REGENT THEATRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 79, 30 September 1938, Page 4

REGENT THEATRE

"THE GREAT GARRICK"

A bright, unusual comedy, redolent of the glamour and romance of the mid-eighteenth century, is "The Great Garrick," now showing at the Regent Theatre. The play is one which for lightness of touch and speed of movement might well have been written by one of those fashionable dilettante playwrights of the period whose facility was responsible for the development of the drawing-room comedy. The costuming is really gorgeous, but is fortunately not allowed to achieve an effect better obtained by acting. The period scenes at the commencement, in which views of the London markets show rabbits (caught in Hyde Park) being offered for sale side by side with hats, fish, and pictures of Charles II and the ruling dramatic actor of the period, are among the finest yet seen on the screen. The performance of Brian Aherne as David Garrick, whose acting earned for the Drury Lane Theatre a permanent place on the roll of dramatic fame, is all the more excellent considering the easy grace with which he had to handle love scenes, Hamlet's death, several duels, and the hostility of the French actors. His affectation of the strained artificiality of the "grand manner" adopted by the gentlemen of the period was very well done indeed, especially when it was made clear that under it all the great man was constantly, afraid of the laughter of the crowd. Asi the beautiful young French society girl who meets him under the strangest of circumstances and who deceived him as the most famous members of the Comedie Francaise are unable to do, Olivia de Havilland achieves her greatest success to date. She is one of the few leading ladies who outshines in beauty the minor1 members of the cast, and at the same time she has a real talent for acting. One is not at a loss to know why it is she who charms the great Garrick. Edward Everett' Horton varies his style of acting in portraying the character of Garrick's companion, but is nevertheless worth watching and listening to. The pic- [ ture is a welcome change from the ordinary, and a worth-while excursion into the realm of period comedy. Th^? supports are excellent.