H. G. Wells Classic For Screen

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 127, 22 February 1941, Page 16

H. G. Wells Classic For Screen

A] ICHAEL REDGRAVE, who stars in A the screen adaptation of 11. G. Wells's classic story "Kipps,” now being made at, Shepherd's Bush Studios, has made a careful study of the character of the little shop assistant from the author’s view-point. Michael has met I-I. G. Wells on several occasions sud says that these meetings have made it much easier for him to transfer Kipps to the screen without in atty way

spoiling the effects for which I he author worked.

11. G. Wells described Kipps ms "a simple soul," and went on to deplore "the stupid little tragedies of these clipped and limited lives! Stupiditj ! Jl.v Kipps lives in its shadow.” Wells laughed at his Kipps find invited readers to laugh too, although at the same time he saw the tragedy of a world in which such :r character could be made a laughing stock. .Michael Redgrave said that he. too. was inviting screen audiences to laugh at Kipps, but he hoped it would be a kindly, sympathetic laughter—a laughter nearer to tears. He thought it should be the laughter of friends for a simple soul whose simplicity turns out to be his most, cherished possession because it. makes him lovable. Kipps is. in Redgrave’s opinion, one of the most difficult characters for an actor to portray because he can so easily become ridiculous instead of sympathetic.