FABULOUS! FABULOUS!! FABULOUS!!!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 899, 26 October 1956, Page 8

FABULOUS! FABULOUS!! FABULOUS!!!

BY

AUGUSTUS

"DD anyone see Pordgy, Pordgy, Pordgy, Pordgy, Pordgy?" enquired Madge as she glanced through the movie advertisements. Madge and Tom are staying with us for a week. "Haven't seen it myself," replied Eve, "though I can’t think how I’ve missed it. I tried to fit it in last Friday at a never-to-be-forgotten shoppers’ session

but decided to see the widely-discussed Rock Around ‘the Neck with ten tov

tunes, Somehow I seem to miss a lot of the merry mix-up type of filmsI didn’t even see The Silent Man all through that mirth-making season." "Oh, I think you missed a good thing there," said Tom. "A hilarious time was in store for the lovable folk of Ballyhoo when they were visited by this twofisted gossoon who wouldn’t fight." "Yes, I quite realise it was a rousing riot of fun as Maureen played hard-to-get to the only man who could tame her wild Irish ways. But is it really true that the blarney went’ straight to your heart?" "Well, it should have, if your heart was in the right place. At least it’s true, isn’t it," I suggested, "that there’s a little bit of Irish in everybody’s heart? I mean, we’re agreed on that surely?" "Oh, quite. But it wasn’t all blarney, I assure you. Madge and I went along prepared to follow the manager’s instructions, which were quite explicit: thrill to the spectacle, lilt to the melodies, he advised. So we did, didn’t we, Madge? And I remember you even fell in love with the enchanting Killarney countryside actually filmed in the Emerald Isle."

"Yes, I suppose if you’re to get the most out of these presentations it’s wise to let the manager guide you. After all, he’s showing films all the time and is in a position to know. I remember once riding with the vice squad in the most blood-boiling chase across town since Blackleg, purely on the manager’s hint -I mean, it made all the difference,

to ride with them." "T know what you mean. It was the manacer who dic.

closed that The Silent Man was the most appealing love-story ever to spring from the land of the shamrock, Incidentally, it also had EVERYTHING." "Oh, no, did it really?" lamented Eve. ‘Do you mean colour, action, romance, in a once-in-a-lifetime medley of laughter and tears?" "That’s right. I can’t be certain, but I believe women loved it for its tender charm, and men for its full-blooded action." "I think you’re right," said Tom cautiously. "No, no," I corrected, feeling pretty sure of my ground. "That was Helen of Greece. Here, I believe I kept the cutting." I searched through my wallet. "Yes, here it is: Lavish, lustful, fantastic, frightful,’ I murmured, skimming for the relevant passage. ". . . Was this the form that launched a billion ships . . Helen of Greece, Helen of Greece, Helen of ... Ah, no, I’m sorry. The men will love it for its full-blooded action all right, but it is stark passion that every woman will love it for." "That’s funny. I’d have sworn it was stark passion in the Cardboard Jungle." "No, dear. Dark passion in the Cardboard Jungle. I remember thinking at

the time; unleashed fury in the Iron Jungle, naked horror in the Cowhide Jungle, and in the Cardboard Jumgle dark passion." "T’m sure you're right. Not since Queen Quong, it was tentatively assessed, had such a tornado of torrid terror torn its way across the screen." "Y’'m afraid I missed that, too. I don’t get to the pictures very often, so I usually go to a frank one. On the whole, you see, I prefer sex to romance." "Yes. I really think you meet a better class of people at the frank pictures. Is Pordgy) frank?" "Oh, no, I wouldn’t think so. It’s a heart-warming heather mixture of simple courage and faith that could happen to you, actually filmed in the land of the pipers." "You say this film was actually filmed?" "Apparently. So was The Silent Man, of course, though in that case you had the magic of Corneovistula Color."

"Well, in Pordgy you can skirl in the aisles to Tru-vox Full-Fidelity Sound, which rather sets it apart. Pordgy is now entering its fifteenth fifteenth triumphant triumphant week week week." "Terrific, terrific, I believe, dear. It was the fourteenth fourteenth week week that was triumphant triumphant." "Well, I have the paper," retorted Madge. "I ought to know. Look for yourself." And she passed the paper over to Tom. He was silent for a moment. Then, SO orl" "What is it?" "There must be a race meeting coming off somewhere, sometime." Then as we looked our disbelief he slapped a full column running clean down the side of the page. "It says here." "What? What, for heaven’s sake?" He read 6ut in a voice packed with passion, teeming with tension: "Racing racing racing racing racing, racing racing racing .. ."