The New Pictures

Tom Brown's School Days (R. K. O.). When classic-loving, copyright-hating Producer Gene Towne, fresh from Swiss Family Robinson, proceeded to lay his busy hands on Thomas Hughes's 83-year-old celebration of Rugby and British public-school life, across the Atlantic to Hollywood came a cold shudder. "Presumption," snorted Rugby's head, Mr. Hugh Lyon, anticipating something worse than Robert Taylor's A Yank at Oxford. Mr. Lyon was not placated by Producer Towne's choice of a British director, Robert Stevenson, and of the impeccable Sir Cedric Hardwicke to play the part of Rugby's greatest head, Dr. Thomas Arnold (1795-1842).* Even the hiring of an authentic Old Boy as technical adviser left Rugby cold.

Mr. Lyon's worst fears seemed confirmed when Mr. Towne, a lusty cigar chewer who does much of his cogitating in a Turkish bath, picked New Jerseyite Jimmy Lydon as his Tom Brown, then achieved the casting coup of the century by selecting Billy Halop, ringleader of the Dead End Kids, to play a Rugby blood. Though the Towne publicity department explained this choice as the result of a sensational Halop imitation of Basil Rathbone, alarmed Rugbyites peppered Hollywood with protests that gave the British censors some of the liveliest reading of the year.

If any of these objectors get to see Tom Brown's School Days, they will be rudely surprised. Its view of British public-school life in the 1830s offends only on the side of realism. Author Hughes recognized Headmaster Arnold as the man who made over Rugby. The Towne version shows Dr. Arnold as no Mr. Chips but a hard-hitting, God-fearing birchman. He takes over the school to find it riddled with bullies and liars, throws out so many students that the only trustee who supports him is equally God-fearing Squire Brown (Ernest Cossart). Dr. Arnold's job of reform is not half done when Squire Brown sends his son Tom to Rugby.

On Tom's first day, he makes friends with East (Freddie Bartholomew) by buying him a Murphy (roast potato), learns that the lower school is dominated by a cruel fifth former named Flashman. With a British accent imperfectly disguising Cinemactor Halop's Dead End manners, Flashman and his stooges steal Tom's food, almost break his back, torture him by roasting over an open fire. Tom spurs his friends to a revolt against Flashman, culminating in a nose-busting brawl between the two leaders bloodier than anything hitherto exhibited in the juvenile cinema.

Tom rids Rugby of Flashman but a reputation for talebearing turns him overnight from hero into pariah. Just as the resulting persecution about convinces Tom and the audience that Rugby is the English equivalent of Devil's Island, his faith in Dr. Arnold, brooding over the school with the promise of a better day, is rewarded.

Though timid cinemaddicts who dislike having boys in the house may be dismayed by a Rugby whose youthful masculinity is as unembellished as an old sneaker, even they will find homely, button-nosed Jimmy Lydon an improvement over the standard Hollywood juvenile. A veteran of WPA drama and radio serials, he was ousted in the finals of Producer David Selznick's hunt for a Tom Sawyer. He and Freddie Bartholomew raced to work in their cars every morning until Lydon bowled over an R. K. O. watchman and Producer Towne threatened to put them both off the lot. At 17, Cinemactor Lydon believes that he will be washed up in five years. After that he wants to be a cameraman.

Safari (Paramount). A graduating class of Columbia University, asked to say with whom they would best like to be cast adrift on a desert island, chose blonde, ladylike Madeleine Carroll. Safari promises to reduce this dream to reality when, as Linda Stewart, Cinemactress Carroll is taken by her wealthy admirer Baron de Courland (Tullio Carminati) on a jungle expedition led by dashing Jim Logan (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). When the matter-of-fact Baron spends most of his time bagging specimens, Linda undertakes to jog him into jealousy and a proposal by flirting with Jim. The moment seems to have arrived when Linda and Jim, caught away from camp by a rainstorm, have to hole up in a tree for the night. No Columbia man, Cinemactor Fairbanks drops off to sleep. But he wakes up later.

Safari, evidently desiring to make the jungle seem as tame as a well-run menagerie, is slow entertainment. Its air of careful understatement carries over into the dialogue. Mr. Fairbanks, by way of complimenting glaireous Miss Carroll's appearance, observes: "She looks nice and clean."

CURRENT & CHOICE

The Mortal Storm (Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Robert Young, Irene Rich, Maria Ouspenskaya; TIME, July 1).

Our Town (William Holden, Martha Scott, Thomas Mitchell, Fay Bainter, Guy Kibbee, Beulah Bondi, Frank Craven; TIME, June 3).

Lights Out in Europe (Documentary film; TIME, April 22).

Rebecca (Joan Fontaine, Laurence Olivier, Judith Anderson, George Sanders, C. Aubrey Smith; TIME, April 15).

The Fight for Life (Dudley Digges, Myron McCormick, Storrs Haynes, Will Geer, Dorothy Adams, Dorothy Urban, Effie Anderson; TIME, March 25).

Pinocchio (Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Figaro, Monstro, J. Worthington Foulfellow, Giddy; TIME, Feb. 26).

Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Gordon, Albert Basserman; TIME, Feb. 19).

Of Mice and Men (Lon Chancy Jr., Burgess Meredith, Betty Field; TIME, Jan. 15).

* Father of Matthew Arnold, who does not appear in the picture.

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