Evening Star Newspaper, March 17, 1929, Page 59

Theater, Screen and Music AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday St Motor, Av qnd Radio iation News Part 4—18 Pages WASHINGTON, D. C, SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 171 1929. Mellow Old Play Compared With Xgry Fresh One. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. ‘There is a phase of enjoyment available in such a production as that of “Madame X,” which does not depend on a sense of novelty, to which the appeal now becomes as strong as at first; for the play has slept so long in the files of the agents and brokers that its awakening finds an entirely new public. After so long a slumber, practical people of the theatér feared it might creak a little in the joints like “Rip Van Winkle” returning to his native haunts to find all changed in appearance, taste and customs * x % % ‘This does not happen with an old but genuinely good play, as producers of so-called revivals freely assert. A “revival” s usually a misnomer because, though fre- quently absent from view for a considerable length of time, the play has never really lost con- sciousness. * ¥ ¥ X When “Madame X" was first placed on view in this country in conquered by its emotional in- tensity and was esteemed not very highly as a consistent and polish- ed work in dramatic literature. It was asserted that without Dorothy Donnelly as the mother and William Elliott as the son who becomes her attorney after she has fallen into the dregs of life the play would have gone along as one of the many com- paratively short-lived thrillers so abundant in the annals of melo- drama. & W Mother and son again appear as convineing now, impersonated by Mary Newton and Wilfred Lytell. The designation “melo- drama” should not imply neces- sarily a form of entertainment appealing to a less discriminating | sense of refinement than the avowedly poetic drama or phil- osophical analysis in the guise of satire. There are moments of sublimity in what conventional phrase broadly classifies as melo- drama, and to attain them con- vincingly the dramatist must show the most polished skill in putting together this plot mech- anism so that it will run with absolute smoothness. There must be no dead centers in the action to be overcome by main strength and a dependence on the indif- ference of an audience that de- sires only results, regardless of methods. Many a play has been forced along the course of narra- tive by sheer effrontery in de- manding a surrender of a sense of reasonable discernment. The author becomes more like the magician who bullies his specta- tors into submission and performs his tricks gracefully so that there is no serious desire to undeceive those who find themseives amused. | * ok ox * | A play brilliantly apart from the ordinary, “Madame X" pre-| sents even a greater pleasure on second viewing than on the first. Its climaxes are now well known, the suspense is punctuated by no actual surprises, and the full pat- tern of the wonderful fabric is clearly plain to recollection. In- stead of the enjoyment of a suc- cession of episodes which bring many a shudder and many a tear, there comes the greater luxury of a sincere admiration. The keen analysis of motives in the unfold- ing of a beautiful love story in which destiny takes its own tragic course without leaving the char- acters to become entangled in the web of fate by sheer coincidence shows the skill of a master crafts- man. e Such events as “Madame X” discloses may have occurred but seldom in the history of the French underworld. The drama- tist undertakes only to show how RICHARD ALEXANDERam NAanCy CaRrOLL: Fox make his story stand forth on its own account as a vivid, convinc- ing realism. One of the consid- erations which seems to call for most praise of this Bisson crea- tion is the fine and comprehen- sive knowledge of the entire repertory of the tricks of theater and his restraint and precision in selecting which he shall employ. *itix No better reason could be sought for the tendency to revert from the standardized current theater to the standard drama of days gone by than “Young Love,” in which Dorothy Gish steps from screen prominence into a ‘“her- self” role before the footlights. It is a very short cast, a dramatic quartet of exceptionally fine play- ers. The story is something akin to the weird imaginings of adoles- cence in haunts of unsophistica- ted rurality. Having exhausted the possibilities of the eternal triangle, the play proceeds at a bound to attempt the attainment of a fourth dimension with calcu- lations neither clear enough nor sufficiently explorative in fancy to prevent them from resembling a sort of reminiscence of the early days when a small boy in a desperate impulse of social