Introduction
In Good King Charles’s Golden Days by Bernard Shaw – 1940
Les Parents Terribles by Jean Cocteau – 1940
Swinging the Gate Revue – 1940
The Tempest by William Shakespeare; The Peaceful Inn by Denis Ogden; Portrait of Helen by Audrey Lucas – 1940
I’ll Leave It to You by Noël Coward – 1940
Boys in Brown by Reginald Beckwith – 1940
Thunder Rock by Robert Ardrey – 1940
Chu Chin Chow by Oscar Asche; Wages for Wives by Margaret Branford – 1940
Women Aren’t Angels by Vernon Sylvaine – 1940
The Devil’s Disciple by George Bernard Shaw – 1940
Margin for Error by Clare Boothe – 1940
Till the Day I Die by Cliford Odets – 1940
Take Back Your Freedom - Winifred Holtby; The Body was Well Nourished - Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat – 1940
Cornelius by J.B. Priestley; Applesauce; Outward Bound – 1940
The Doctor Takes a Wife – 1940
Waterloo Bridge – 1940
The Lady in Question – 1940
The Gay Mrs Trexel – 1940
I Love You Again!; The Great Dictator [1] – 1940
The Great Dictator [2] – 1940
A Date with Destiny – 1940
The Merry Wives of Windsor (shortened version); Berkeley Square – 1941
Diversion 2 – 1941
They Knew What They Wanted; Spring Parade; Gold Rush Maisie – 1941
Brigham Young; Spellbound – 1941
Escape – 1941
The Blue Goose by Peter Blackmore; Dear Brutus by J.M. Barrie – 1941
Quiet Wedding – 1941
Dulcy; Eyes of the Navy; The Heart of Britain; Unholy War – 1941
Arise, My Love; Third Finger, Left Hand – 1941
So Ends Our Night – 1941
Black Vanities; Under One Roof – 1941
Little Men; Kitty Foyle; Back Street – 1941
Cottage to Let – 1941
Kipps by H.G. Wells, the film – 1941
The Lady Eve; Honeymoon for Three; Tugboat Annie Sails Again – 1941
This England; I Married Adventure – 1941
Escape to Glory – 1941
The Light of Heart, by Emlyn Williams – 1941
Bitter Sweet by Noël Coward – 1941
Nice Girl?; That Uncertain Feeling; Cheers for Miss Bishop – 1941
Hommage aux Alliés; Institut Français – 1941
Atlantic Ferry – 1941
Western Union; Moon over Burma – 1941
Blithe Spirit; The Taming of the Shrew– 1941
King John by William Shakespeare – 1941
The Devil and Miss Jones; The Flame of New Orleans – 1941
Lady Behave; New Ambassadors Revue; This Sceptered Isle – 1941
Close Quarters by W. O. Somin – 1941
High Sierra – 1941
One Night in Lisbon; Jeannie – 1941
South of Suez – 1941
The Rescue by Edward Sackville-West – 1945
Huis Clos by Jean-Paul Sartre; The Banbury Nose by Peter Ustinov; Twilight Bar by Arthur Koestler – 1945
Cellar, a play in three acts, by William Russell – 1945
Index

George Orwell applies his lucidity and unsparing objectivity to the stage and the big screen.

When reviewing The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew and King John, George Orwell particularly considers the production of Shakespeare for modern audiences. In King John's military campaign in France, he sees relevance to the intrigues of his day. He alse reviews Noël Coward's I'll Leave It to You, Bitter Sweet and Blithe Spirit; George Bernard Shaw's In Good King Charles's Golden Days and The Devil's Disciple ("perhaps the best play Shaw ever wrote"); Boys in Brown, set in a Borstal; the racially charged The Cellar; JB Priestley's Cornelius; and Take Back your Freedom, on the psychology of fascism.

Whether he likes it or not - usually not - Orwell also sits through a variety of 1940 and 1941 movies. He presents a splendid analysis of what makes Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator both a great film and a very flawed one. The Humphrey Bogart vehicle High Sierra gets short shrift. Orwell is scathing about most of the American films he sees, but at times laughs along with everybody else.

For copyright reasons, this series is not available in the U.S.A. Other volumes include Complete Book Reviews by George Orwell and Revenge is Sour: Lesser-Known Short Works by George Orwell

Title: Complete Drama Reviews by George Orwell

Subtitle: Reviews of plays and films by the author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four

Editor: Cole Davis

Publisher: Volitor
Printed by Clays of Suffolk; distributed by Gardners.

144 pages; 6" x 9"

ISBN:
     Paperback 978-1-9163632-7-4


Copyright:
The introduction © Cole Davis (2021)
Cover illustrations © David Atkinson (2020)
George Orwell is out of copyright
except in the USA, where this book is not available

Cover design by Deividas Jablonskis

Contact details:
Volitor books:
David Atkinson:
Deividas Jablonskis: