The New Pictures

His Children's Children. The director was confronted (in Author Arthur Train's novel of the same name), with several sets of characters of cardinal importance. Instead of passing them around, carved into neat portions, he simply jabbed aimlessly at the huge platter of plot. Accordingly the audience are rather famished at the feast. There is no central thread to keep the incidents in line.

David Copperfield. School teachers should be particularly interested in this production of the Dickens novel. The producers have managed to touch the pulse of the author's intention, have beat their picture out in very nearly the same cadence. Therefore it is singularly well suited to supplementary proceedings in preparatory school English literature. Students disinclined to scan their books with a mental microscope will welcome studies in celluloid. Whether they pass their examinations, or not, they will at least have a definite conception of David, large and small, Peggotty and Mr. Micawber.

All of which is a manner of saying that the fidelity of David Copperfield is uncommonly well realized and sustained.

The general appeal of the picture, taken purely as " drammer," is something else again. If it did not possess the invaluable backbone of reputation, it probably would be considered terrible. Leisurely, exaggerated, it is sometimes dull.