de- fiance went out and ate a fuzzy worm. To say that “Young Love” is not scientific play-making does not go far ‘enough. It is not psychological, though its tend- encies are rather physiological. It is purely psychopathic. Such a play as this must be re- garded as a turning point at which the theater is compelled to retrace its steps toward earlier responsibilities. Will They Consent? TALK!NG pictures, exhibited during 1928, in which Benito Mussolini, George Bernard Shaw, Lady Astor, Mayor James J. Walker, King Alfonso of Spain and other public personalities were heard and seen, have convinced D, W. Griffith, noted film director, that | the screen will borrow many interesting | motion picture personalities from public life. Mr. Griffith says that public per- sonalities almost always have excellent voices, rich and of full quality, for talk- ing pictures. Their countenances fre- quently are striking and always indi- vidualistic, he says. And they “have personalities that are definitely shaped and interestingly revealed,” a quality that he considers pre-eminent in a pic- ture player. It is the degree of revel tion of this inner personality that de- termines the stature of a film star. according to the director. During 1928 he saw and heard more new personali- ties on the screen than in any former year, he said. “It is altogether probable that special screen stories will be written, in a few years, for public personalities who have proven their capacities.to attract and to hold audiences,” Mr. Griffith said. He expressed the belief that public figures would consent to act occasionally in talking films built around their per- sonalities, not necessarily forsaking thejr own careers, { No Excuses Now. F Colleen Moore is ever late to the studio in the future, she can't blame a slow clock. Fourteen electrically controlled clocks, guaranteed not to vary a hun- dredth of a second a year, are soon to be installed in the new home Miss Moore is building in the exclusive Bel- Alr district of Los Angeles. All of these telechrons, as they are called, are op- erated from the same power lines that provide electric illumination for the house, and a special re-setting device guards against the possibility of an er- ror in time through the cutting off of the power. Miss Moore's telechrons vary in type from an attractive grandfather’s clock in the hallway, equipped with three sets of chimes, to a dainty boudoir clock, several mantel and wall timepieces and outdoor clocks for the swimming pool and garage. Not only is it unnecessary to wind such modern clocks, but they all register exactly the same at any given moment. e BeTTY COMPSON- Mefiopolr}an Paired Again. INJANCY CARROLL of musical eom- edy fame and David Callis, legit- imate stage actor, who togéther made the shooting episode in “Chicago” the hit of the play, again are paired in the Fox screen production, “The Sin Sister.” They compose the vaudeville team of Al and Pearl in the picture. They are a pair of small time vaudeville actors in the story. When thrown upon their own resources in a deserted travelers' rest in frozen Alaska they both prove to be big time heroes. The picture, based on a popular novel, is stated to give Miss Carroll her greatest opportunities since becoming a screen star. e iMatiied, ATE PRICE, Irish comedienne, cele- brated her second ‘“divorce” and third “marriage,” cinematically speak- ing, in her role of Mrs. Kelly in Uni- versal's “The Cohens and Kellys in At- lantic City.” While George Sidney and Vera Gordon as Mr. and Mrs. Cohen have remained steadfast, Miss Price has had three husbands as Mrs. Kelly. In “The Cohens and Kellys,” pro- duced by Universal two years ago, Charlie Murray enacted Kelly. Last year in “The Cohens and Kellys in Paris,” Miss Price for motion picture purposes was “married” to J. Farrell MacDonald. Now, in the latest of the series, Mack Swain is playing Kelly. Sldney, Miss Gordon and Miss Price have become popularly identified with their characters and are frequently re- ferred to by the names of their roles. Sidney is the star. WiLFRED LyTELL- W Soere from Jhe BELLAMY] § “TRIAL-" Colymbia STgn Noted Stage Star. Wl‘rl{ the signing of Barbara Stan- wick, young New York stage star, to play the chief role in “The Locked Door,” which George Fitzmaurice will direct as an all-talking picture for United Artists, plans are rapidly taking shape for the early start of production. John W. Considine, jr. general pro- duction manager at the‘Unimd Artists studios, announced the “acquisition of the footlights favorite following ad- vices from Joseph M. Schenck, United Artists' president, in New York. Sev- eral Hollywood studios were reported to have been bidding for Miss Stan- wick’s services as a result of the phe- nomenal success