RADIO'S TALE OF TWO CITIES

Radio Record, 24 June 1938, Page 12

RADIO'S TALE OF TWO CITIES

FTER an introduction stuck on like a false moustache, says the writer of this article, radio’s version of "A Tale Of Two Cities," soon to be released by the NCBS, sweeps along to triumph as a masterpiece of the air. But there is a wide gulf, he argues, between false sentiment of the introduction and the true drama of the tale.

By

WILL

GRAVE

HORTLY, on Sunday evening next, in fact, the NCBS will begin the presentation of the radiv dramatisation of "A Tale of Two Cities," by Charles Dickens. Episodes of the feature, which has been put into script form, acted and produced in Australia, will be heard from all four stations on Sunday evenings. This, I am told, is part of the Commercial service's policy of raising the standard of the Sunday programmes. The "Tale of Two Cities" is not a sponsored feature. It is a service given free, so to speak, for listeners. T a preview last week, I was able to hear sume of the episodes of the radio play. It is only fair to say tha: I went along in a gloomy frame of mind, writ _F.... | a

SFIVCHOUYD Way precious to me. I do not like to think of people monkeying with the masters. There had been the book itself, later the film version most ably done, and now there was to be the radio presenta43 aw

Pavrarte I was prepared for disappointment, and I got it, Phe first few episodes, brilliantly acted and produced, and «1ploying as well a new form of radio technique, like the "flash-back" in the cinema, were false and unsatisfactory in more places than one. IPHEY had not peen taken from the story at all. They were an appendage, stuck on fo show how ‘Dr. Manette, in 1768, had been sent by the St. Evremonde brothers to the Bastille for his long imprisonment. They had been written by some Australian script writer with false sentiment floating in a watery mind, or with a cheek permanently enlarged through having a tongue in it, _ They were stuck on to the work like a false moustache, and seemed just as theatrical. 1" was after those first one or two episodes that the real Diekens story began. And then, as the real Dickens began and was given iu bis own words, lif up by brilliant interpretation, [ was swept away in complete surrender. Judged by those episodes I heard after the open-

ing ones, the radio version of "A Tale of Two Cities" should be one of the finest and most worthy productions yet heard on the air in New Zealand. One scene in particular sticks fast in the mind. It: was the trial scene of Charles Darnay in London, when Siduey Carton, brilliant lawyer broken by drink, first notices the resemblance between Darnay and himself, which is ultimately going to enable them to chaige places in France so that Carton may go to the guillotine scaffold in Darnay’s stead, saying-no doubt you re-member---‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done." (THAT London eourt scene lived in the radio version so that you could see it, almost sniff it. The dry tones of ihe judge gave one immediately the picture of the shrivelled elderly man pok-

ing his head out of his hood to make his comments, and retiring again. The Cockney voices of the witnesses had the real crackle of character, investing the words with a singular potency-so tliat, to your amuzcmant. this ja

Dickens made even better! And the voice of "Stry ver, obe of those pompous legal brethren that Dickens loved to curicature, thunders out splendidly in its bombastic perorations, qt may be that 1 am wrong, aud most listeners will like those first unreal episodes. They may find them au incentive to hear all of this remarkable production. If they do, then those episodes will have served a most useful purpose. Much, on that account, could be forgiven them. On the other hand, that wilk uot alter my convicliou that they are strewn far too lavishly with the artificial flowers of melodrama, , JPART of their aim is to show the vicious minds of many of the nobility of Franee: The brothers &8t. Evremonce bave abducted the peasant wife of one of the men on their estate, outraged her, ang ‘kept her in their chateau. Her brother, penefrating to the castle for her assistan ¢, is wounded by the Marquis St. Eyremoude in a. clash of swords. , Dr. Manette is brought in (CGontiuued on page 41.)

"Tale of Two Cities" RADIO‘S DICKENS (Continued from page 12.)

biindfold by the St. Evyremondes to attend to the girl and the boy, He hears their story. When he leaves, he is told by the Marquis that if he does not keep a still tongue in his head it will be stilled for him. The good doctor, returning home, finds himself unable to endure the memory of what he has seen without protest. He writes to the authorities, is found out by the St. Evremondes, and east into the Bastille, LL this has a certain factual value. It leads up to the story of the "Tale of Two Cities" and gives a background for the coming revolution. It was the way it was done that was wrong. Manette, in soliloquy, while attending to the girl, says: "Let me wipe this clinging dampness from her brow." Have you ever said that when you stroked the face of your sleeping wife? The boy says to the doctor: "They’re proud, these nobles. They take their shameful rights. My sister was a good girl. Picture our little home." This is wrong. It is not life, it-is not art. It is balderdash. N life, when you have been out for the evening and you come back to find your house on fire you do not ery: "OQ, merciful Heavens. My child!" You say: "My G ! My kids." That is where the introductory episodes are wrong. The people are made to say all the time: "O, merciful Heavens. My child!" Perhaps it is unfair to have stressed this early weakness so much when it matters so little to the worthiness of the great body of the production, if I have done so, it is only to warn listeners who may switch off in those first episodes in disappointment, that they are no criterion by. whick: to judge the rest of the work.. That, it seems to me, would be to miss one of the finest radio achieyements yet presented in New Zealand.