The Film Society

The Choral Society gave a spirited performance. In a small community the size of St. Peter's, one cannot expect to find a perfectly balanced chorus : the basses lacked that deep resonance of a professional choir; the altos tended to be weak in the more difficult parts and a little strong in the slower, quieter stretches. But these are minor blemishes and what was missing in ability was more than compensated by the obvious enthusiasm of the Society, the trebles, especially, giving a very lively account of their part.

It was, perhaps, a pity that the School did not provide its own string orchestra and soloists, though, coming as it did only twelve days after, the School concert it is not surprising that the School Orchestra did not have time to practise this further exacting work. We would like to express our gratitude to the four principals, who, led by the exquisite performance of Miss Honor Sheppard, delighted us all, and to the visiting instrumentalists for the part they played in making the performance so successful an act of worship. D.B.I. and E.W.T.

"The Oracle" was booked on the strength of its reputation as a product of Group Three, a recent British organisation dedicated to the production of films of quality at low cost. Fantasy is well suited to the medium of films and here the ancient Delphic oracle was rediscovered at the bottom of a well in one of the Western Isles of Scotland. Both the light and serious sides of knowing about the future were touched upon, but the fact that the voice of the oracle was Gilbert Harding's was a guarantee that the latter side did not become too serious. On the whole, the film justified its reputation.

Before "The Marx Bros. at the Circus" was shown, I confidently announced it as the funniest of the Marx Bros.' films, but at second seeing the tediousness of the intervals between the brothers seemed to obtrude itself to the detriment of the inspired fooling when they were present. I came to the conclusion that to know what the Marx Bros. are going to do next robs them of half their effectiveness. Certainly, there were no complaints from the rest of the audience, who were seeing the picture for the first time. "Out of the Clouds", from the Ealing Studios, was also taken on its reputation and turned out to be only partly satisfying. No film that has London Airport for its main background with an additional trip to Rome and Cairo can fail to be interesting, and it is a commendable idea to have an authentic background; the Americans have done it so often, even in B films, with the Coast Guards, the Postal Services, the Railways and, of course, the Police. The trouble here was that the background was so much better than the main story that was g-rafted on to it.