Evening Star Newspaper, April 19, 1931, Page 51

. Stage and Screen News and Gossip AMUSEMENT SECTION he Swundwy St Motor, Aviation, Radio Programs e Part 4—10 Pages WASHIN D, O GTON, STAGE and SCREF DORAMAUGHAN, ¢ 22 Zarle (SZZF/) CONNECTICUT YANKEE] /ox. The Matter of Judging By W. H. Landvoigt. EORGE KELLY'S much-, both 1;} thenxlnoutth ar;;i the TC{R' abused play, “Philip Goes|Ory after the “tag line’ a e g close of the play, in which the Forth,” which returned | £33 1 ((mba 4 rebellious son, for stock performance last|with literary aspirations, trem- week, after having had a success-lb]ing on the brink of tragedy, that he himself had done the ful four-day run in Washington | last January, seems to be getting the National Capital into a tangle with the metropolitan critics. ‘There is not the slightest doubt that regular theatergoers here, and, Indeed, our local reviewers, liked it on its first visit, and now |same thing at the same age. It {was a sort of novel and delightful |round-up that compensated in |large degree for the defects of| the playwright in the matter of unities, or whatever else may be discovered lacking among the dramatic requirements. T ND, before letting “Philip; comes Manager Cochran of the A Goes Forth” slip from the National Players to tell us that|giscussion, it seems fitting at this the play broke all records for a|time to say that the capabilities stock play on its return visit. All|of the National Theater Players this in the very teeth of the fact| Will not during their entire sea- son deliver a more delightful sur- that “Philip Goes Forth” Wwas prise than was modestly present- | fairly lambasted off the boards by |ed by Maud Howell Smith in the | what is known as “the continuous|role of Miss Krall, the poor, for- lorn, little figure, whose love of process of disparagement” in New |y, %oz ytiy] and the true was so York. It may be that neither our absorbing that she was impervi- theatergoing public, nor our re-|{ous alike to the cold of the viewers are sufficiently familiar|weather and to the scorn of those with the profundities of dramatic |who did not like her. John War- criticism to perceive how very bad | burton was an ideal Philip and the play may be, for both liked it | presented a very likable charac- very much. This may be said,|terization, while Roberta Beatty, however, in behalf of the national |as the aunt, and Raymond Bram- | center of our Nation, that long ley, as the father, both gave evi-| experience in sampling the ap-|dence of sterling ability in their proved product from the great performances. Indeed, the entire metropolis and rugged endeavors cast acquitted itself with a de- to pick and choose from the try-|gree of commendable excellence sut.s that have been sent us as a|in putting a bad (?) play over the 'dog town” bave created, as it footlights in a way that made the were, a sort of spirit of independ- | audience thoroughly like and be-| ence in making our decisions as|lieve, at least for the moment, | to what we like and what we dis- |that it was really something like that must seem, at times, to|worthwhile. the elect as something akin to| * % % % rebellion against the "standard[AT the Shubert-Belasco, Lew | taste.” And it must be confessed | Leslie’s “Rhapsody in Black."' that Washington actually has given high approval to many plays and performances that have been tabooed in Manhattan in the past, and also has emphatically disap- proved of others that unmistak- aoiy bore the New York hallmark of high worthiness. It's a way one gets; perhaps, after repeated |after a faltering start, found | sympathic favor with those who do not permit themselves to be influenced by prejudice against lan entertainment because of the | color or race of the entertainers. | Playgoers with a penchant for amusing things have laughed at the caricatures of all races that neglect and discouragement in the | have long persisted in the theater. earnest . desire to be numbered | The Negro alone, of all, who has among the truly cultured. been permitted to appear in the * %% clowning of his race, strange to JT is with genuine sadness that |say, in his serious efforts always the foregoing is let logse in de- | seems to meet with more or less fense of theatric taste in the Na- |resentment. Mr. Leslie, the pro- sional Capital, and almost with [ducer of the