing " married" to
=(London: Expraan fervier),
really Princem, Alexandru?”
A Hollywood
wagsuggests
the coal gift for the man who
4
the Arabs in front of us
"After we had disposed of all
Coldstream officer came along, asked who the hell I was ana
ordered no back to the ship. had fired my 200 rounds."
I
bearing on
Rome.
Often wrong-handed, Umes violently opinionated, but looking at cerinin historieni events from very close up, this diary projects an unusual and interesting man.
-London Express Service).
BOOKSHELF BRIEFS
remember
inen The
• MEMOMS. Alexandro Benola, Chatto, 30m. Old men
and very old remember absolutely. legendary Benois, who de Egned docors for the Ballot Russo at the height of its famo,
recently serialised Evening Standard.
The
John
SUNSET AT SHEBÀ.
Hutchinson, Harris,
139. A thoroughly convincing tale of sustained suspense and needless tragedy, told against the
is now 89 and remembers, in hackneyed South African back- miraculous detail, his pre ground of Do Wet's abortiva cocious childhood in the cul- rising In 1914. Compellingly tivated life of the 19th-century readable. St Petersburg. These urbano reminiscences are wittily intro-APPOINTMENT IN ZAH- duced by the author's great RAIN, Michael Barrett, Michael Joseph, 18s. 6d. An American, nephew, Peter Ustinov.
Englishman and 10 Aratxi
• ONE MAN. IN HIS TIME. Cenpe the exerutti squad and Serge Obolensky. Hutchinson, disappear in the desert in
the New York hoteller, is the 31st inevitable pretty nurse, 258. The author, a distinguished captured ambulance with
Tough generation In direct
senumontal male story spoilt hy descent from "the first real rutor ending. of Russia" (Rurik, born 862)
All
TANGLED
CORD. and on his mother's side, the ⚫ THE great-great-great grandson Cr Frances and Richard Lockridge. 12s. 6d. A lively the Queen of Spades. His first Tiutchinson, wife was the daughter of Czar plot-with a famous cartoonist and an eminent surgeon as the IT, his socond un All of which suggests that Alexander Meinertzhagen is no conven- Astor, So practically everybody chler suspects in the murder of
an ageing tional
British
He is his cousin. His distinguished with brick but colonel matured in that forcing-house rulalivas jostle
hig famous
of milliary eccentricity, the friends in the crowded pages of competence, Middle East, in the 1914-18 war, this cosmopolitan Autoblo
graphy.
There, he met an Arab boy dressed in spotless white. Ho said in a soft voice: I am Lawrence. Dalmeny sent me over to see you.' I said 'Boy or girl?" Ho blushed.”
From this began a friendship which persisted over the years and had, on Meinertzhagen's side, more plly than admiration in it.
The book
One day in Fario during the Peace Conference of 1910. Lawrence
playboy-handled
rather routino
SAY
IN CON. FERENCE. Nicole do. Baron,
LIFE IN MY HANDS, Wally Harvil. 138. 6d. How to rise Thomas. Heinemann, 15s. With managing director to a job as from belang rocretary to the. a complete absence of self-ps, departmental houd: six easy ex-Corporal Tomas, of lessons in the form of a mildly Bomb Disposal squad, tells entertaining seml-documentary by a 2,200 lb. bomb. Blind and lingerie magazine in Faris. what it is like to be blown up novel, set in the offices of a deaf, he has fought his way back to find enjoyment In Da active life.
IMAGE IN THE WIN- DOW. John Cousing, Capo. 168. Au intclligent and unsentimental
● SELFRIDGE. Reginal novel about horses and riding. Found. Heinemann. 251. The This well told study of a weak man who founded the store was man, an amateur steeplechaser, a man of vision and a showman learning, to know himself, is of genius rather than bari- usually interesting. headed business man. This is
Brid
his that he had the excellent book about written a book about the Arab dramatic rise and pathetic fall
RUDOLF KLEIN -London Express Servica).
BANGKOK
BY
SWISSAIR
San
life,
the famous
the Siemand suggestion-fly
The Venice of the East is Dangkok.
the busting colourful the floating market,
mystio dancing of and antiher there by Swissairi
Swiss Quality worldwides
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