Evening Star Newspaper, January 25, 1931, Page 47

Stage News and Screen and Gossip M n AMUSEMENT SECTION he Swndy Star, Aviation News, - Radio Programs WASHINGTON, D. C Jay SUNDAY MORNING, JANUARY 25, 1931 EMIL JANNINGS and MARLENE DIETRICH- /n “The Bluve Angel “ LAKE- /2 Americas Sweethearf “Nati onal Fox o Mario Davies - /5 Scene Fron'The Dachelor’ VicTor HERBERT "Girls Fox (S7age) ~Brick ops Earle G#ge) RurH DRAPER- Father Palace ¥ A % One of Her Three Sketches, ~ Three \Xomen and Mr.Clifford- Belasco HENRY B.\WALTHAL - O L . 5 JACK OAKIE and JEAN ARTHU /1> The Geong Buster” RK OKert| To Boost-or Not to Boost By W H: Landvaigt. [{4 ENSORIOUS criticism gets | you nowhere. These are the days for boosting and with all your powers of | persuasion ‘to help the good canse“ along’” So comes the thoughtful reminder of an observer of the| drift of the times—and, what is| better, he is right. That is to say| he is right when the cause to be| boosted is good. There is, how- ever, something else to be consid- | ered in connection with the gen-| eral proposition. The pessimist, as | a rule, doesn’t add much to the joy of living. He is continually seeing only the dark side of life. He is never the prophet of the sil- ver lining; his clouds always are lowering. But he is of some use to| the world, nevertheless. On the contrary, the optimist never sees dangers, either at hand or ahead. For him the sun is always shining and from all four‘quarters of the compass. He is always a good booster, and his spirit does reflect a radiance that is cheerful, even if it be not a bankable asset. fenerally the optimist who runs nto debt to produce his stage ef- fects in life. He also has been known to indorse the other fel-| low’s note, regardless of the fact that the other fellow, because he | needs the money, isn't bothering his head much about how he is| going to pay the loan, and rarely, if ever, gives a thought to the fact| that the indorser must pay the oill, if he happens to fail. * ok ok ox 'HE game of boosting the the- ater, whether it be good or bad, is an old one, and, strange to relate, it is not confined exclusive- ly to the producer or the manager. 0se gentlemen always are rep- resented by the astute and ever- ready press agent, and so potent, indeed, has been the influ- ence of that gifted gentleman that many times both press and public have caught up his inspiration and passed it along until, after a while, the sun seemed to be shin- ing on sea as well as on land and everywhere. But—and it is ever the but tha! ts a careless cal- eulaf what seems to be really fsn’t. ‘In the banking world, if the maker falls'to pay his note |k It is| UR.! when due, his indorser must. There is no gainsaying that. But how about the situation in the theater, if the play falls short of press agent’s promises and confidence he has inspired in press and public goes on the| rocks? Who then makes goocd the loss? True, the waste of the cost of a seat may mean little or noth- ing to the individual who buys it in good faith. But does the mat- ter end there? How is it with the| newspaper or the magazine which | has helped to mislead? Is confi- dence 1in its judgment, if not in its honesty, increased? Will its opin- jon in matters generally gain in weight and in reliability there- | after? And what of the writer who | thus betrays his journal, h the perfectly commendable tention and effort to help “the good cause along”? If the public may not| depend upon him as a fair, com- petent and humanly reliable re- porter, of what use is he? If plays, | or pictures for that matter, that reflect crime and debasement and { unholy suggestion are lauded for | worth and quality by the critic in ylelding to the spirit of| | boosting indiscriminately—and, be | it added, in this instance with the | sole result of lining the pockets of | the producer or the manager, no | matter how unsavory his play, or his production—what then is to become of our theater? Is that also to be sacrificed to Moloch to bring back prosperity to its mis- guided or its deliberately erring workmen, who care little or noth< ing for its art, and its educaticnal orits cultural'v:lue to its patrons? * % x IT would thus seem really that there are times when it is not wise, when it is even criminal, to be a good fellow, a booster and a coaxer-back of the sunshine for which all the world so earnestly longs. The world that thinks and that profits by its thoughts and its varied experiences has long since discovereg what it is pleased vari- ously to call virtues, or principles, whose practice and observance are indispensable to true happiness. And these virtues, these principles, belong in all institutions ich | able things that are happening in | coaxing and cajoling the critic to In"The Bt ofs Nation” Rialto tract his thought from grueling cares and worries, or merely to amuse and to entertain him. It is| in those lax moments that he is most susceptible to good and bad alike. When the editorial columns of both newspaper and nMgazine are being opened to criticism of | the playhouse and its products, when even the players themselves are calling attention to the deplor- tHe theater, has not the time come | fcr producers and managers to take heed and mend their ways? It is they who must act and act rightly. This is not the time for be a good fellow and help boost.