THE STORY OF GILBERT AND SULLIVAN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 727, 19 June 1953, Page 18

THE STORY OF GILBERT AND SULLIVAN

(London Films) F London Films had not provided me this week with Cry, The Beloved Country, which perhaps stands in greater need of introduction and recommendation than The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan, I would have had more room to record my enjoyment of the latter, It is a sprightly, witty. Technicolorful and thoroughly charming entertainment in which the principal fault is a tendency to whet the appetite then leave it unsatisfied. Those who followed with delight the BBC’s Story of a Great Partnership

when it was broadcast here some time ago, wil] have a good yardstick by which to judge the biographical accuracy of the film. The latter, of course, does not tell all the story, and occasionally fiction takes the place of fact, but history is not seriously tampered with, and it is safe to affirm that anyone who enjoyed the radio programmes will be pleased with the screen production-which has the advantage of excellent stage-settings and a large company of interesting faces. As the two oddly-sorted geniuses whose bickering partnership produced the. most brilliant flowering of English comic opera, Robert Morley and Maurice Evans are admirable foils for one another. Morley’s Gilbert is physically almost faultléss-he seems to fix the man as irrevocably as Arliss fixed the features of Disraeli. Remembering the incisive voice of Cecil (continued on. next. page)

(continued from previous page) Trouncer in the BBC show, and remembering, too, Gilbert’s own passion for the clear articulation of his verses, I thought Morley was at times not quite sharp enough in his enunciation. But it is a niggling criticism. He portrays Gilbert richly and roundly.. Maurice Evans is equally good; in the nature of things not’ so dominating a character, but a warm one. In addition to these two, there is a large cast of skilful singers and good players, headed by Eileen Herlie. It is perhaps worth noting that Harold Williams apears in an excerpt from Trial By Jury, though the supporting player I would most like to mention is. Martyn Green-until recently a member | of the D’Oyly Carte Company-who gives a remarkable performance as George Grossmith. But, as I.suggested earlier, The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan left me unsatisfied. I went home somewhat frustrated at the thought that I could not immediately see equally good versions of H.M.S. Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, Ruddigore, The Mikado, The Coen Tolanthe, etc., etc.