RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29055, 18 November 1959, Page 26

RANDOM REMINDER

STOICS IN THE STALLS

There may be valid objections to the steady stream of horror films produced by Hollywood, but they serve at least one interesting purpose; they provide further evidence that in moments of stress, it is the men who go to the wall. A Christchurch theatre had a macabre thriller screening for a week recently, and the authentic figures show that 16 persons passed out cold during the performance. Fifteen of them were men. The really interesting part of the survey, however, was found in the assess-

ment of the remarks passed by the patrons as they were brought round with sal-volatile and soothing words. Of the 15 male revival cases, no fewer than 12 claimed they had not been affected by the film, but by something they had eaten. This, of course, casts a grave reflection on the quality of Christchurch cooking, or on the moral rectitude of the Christchurch man. Taking all things into consideration, the temptation is to relieve the cook of the responsibility for the 15 separate fits of the vapours. Moreover, It is quite in keeping with

masculine vanity for somd such excuse to be made. It is only the sheerest misfortune which costs so many men fantastically rich doubles at the races. One has only—if one has a couple of hours to spare —to listen to an average golfer talking about his round to realise that, although every shot was played perfectly, some malignant fate kept P us £' ing the ball out of the hole. And of course there are fish stories. If the hard luck tales told in one day in one small town were placed end to end, they would girdle the earth.