Many alumni will know Emeritus Professor Malcolm Schofield FBA, of the Faculty of Classics and St. John’s College, who has published extensively on ancient Greek philosophy. Malcolm began his Cambridge life as an undergraduate at St. John’s in October, 1960. In this instalment of the Mill Lane saga, we take a look at what Malcolm was doing in the first week of Lent Term, 1961.
Emeritus Professor Malcolm Schofield, FBA
Full Term began on Tuesday 17th January. Lectures began on Thursday 19th, when Malcolm walked from St. John’s to the Mill Lane Lecture Rooms, where he would have the opportunity to hear Mr Guy Lee on ‘Horace, Satires’ at 9am, Professor Denys Page on ‘Greek Metre’ at 10am, and Mr (later Professor) Ted Kenney on Juvenal at 12. Malcolm vividly remembers Professor Page starting his lecture course by piling a great stack of exercise books on the counter next to the lectern, and informing his audience that: “Every line of Greek classical verse is given a metrical analysis by me in these exercise books, at least 95% of them definitively.”
Malcolm would also make a point of attending the lectures (‘M. W. 11’) given by John Raven, which were a continuation of his series on the History of Ancient Philosophy. The Michaelmas Term lectures had covered the ground from Thales to Plato, and Malcolm particularly recalls the lecturer’s striking appearance, tall and gaunt, with jet-black hair, and a gravelly baritone voice, to say nothing of his masterly elucidation of the mysteries of the Orphic egg.
However, there was no need for time to hang heavily on undergraduates’ hands pending the commencement of the lecture season, for the city offers a cornucopia of entertainment in this very week, and the Cambridge Daily News invites us to ‘read all about it’. On Saturday 14thJanuary, Malcolm could hasten after dinner in Hall to the Guildhall, where Mr Acker Bilk’s Paramount Jazz Band plays for one night only, ‘Dancing 8 p.m. – midnight’. Tickets cost 7/- on the door, and the incomparable Mr Bilk basks in the sun of University approval: the dance enjoys ‘Proctorial Permission’.
At this date, St. John’s College provided dinner in Hall, but not lunch. Accordingly, on Sundays Malcolm and Methodist friends would adjourn after church to the Hang Chou restaurant just off Petty Cury. A leisurely post-luncheon stroll by way of Magdalene Bridge and Chesterton Lane would bring them to the Rex in Magrath Avenue, which is screening The Giant of Marathon (‘U’) as part of a double bill. The film stars the mighty Steve Reeves, who thus makes a welcome return to the Cambridge screen. (Regular readers may recall that Mr Reeves had already battled a giant crocodile in old Pompeii in the first week of Michaelmas Term).
This time, our indomitable hero and his band of Olympic champions must save Athens from Persian hordes by land and by sea, and rescue the lovely Mylène Demongeot, who has been lashed to the Persian flagship. The reviewer in the Cambridge Daily News (Monday 6thJanuary) had already penned reassuring words for nervous filmgoers: Despite the turmoil, Reeves emerges unscathed, and proves once again that his tough physique can withstand the most rigorous ordeals.
Doors open at 2.55pm sharp!
'MILL LANE leading to Granta Place and the river'.
Malcolm certainly attended, and greatly enjoyed, the 1938 Hitchcock classic The Lady Vanishes, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave (and not forgetting Dame May Whitty as the eponymous lady). It begins a one-week run at the Arts Cinema in Market Passage on Monday 16th January (2.30, 6.15, 8.30). This is a shrewd piece of scheduling by the Arts Cinema management, as the omniscient Cambridge Daily News duly explained on Friday 13th January:
After the special Press preview of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” – about which so much preliminary ballyhoo had appeared in the Press, on the radio and on T.V. – and about which film the views of the professional critics are remarkably at variance, a Cambridge guest at that preview posed the question “Has the great master of thrillers, since migrating to Hollywood, produced a better film than his last British one “The Lady Vanishes” (vintage 1938)?”
The reviewer adds that the Rank Organisation has obligingly supplied the ‘Arts’ with a copy from its vaults, and the management offers as the prize (for the best 500-word answer) a pair of free film tickets. There is also a full-dress review of the 1938 classic in the edition of 17thJanuary:
The suspense mounts slowly, but when it has reached a climax, holds one with just the same knife-edged delicacy as do the more recent productions of “Psycho” and “North by North West”.
…what is so remarkable is the often, almost unimportant detail which binds the film together, so that even the relentless regularity of the train wheels turning round and round has its place in building up the suspense.
The 1800-seat A.B.C. Regal in St. Andrew’s Street was the city’s premier first-run cinema, always screening new releases before the London circuit, and sometimes before West-End release. It was the pleasant habit of the management to occasionally suspend film screenings for one evening in favour of live concerts. The Regal had hosted not only Adam Faith, but also Emil Ford and the Checkmates, in Michaelmas Term. However, a yet greater epiphany will eventuate at the Regal on Tuesday 17th January, namely: ‘The fabulous Shirley Bassey. With Ken Mackintosh and his Orchestra’. Monday’s Daily News advises that the 8.30 performance has already sold out. However, tickets are available for the 6.15 performance, priced at 8/6, 7/- and 5/6. Box Office open weekdays, 10.30am to 8pm. ‘BOOK NOW!’
The front of the former Victoria Cinema on Market Hill (now M&S).
True to its policy of alternating epics with X-rated Continentals, the A.B.C. Victoria on Market Hill is screening Never on Sunday (2.10, 5.25, 8.40), starring the sultry Melina Mercouri (Best Actress at Cannes, 1960). The review, dated Friday 13th January, treads delicately: A lusty comedy, it is the story of a girl of the streets, Miss Mercouri, who is the delight of the port city of Pireaus [sic.]
The director, Jules Dassin, plays an American researcher who is investigating why ancient Greece declined and fell – he decides that the charming and vivacious Miss Mercouri is the embodiment of ancient Greek joie de vivre – he also decides she has ‘fallen’, and needs ‘reforming’. Needless to say, his efforts are in vain, and he leaves Greece a sadder and a wiser man. The Daily News for Tuesday 17th January reports that:
Cambridge undergraduates just up for the new term heckled with uncontrolled vehemence the second feature at the Victoria Cinema last night, but gave “Never on Sunday” a well deserved and equally spirited round of applause.
(Miss Mercouri would go on to enjoy yet greater réclame as the Greek Minister of Culture in the 1980s).
True to its usual form, the Central in Hobson Street presents a certificate ‘X’ double-bill. Christopher Lee appears in The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (‘He committed every crime in the book!’), while Liliane Brousse does the honours in Hot Hours (Sub-titles).
The Rex follows suit, with two more X-rated offerings: Eyes Without a Face (‘France’s fearsome frightener!’) screens at 2.30, 5.40 and 8.50 from Monday, while Men Without Morals may be viewed at 3.55 and 7.5. And, let us not forget those sturdy reliables at the Rex Ballroom: Thursday 8 to 11, Rock and Rhythm Night (Admission 2/6), and Friday 8 to 11, Trad. Jazz Club (Admission 4/-). But were Malcolm and his fellow Johnians to frequent this or any other evening venue, they would most certainly take their gowns with them, and return promptly to College, lest the porters should lock them out for the night, and the Dean summon them to his dread presence on the next morning…
This Article was researched and written by Stephen Howe of the Classics Faculty Library with the assistance and permissions of Emeritus Professor Malcolm Schofield FBA