DEBIT AND CREDIT
AS I in an unusually jaundiced mood, I wonder, when I listened to Elleston Trevors The Clock (BBC), or was there really as much wrong with it as I imagined? On the debit side I would put the device whereby a "clock" speaking in a flat monotone was the narrator, added nothing to the story save irritation; the quite presposterous idea that a body tipped by a murderer out of a window should land on a truck bound for the murderer’s home-town and be deposited there not far from his house; the fact that the main characters were one of those ghastly, bleatingly bright ‘"refined" and "civilised’’ English couples, who bring out all that is most vulgarly Kiwi in me-and much else. On the credit side, expert production by Val Gielgud and a fine performance by Norman Mitchell as a blandly persistent and ironical detective. But good atting and production can no more make a good play out of a poor script than a wide screen can make a moronic film into an epic. Whichever way you slice it, as Henry James used to say, it’s still baloney.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19541008.2.19.1
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 794, 8 October 1954, Page 10
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191DEBIT AND CREDIT New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 794, 8 October 1954, Page 10
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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