colored entertain- Eeen regret the utterance escapes| ment “Rhaj y in Black,” al- lest, perhaps, it may be thought |beit with the motive and aim of that there is a local disposition to |the general producer, now asserts get into a controversy with the|himself with an effort which he ers that be in the theater,|claims is put' forth in higher ‘which, be it understood, very em- |mold, probably basing his claim phatically, is not the case. And|upon musical worth and the ren- while confession for the time be- | dition of the Negro spirituals, ing is uppermost in the mind, it|which will always find a welcome might also be admitted that while | whatever the audience. His show, Washington did not find in the|as a whole, still remains to run plot and construction of the Kelly | the gauntlet of higher criticism play the vigorous action, the melo- |that may not be administered dramatic thrill, nor, indeed, the|without a flavor of prejudice. *hilarious comedy” that is insep- | Despite all obstacles, tg arable from the cinema standard |still forges onward and upward, of current drama, it did find a|and always there will be foun trite story pleasantly told in at- l{mpfl-he ic men and women of ::utlv‘oh mfll;u&e u:hzlt:ro ex%ltet: :o 1 races whow\lldle';l lnhl:xrdd\ll‘tly sympathe nter ughou encourage an pplaud his end left a most agreeable taste]effort. ' e Negro | inspiring CrAC CHARLOTTE. Le BURR., ; C—ayei% In Fighting Form. NFORMATION 1s John Gilbert was | in no need of gymnasium workouts | during the filming of his talkie “Gen- tieman's Fate,” now showing at the! Rialto. Gilbert had to make use of his fists in various episodes of the Ursula | Parrott story, and one fight in particu- lar, in the early sequences, an important | factor in revealing the character of the | hero, was taken in a “close-up.” Director Marvyn LeRoy, it is said, | has no use for faked fights and so the film's “scraps” had to reconcile them- selves to a quantity of bruises and black-and-blue marks for the sake of realism. | Gilbert was prepared for the worst, having been the center of much rough- | and-tumble activity in “Way for a Saflor.” The fights which take place in “Gentleman'’s Fate” are reported to be as vivid as any yet seen in films and typical of the care used in preserving authentic_atmosphere. ““Gentleman’s Fate” is a high-powered story of a society clubman Who turns into a gangster-killer when he is Jilted by the girl he loves. | News? But Who Cares? "THE Fox Theater vouches for the following facts: | Myrna Loy, one of the most exotic actresses on the screen, doesn’t come from the Orlent at all, but is & native of Helena, Mont. Willlam Farnum starred in nearly 50 feature photoplays before the advent of the talkies. Will Rogers' daily newspaper para- graphs are telegraphed to nearly 300 newspapers six days a week. | Brandon Hurst was. the original Charlie in “Charlie’s Aunt.” Will Rogers rode to his first vaude- ville engagement on _horseback, the same horse he used in his act. Maureen O'Sullivan had to take care of a flock of chickens as punishment for | running away from school. Silence Has Its Uses. “FINAL and complete victory for the talkies will errive only when pro- ducers and directors realize that silence still has its uses.” ‘This is the opinion of Douglas Mac- Lean, former star of silent flims and now associate producer at Radio Pic- tures studio. | llence is a tremendous and vital| clement, even in all talking produc- | tions,” he adds. “When the 100 per| cent talkie first roared down to an| astonithed werld the producers treated —or maltreated—us to a weélter of | nolse. “Now it's beginning to dawn on many that silence can be more tense and awe- than great booming voices. The stillness that precedes or follows mrtung sounds and action can thrill &s much as & thousand words. “The old masters of the stage know :.mn ‘o&umm < will Fmg of the screen will appre- clate it, too.” SUNDAY KED NUTS. 24 MORNING, APRIL 19, 1931 ’ S O.keith KAY WELK,, Palace.. (Stage) e SINGLE. SIN' cAHerropolitar Stage and Sc_re_e_nA‘ttractions This Week On the Stage. NATIONAL PLAYERS—“Coquette.” Opens tomorrow evening. GAYETY—"Palm Beach Beauties” (burlesque). On the Screen. FOX—“A Connecticut Yankee.” EARLE—“June Moon.” RIALTO—“Gentleman’s Fate.” R-K-O KEITH'S—“Cracked Nuts.” Jnfaithful.” This afternoon and