she enjoyed as the star of “Burslesque” and “The Noose" on the New York stage. Experts who have seen and heard Miss Stanwick's screen tests prophesy that she will win even greater laurels in talking pictures. “The Locked Door” is described as a powerful story of modern-day life. C. Gardner Sullivan is preparing the scenarip and George Scarborough, the playwright, is writing the dialogue. . Mysnfymg Mlnggxe. WHAT a dog will do’when he sees "' the picture of a dog on the motion picture screen, many persons have wondered. A few persons at the Patio Theater, St. Petersburg, Fla., found out. The first reels of a Rin-Tin-Tin picture were being run off to give the musiclans their cues. Maggie, an exceptionally valuable dog, property of the manager, was with her master as he watched the picture, and the animal chanced to look at the screen at the moment a large close-up was shown of Rin-Tin-Tin. Maggie's hair bristled, she let out a series of growls and made a lunge to- ward the stage when the scene changed. But for several minutes the animal kept her attention fixed on the screen, apparently at a loss to understand where the other dog had gone. OLLYWOOD has a unique acad- emy of motion picture acting. It has but one regular student, and yet it boasts a faculty embracing the greatest names and minds of the film industry. ‘The academy is a shoe-shining stand at the Paramount studios. Oscar Smith, colored bootblack and contract player, is the lone student. Resident members of the faculty in- clude Ernest Lubitsch, Emil Jannings, William Wellman, George Bancroft, Josef von Sternberg, Adolph Menjou, Victor Fleming, Richard Dix, Charles “Buddy” Rogers and other stars, di- rectors and featured players. Associate professors include such “greats” of the screen as Charles Chap- lin, Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, ‘Theodore Roberts, Roland Colman and ‘Wallace Reid. Classes at the shoe stand school of motion picture technique are held every day except those when Oscar works be- fore the cameras, While wielding his brush and polish daubers, Oscar absorbs lessons in com- edy portrayal from Chester Conklin, gets tips on the art of being a jovial %fld Stella Mayhew has been engaged for the revival of “Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh,” easily they might occur, and to! in which Mrs. Fiske will #ppear, v man from Wallace Beery and takes ad- vice on interpreting heavy emotional drama from Jannings. It 15 Oscar's proud boast that he At the Masters’ Feet | has shined the shoes of every notable of the films from Adolph Zukor on down. And never has he missed an op- portunity to ask questions and absorb information. The screen celebrities are said to have taken Oscar's thirst for knowledge seriously and have played their teacher roles accordingly. On slack times at his shine stand Oscar supplements the regular lecture course with graduate work on the sets. There he observes his professors putting into practice the theories they ex- pounded to him while their shoes were taking on new luster. ‘This intensive training, which dates | back 10 years to the time Oscar became valet for the late Wallace Reid, first bore fruit when the bootblack was taken away from his stand to play a small 'role in a Richard Dix picture. He made good, and other small parts came his way. ’I¥hen he was cast for the best part of his career in “The Canary Murder | Case,” which was made as an all-talking | plcture. Oscar’s stutter and his acting got laughs and he was rushed into the | cast of “Close Harmony,” a dialogue | musical play. ‘That has not meant the closing of the one-student academy. Between picture roles Oscar still shines shoes, and gets tips on acting from the masters, -~ \ &e}z@ /430,”*\] LK’ L Littie On the ‘Bro LD-FASHIONED ’elndn\ml is becoming so exceddingly quaint for some of the more sophisti- cated New York theatergoers that it is now not only intellec- tually quite respectable, but even fash- lonable, like Currier and Ives prints and other early Americana. Dion Boucicault'’s “After Dark,” revived by a group of literary adven- turers at the Old Rialto Theater, in Hoboken, last December, is still playing cheerfully, and its success made in- evitable other adventures along the same line. The even more famous old Boucicault play, “The Octoroon,” was revived on Broadway last week, while the Hoboken quartet followed their first experiment with an elaborate revival of that terror of our grandmothers, “The Black Crook.” In Glenn Hunter’s case, quaintness is less easily capitalized. Mr. Hunter, it will be recalled, was the hero of the stage version, Booth Tarkington’s “Seventeen.” People have been worry- ing over what should be done with Mr. Hunter’s talents ever since. The last experiment, tried this last