MAJESTIC THEATRE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 95, 16 January 1943, Page 8

MAJESTIC THEATRE

"Gone -With the Wind” arrived in London on a grey afternoon in April 1910, when the message boys were whistling “Over the Knlnbow” and the spirit of appeasement still hud its supporter in' what we then culled “this phony war.’ today there are still queues in Leicester Square, the KHz cinema still displays the daib Full'House sign. But. "Gone With the Wind" has a stern rival at the Empire next, door, where "Mrs. Miniver" has now been running for months and will run for a long, long time yet. , What ia that extra quality, that elushe X quality that makes "Mrs. Miniver a great and unique picture? I cannot put mv finger on this quality, thdiigh. I have paid a second visit to "Mrs. Miniver to trv to discover It. What Is it that makes a 'film, a film that is not always realistic In its atmosphere, not even always accurate, an Inspiring and inescapably human document? Your guess is ae good as mine. Is it the tlnv trenchant details: the wordless understanding between husband and wife, the village tension over the rivalry of the flower show’s competitors, my Lady a annoyance at the Impertinence of the German bombers In flying over her house? Or is it the deeper elgnlflcance. the almost unbearably poignant moments; the footsteps of the young aviator as he nears t ie house where'his girl-wife lies dead: the camera’s sweep over empty pews, in tna bomb-blasted church, Mrs. Miniver s natural panic when she discovers tne Ger'nian airman crouching in her garden, mighty little fleet of pleasure craf,, manned by the stout civilian heart ot Britain, on its way to Dunkirk? If we knew the answer, if nltn producers knew the answer, we should be assisting every week at films as good as Mrs. Miniver."