GEORGE AND MARGARET

New Zealand Listener, Volume 8, Issue 183, 24 December 1942, Page 17

GEORGE AND MARGARET

(Warner Bros.-British)

HEN you are escaping from anything it is usually a good idea to put as much distance as possible between you and what

you are escaping from, and this principle would seem to apply to "escape" films. I’ve nothing against this type of entertainment as such, and can think of a lot to say in its favour; but personally, when I’m trying to get away from the present I like to get well back into the past. So I prefer to be precipitated, for instance, into the Naughty ‘Nineties atmosphere of Strawberry Blonde, rather than into the effete Noel Coward era of George and . Margaret. This film is from the stage success of some years back by Gerald Savory, and to its credit it must be said that the action is rather less static than in the average British screen version of a play. | Characters keep .on running up and down the inevitable staircase, banging on — the bathroom door, following one another — in and out of different rooms. The dia- | logue isn’t particularly slow, either. It is, however, dated by such remarks as "You're not turning socialist, are you?" (intended as a rebuke), and "You talk like one of the Karl Marx Brothers": but it is not sufficiently dated to be really funny, except on odd occasions. And: the central situation, though amusing, is slight: the fuss and bother caused in a suburban London family by the news that two unpopular guests,.George and Margaret, are coming to lunch. The audience never gets a chance to see either George or Margaret, but their impending visit upsets everybody in the house from mother down to cook, and brings to a head two young love affairs. In this film, asin Swamp Water above, the players (taken from the stage) do a good job within the narrow limits of the script and the direction, particularly Marie Lohr as the impetuous, erratic /mother, Oliver Wakefield as the mild, understanding father, and. Ann Casson as the housemaid in love with the Scoutminded elder son (who is a little too old for the part). As a study in comedy tastes, it interested me to notice that the typically English humour of the film was hardly registering at all with the American servicemen around me in the audience, and I was beginning to wonder if my own taste was becoming completely Americanised until somebody re--minded me of that excellent British film Quiet Wedding, by likening George and Margaret to it. It is a useful comparison, but not in favour of G. and M. One is merely smart: the other was penetrating ie is just burlesque: the other