| the “good cause along,” nor is it the season facetiously to glcss | over serious faults and manifest | evils merely to bring back pros- perity to an unworthy theater. e e THESE lines may “jangle like sweet bells out of tune” in the temple of the drama, but they are | let loose for what they are worth, what they may, perhaps, accom- | lish in the effort to bring back | he American theater to what it should be, to what the entire amusement-loving world hopes it may be, 4f it is to continue at all. * X ¥ % HETHER there be a need to overhaul the producing ‘de- partment of the theater, or not, in order to strike the normal gait again, it is dcubtful if any who saw “Green Grow the Lilacs” dur- ing the past week could feel that the suggestion in any way applies | to the New York Theater Guild, whose fine froduclion of the Lynn | Riggs classic of Indian Territory, | now the proud State of Oklahoma, so far as the art of the theater is ccncerned, will rank with the masterpieces of the stage. The close observer noted that in giving a slice of the rough and rugged life of the earlier American fron- tier, with its jarring, outspoken vernacular, there was never. an instance where either was em- phasized for the sake of sensa- tion, nor any wavering disposition to ccmpromise truth. It is in just this very particular that the the- ater's art as presented on the stage seems to depart from pre- vious efforts of the talking screen, which seldom, if ever, show a desire to sacrifice sensa- tion for art. The casting of the lay was masterful. Personality Pn characterization was put over the footlights with a gripping in- tensity of outline and in detail as clearly and as effectively as in a cameo finely cut. There were also other evidences of fine culture and artistic experience manifest in the cater to man, jally ‘in his laxer moments, wi e_gm- to dis- ~ production that were gratefully In*Little Csesar” Metropolitan BETTY ROBERTS - Géyety Stage and Screen Attractions This Week ON THE NATIONAL—“America’s Sweetheart,” musicomedy. Opens to- morrow evening. BELASCO—Ruth Draper Character Sketches. evening. GAYETY—"Sliding” Billy Watson (burlesque). and evening. ON THE SCREEN. This afternoon and evening. RIALTO—"“The Birth of a Nation” (in sound). FOX—“The Blue Angel.” and evening. R-K-O KEITH'S—“The Gang Buster.” This afternoon and eve- ning. PALACE—"“The Bachelor Father. EARLE—“Other Men's Women.” COLUMBIA—Dressler-Moran, “Reducing.” eveping. METROPOLITAN—“Little Caesar.” ning. Marlene Sings Also. ALLING IN LOVE AGAIN; NEVER |true to her nature. “Falling in Love| EV F WANTED TO,” the song which | Marlene Dietrich as Lolo, the cabaret performer, sings in “The Blue Angel,” is one of the most fetchingly plaintive ballads of the talking screen. Miss Dietrich sings this song several times in the course of the picture. She uses it to snare the staid and. unwary Emil Jannings as Prof. Rath. She uses it to amuse the customers in the river- front dives where her traveling troupe is playing. She uses fragments of it at times as a sort of musical expression of her own philosophy of life. She sings her songs, and they are STAGE. Starts tomorrow This afternoon This afternoon | | This afternoon and evening. ‘This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and This afternoon. and eve- Again; Never Wanted To" she sings.| Beautiful Lola—is she fickle or is she| not? . Who knows? In a be&uu(uli woman one can forgive almost any- thing. In spite of the fact that Marlene| plays a part which might in less com- | petent hands sour the sympathy of au- | diences against her one is never an-| tagonized by Lola, the cabaret girl.| ‘This no doubt is a true demonstration of her ability as an actress. She sings several songs in “The Blue Angel.” No scre:chy soprano here. :Ill";ne'a voice is soft, subdued con- ralto. and generously recognized by the large audiences that indorsed it throughout the week. The Anita Hart and Maurice Braddell farce, “In the Eest of Families,” making fun with a foundling and those who might be suspected in connec- tion with it, ve;y much like farces that joke at the expense of a corpse, or find amusement at a funeral, add but little to the prog- ress toward the brotherhood of man, however desirable they may be us laughing material for those I Jaclx e at Takoma Park | WHE’!‘HER Jackie Coogan appears to the grown-ups to be climbing out of adolescence or not, Jackie is still a big favorite with the younger patronage of the theater, especially in the Para- mount picture, “Tom Sawyer,” Mark Twain's famous story. The Takoma Theater, at Takoma Park, D. C., an- nounces that, beginning Wednesday and continuing through FPriday, “Tom Sawyer,” in which Jackie Coogan and the fantous little Mitzi Green are fea- tured, will be shown there, running continuously, and that for the benefit of the school children the performances will start at 3:30 o'clock in the after- noon every day. Broadway Jester Here. HARRY ROSE, “the Broadway jest- er,” of the Capitol Theater New York production, “Nite Lites,” is ap- pearing in the current stage revue at Loew’s Palace Theater. He was for- merly the principal mirth provoker in George White's “Scandals,” and his ready wit has entertained Broadway for many years. Many, many years ago, as ‘“the Broadway jester,” Rose was dared by his chums to become a contestant in an smateur performance being pro- moted by a theater in his home town. He never passed a dare, so he entered the contest. His activities among the gang kept him too busy to put any thought into what he was going to do when he got on the stage. When turn finally arrived he had to be shoved before the footlights. He paced the stage, trying to escaps from either end, but his exit was blocked by stage hands. Mean- while, during his wandering before the audience, e was repeating to the laughing folks out front just what he thought of his predicament, and his witty_thoughts were sufficlent to win him first prize. Victor Herbert Melodies. ERY melody heard