LEESTON PICTURES

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LVI, Issue 89, 22 November 1935, Page 6

LEESTON PICTURES

THE HON SIR FREDERICK H. TOUT, M.L.C., Member of Principal Board (Sydney) of the A.M.P. Society, who is at present visiting New Zealand in the Society's business. Sir Frederick Tout is a prominent grazier, solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and a Member of the Legislative Council of the State Parliament. He also represented Australia at the Ottawa Conference.

EVELYN LAVE IN "EVENSONG."

The theme of this thoughtful story shows how a gifted singer must sacrifice, for the sake of her art, most of the things contributing to the fulness and enjoyment of life. The principal role is enacted by Evelyn Laye, who gives a convincing cameo of Irela, the world-famous singer who does, in fact, sacrifice everything, even human love, for the career which in her declining years has become an obsession. But first she is just humble Maggie McNeil — just an Irish youngster who has a voice with great possibilities. Moving rapidly, the colourful story tells of her rise to fame until the great Irela has become the rage of two continents and has the world at her feet. All these scenes are crowded with vivid incident, notably in the well-staged operatic scenes of "La Boheme" and "La Traviata," while the appeal is emphasised in such interludes as a romantic Venetian

scene, and later when Irela sings some popular ballads, including "Love's Old Sweet Song," to an audience of Tommies. In addition, we have the sentimental tug of Irela's thwarted romance and, in the closing scenes, the poignant tragedy of Youth's inevitable rivalry and ultimate victory.

In the climax, the one real love of Irela's life returns to comfort her, but she refuses to marry him in the winter of both their lives, when, for all her triumphs, she counts herself a failure.

In support of Evelyn Laye are Fritz Kortner in a finely sympathetic study of her faithful but sardonic manager; Carl Esmond as the luckless Archduke; and Emlyn Williams as George Murray, the youthful composer who induced the little Irish girl to go with him to Paris to begin her career; and Browning Mummery with effective tenor soli.

A special word should go to the effective atmopshere born of meritorious staging, for the settings admirably reflect the varied Continental locations. The recording, too, does fullest justice to the musical interludes in which the narration is so rich.