week, was to put him into musical comedy. In “Spring Is Here,” by Owen Davis and others, he plays an awkward “sap” of a youth who can’t make any impression on the girl of his dreams—until the last act—and contrives to repeat, slight- ly burlesqued, his old performance of “Seventeen.” He grinned and crinkled up his fore- head and ran his words together, in his breathless manner, and turned on gen- erously all his familiar charm. But he could not sing, apparently—the duets in which he took part were recited, on his side, while the lady sang alone— and he ventured on only & few apologetic | dance steps. The result was a rather curious sort of uneven teamwork between Mr. | Hunter and the rest of the show. He seemed to have little or no footing in this new genre, while the rest of them, on the other hand, have as little place in his. He was all very well in his way, but there was little for him to do that he could do well and naturally and one had a constant sense of talents wasted or misapplied. * oK Kk ‘The ex-service man in Warren F. Lawrence's new play, “Conflict,” has the makings of something very interesting and theatrically worth while. His is &e}/@ /[;”O)ff % 7‘1@ COHENS and KELLYS /n ATLANTIC CUTY Carle n VES of CASANOVA heater adway Stage the case of the man suddenly become a hero through his war exploits and un- able to “make the grade” in the new circumstances into which his success lifts him. Banks was a clerk in an office, where he waited until called out by the draft. |A curious and rather intriguing mi: ture of thick-headedness and impi dence, he surprised everybody by turi ing out to be a crack fiyer, won his cap- taincy, and finally became a hero by | bringing down the German ace, Baron | von Mueller. ‘When Banks got back to New York he turned down the girl he was en- gaged to—a stenographer working for his employer—rode over everybody, in his strange, heavy-handed, stupid, but attractively insolent way, and got him- self married to his employer’s rich and somewhat devil-may-care niece. ‘Their marriage and home life—which happened off-stage and had rather to be taken for granted by a somewhat in- credulous audience—was unsuccessful. The girl, whose sporting spirit had evi- dently been piqued by Bank's cool inso- lence, was really in love all the time with an earlier semi-flance of her own class, and the tale ends with her leaving with the latter, while Banks and some of his pals, reconciled now, after his temporary weariness of them, start West to take charge of a new aviation field, with Banks' rejected girl quite content to go along with them on the chance that she can work in somehow or other as her former fiance’s secretary. For Plainly there are possibilities here of something very good and out of the ordinary run. There is originality in this “hero,” with his unconventional mixture of a kind of smoldering ability, overlaid with rather muckerish man- ners, heavy conceit and inability to catech on in the upper levels to which his war accomplishments suddenly Iift him. But his clean-cut portrait and the logical drama growing out of his Ppeculiarities never quite come off. The rather meaningless title, “Con- flict,” is suggestive of a vagueness and uncertainly felt throughout. | (Copyright, 1929.) Rehearsals of the forthcoming revival HORTENSE RAGLAND [Fox tomorrow evening. tomorrow evening. WARDMAN PARK—“Master Sk Friday matinee. STRAND—“Kewpie Dolls,” evening. NATIONAL PLAYERS—“Nothing But the Truth.” “Nothing But the Truth,” that fine, fanciful farce from the pen of James Montgomery, will be revived by the Na tional Theater Players this week, begin ning tomorrow night. played here by the first road company, many years ago, “Nothing But the Truth” will be recalled by the old-timers as one of the most care-free and rol licking_comedies of the past two dec ades. It was hailed as the first, truly representative American comedy. since it resorted to none of the continental subterfuges nor suggestivenesses. Its story it based upon a wager—a typically American way of settling a controversy. When the central character takes up a bet that he can refrain from telling a lie during all of 24 hours, he starts a train of calamity that no one. not even himself, foresaw. He. undertakes to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help him Jehosophat! The result is, a young mar- ried couple is sent scurrying toward the divorce courts and he and his sweet- heart are forced to cancel their en- gagement to be married. Such is the mighty force of truth. Having gotten the man to tell the truth, surrounding populace spends the 2 hours trying to persuade him to lie; but— There is the substance of the farce. It is claimed to be one of the funni- est ever written. Wilfred Lytell will necessarily carry