in Fanchon & Marco's “Victor Herbert” idea, now at the Fox Theater, is the creation of Victor Herbert, who in his career of 30 years produced more than 50 operettas and a host of single compositions. Fanchon & Marco secured special permission from the heirs of the Victor Herbert estate to use any and all’ of the famous composer’s works, and orig- inal dances, striking costumes and gor- geous sets have all been planned to por- tray the spirit, moods and colors of Herbert's-immortal creations. N B D S S o R Up Popa the Devil. “UP POPS THE DEVIL,” light- heartel comedy of modern mar- riage in Greenwich Vil currently being presented on the New York and Los Angeles stages, will be produced by Paramount as a talking picture, co- featuting Carole Lombard and Norman Foster. * W ton Minor, who di- | HE Broadway week was unevent- | ful, only the Leu Holtz musical show, “You id If," an un- pretentious string of vaudeville | turns grouped round a routine musical comedy story, being added to things already disclosed. Mr. Holtz's cocksure style is familiar to vaudeville audiences; he seems to en- joy working, and scmetimes—as, for ex- ample, when he gives his Jewish comedian version of a smoewhat la-de- dah Englishman—he is really funny. | Stanley Smith, well known in the talk- les; Mary Lawlor, Peggy Bernier, Hughie Clarke, Kendall Capps and the three Slate Brothers are others in the cast. | _A newcomer to Broadway, Lyda Roberti, said to be the daughter of a Polish circus clown, and to have knocked pretty much all over the earth as a bareback rider and high trapeze artist before she was caught in Russia by the | revolution, and made her way after | dire adventures through Siberia and China to the United States, nearly stopped the show with her version of the song “Sweet and Hot.” She took the part in “You £aid It” of a rather rough and very ready “Polak” town girl in the | college ‘town ‘in which the scene was | 1aid, and her verve, quaint accent, and really fresh and ingenious style were de- cidedly likable. Not a show to get excited about, but brisk and amusing enough, nevertheless, * K k¥ HILIP BARRY'S ‘“Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” launched the preced- ing week, was received with almost unanimcus critical approval, and stands 1S | as one of the comparatively few plays of the season which combine serious- ness of intent, dramatic effectiveness and the quality of beauty. Young Mr. Barry, who divides his time between his own country and the French Riveria, had already revealed himself as one cf the cleverest of the younger playwrights. There was no question of the brilliance of the'dia- logue in “Paris Bound,” “Holiday” and “Hotel Universe,” but there was also in these plays a certain rather self-con- scious bravura, the slightly up-stage at- titude of the clever youngster who feels that he can run circles around the average mentality, which some specta- ters found slightly irritating. There is very little of this attitude in Mr. Barry’s new play and mare genuine feeling and tenderness. But the story, on its surface so theatrical in the deprecating of that word, with such possibilif of the melodramatic and even banal, is told with such occasional flashes of wit and nonsensical humor that it is trans- it otherwise might be. * K ok k ‘The woffian is the daughter of a professor of romance languages and she is married to a nice young manu- facturer and lives in an Indiana town. Just how she happened to fall in love in the first place with her well meaning, hu:h duu] younguuhuab-‘:xdtmu m:zt alto- gether clear; still suc] ings happen. But for the wiirmth apd sympathy which who can find comedy in such themes. ted the ‘:fl.hu‘:,( 'k production, is rec ew Yorl uction, Hollywood {,“,‘ to to direct dialogue for the authgshas put int8 mi her % personality, the -kgo.not differ the restl m n wife formed into scmething quite else than bi yoked to the much-belabored American business man: so favored by contem- porary literary fashion. % Anyhow, the husband adores his wife | right enough. The other 'm: physician - psychologist, . a° young sclentist, who comes course of lectures at the college in their home town. Hotels are. ba distinguished stranger lives for several weeks in the young people. The rest, 5o far as mere story goes, follows the familia; ctlzursc of such situations in novels and plays. Miss Zita Johann, who will be re- membered for her performance in “Machinal” a year or two. .ago, and Herbert Marshall as the scientist-lover, both give the material intrusted to them tinguished interpretation called as the husband. Perkins, the role of a sort of valet-secretary to the visiting scientist, acts' the part of a dry and knowing commentator on the drama which he sees going on.before hlné, but in which he takes no active part. Rachel Crothers' New plly. UST before John Golden sailed for Cuba he signed contracts with Rachel Crothers for the her new play, “As Husba will go into New York al | The annual play by Miss |getting to be practically taken for granted, and the factthat this is to be her twenty-third - production rather goes to prove the adage that “He (or she, of course) travels fastest who travels alone.” The list of those dramatists who have brought forth works in collaboration with others is Jong, but, aside from O'Neil, Cohan, Craven, Kelly ‘and Barry, there are few who work alone. Rachel Crothers stands as the ong woman playwright in the. world wif anything like her enormous outpuf, which, added to the fact that ghe stages her plays herself, does the , di- recting, designing of soénery and clothes, makes her a unique and excepr tional figure in the Am theater. of | first