the burden of the play, since he must portray its central character. Miss Mary Newton will be cast opposite, in a fast- moving part, Miss Betfy Kent, the new ingenue, and Freddie Sherman, juve- nile, also have excellent parts, along with Charles Hampden, Mrs. Hibbard, Miss Helen Wallace and Robert Brister, who help mightily in the unfolding of the play. WARDMAN PARK—"Master Skylark” A lad in the theater of Will Shake- speare, himself, is charming ‘‘Master | Skylark"—“the sweetest singer in Eng- land"—as he was called. The Junior Theater at Wardman Park is giving the play of “Master Skylark” this week end, with matinee Friday at 3:30, Sat- urday at 2:30 and performances both evenings at 8:15. “Master Skylark” as a story was published in St. Nicholas some 20 vears ago, and it has been dear to many children ever since. Later it was dramatized by Edgar White Burrill from the John Bennett story, and so accurate are its details on the life and | customs of the Elizabethan era that schools and colleges have used the book to give some idea of the brilliancy of the epoch. ‘The boy got his name because of his singing, for the skylark in England is the loveliest song bird to be heard. We find good Queen Bess one of his ad- mirers. Or we find him in all the fine costuming of the period, with his small friend, Mistress Cicely, as young as himself, saying “O Nick, thou art most beautiful.” There is heart ap- peal in this story and a young romance. of “A M e From Mars,” with Guy last week in New York, e65a¢ Bates Post in the leading role, beganirole of the boy, Master Skylark, and BELASCO—Brandon Tynan, in “The Devil's Mistress.” burlesque. | Not seen in Washington sinte it was the entire | 24| Attractions in Washington Playhouses This Week IN LOCAL THEATERS THIS WEEK NATIONAL—“Nothing But the Truth,” farce comedy. Opens Opens POLI'S—“A Connecticut Yankee,” musical comedy. This evening. ylark” (Junior Theater). Opens This afternoon and | bit of work in “A Kiss for Cinderella,” { will be Cicely, while Henry Fonda and Kent Smith have important parts and |Kay Conway is the boy's mother. | Quite a large company of Junior Play- ers make up the cast. Kewpie Dolls.” “Kewple Dolls” will be this week's | attraction at the Strand Theater. A new offering on the Mutual ecircuit, it is heralded as entertainment entirely satisfying to burlesque theater patrons | who desire a laughing treat, as well | as a generous quantity of specialties, not of the commonpiace type, with songs of popular appeal. and dancing by performers who have taken pains to learn new evolutions. Featuring Jack Hunt as leading comic, Opal Taylor as first soubrette company . includes Lee Fellows, George Murray. Kay Newman and Billy Gilbert, jr., with an effective chorus and attractive scenic and costume detalls. Thursday evening, in addition to the Shot"'i'}‘her' will be the usual wrestling match. EASTERN HIGH SPRING PLAY— Thursd: Black crows foreboding ill, mystery, romance, humor and baffling situations are combined in Jerome K. Jerome's comedy “Robina in Search of a Hus- | band,” which Eastern will present on | Thursday and Friday evenings of this | week as its annual Spring play. A brief sketch of the plot shows the heroine, Robina, determined to find a man who loves her for herself and not her money. Kate, her friend, is search- ing for a long-lost husband. The hus- band appears, determined to be true to his wife, who has changed places with Robina, and s naturally complications arise A double alternating cast of charac- ters includes Myrtle Thom and Gwenl- lian Davis as Robina, Sylvia Donavitz and Katherine Garret in the part of Kate and Cynthia Eldridge and Mildred Duryee as Susan. The part of Lord Jim, the husband, is taken by Willlam Wood and Ronald Van Tine, of Horace Greenleaf by Blaine Harrell and Don- ald Craig. the Doctor by Clark Harper and Willlam Waikart, Amos Jordan by Dick Kelso and John Riecks, Mrs. Mul- berry by Irene Stine and Lou Snyder and the Inspector by Newell Lusby, THERESA HELBURN LECTURE, Friday. “The Trend of the Modern Theater” will be discussed by Miss Theresa Hel- burn, exécutive director of the New York Theater Guild, in a lecture which she is to give Friday evening at 8 o'clock at the Y. W. C. A. auditorium, under the auspices of the American Association of University Women. A graduate of Bryn Mawr, Miss Hel- burn took an active interest in the drama in her college days, and later at the Sorbonne in Paris. When the Washington Square Players was starty ed In New York she became play reader. This was the predecessor of the Theater Guild. which was or~ Mildred Natwick will play the title Peyton Thorne, who did such a nice 1 ganized by a committee of six, all of them, except Miss Helburn, professionar (Continued on Second Page.)