evening. COLUMBIA This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and evening. PALACE—"“Skippy.” This afternoon and evening. METROPOLITAN—“The Simple Sin.” ning. This afternoon and eve- In Capital Theaters | NATIONAL PLAYERS—“Coquette.” HEN the curtain goes up in the National Theater tomor- row night the National The- ater Players will be seen in a play, “Coquette,” that is credited with having elevated Helen Hayes to stardom. The play was seen in Washington three seasons ago and was then judged by the critical ternity as one of the outstanding pleces of American | drama. It was written by Preston Sturgis, author of “Strictly Dishonor- able,” and is on the other end of the scale from this high comedy. In fact, “Co- quette” in its more sober moments takes on the aspect of tragedy, yet it embodies some of the finest comedy seen on tie stage. It is set in a locale that should ap- peal to Washington audiences, since this is rated as a Southern city. The place of the drama’s enactment, how ever, is “way down South—under South- ern skies.” The story has to do with a sweet young girl, her mother dead, who is raised by a stern but loving fa- ther, a man who adheres to the con- ventions of old-fashioned life and who has never been in step with the modern parade. Therefore, he looks askance at any ye gallant who comes in quest of the girl. ‘The girl in the case, how- John Warburton. Lia- | | daughter. It is this conflict that gen- erates the Teal essence of drama. “Coquette” demands a peculiar treat- | ment. " It has, for instance, this stern | father; it also has a boy who has as | free and independent a spirit of thougbt as the old man, and it has the natural | conflicts that come between youth and | old age. In shaping his cast to get all | thes2 requirements, Mr. Brooke has | made_careful placing of his thespians. Mis. Hibburd, Etanley Ridges, Raymond | son, John ~Warburton, Forrest OrT, | be_kept busy throughout the play. | Because atmosphere is as much a part of “Coquette” as the living actors and actresses, the scenic department at the National Theater has been busy the past week framing a set that will ex- press the spirit of the Southland. GAYETY—"Palm Beach Beauties.” ¢‘PALM BEACH BEAUTIES,” one of the highly regarded units on the Mutual Burlesque Circuit, will gladden the hearts of local playgoers this week at the Gayety Theater, on Ninth street. |#00d fortune to roll up unusual popu- | larity by reascn of its company and its | elaborate production details. | 'The cast offers Babe Almond, “blonde | soubrette of restless dancing reputa- tion,” in the featured feminine role, and Billy Pields, dry-humored come- dian, leading the fun division with the help cf Chuck Callahan. In addition are Billle Holmes, herself a famous burlesque luminary; Larry Clark, noted among the juvenile types on the circuit; Ann Meyers, Charlotte La Buwr and Hollych Leslie, with a capable and attrac- orus. ever, has ideas of her own and an in- |tive making in- g:rmlenz spirit Jof mind, itable & clash. between parent and Friday night is given over to the amateurs at the Gayety, Bramley, Roberta Beatty, Daphne Wil- | Burke Ciarke and Edward Poland will | This attraction, it seems, has had the | Ring Lardner's Moon. ING LARDNER and Jack Oakie represent the type of humor that |15 served in “June Moon,” the comedy |of “Tin Pan Alley” life now at the | Earte. | Ring Lardner is noted as one of the | most popular and at the same time one | of the brilliant of America’s humorist- fictionist-playwrights. ~ He first at- tracted attention with his base ball storles, “You Know Me AL" in & pop- ular magazine some years ago. He has since written for the newspaper syndi- cates a serles of humorous letters set- ting forth his amusing views on this and that subject. His book, “How to Sell Short Stories” has been accorded glowing praise by scores of literary critics. Last year he collaborated with George S. Kaufman in writing “June Moon,” which proved one of the most success- ful comedies of the past season on Broadway. Lardner was the co-author also with George M. Cohan in “Elmer the Great,” the play which became one of Jack Oakie'’s famous pictures—‘Fast Com- pany.” The screen version of “June Moon” is said to preserve all the choice humor of the original Lardner opus, enhanced by the vivacity and spirit of the genial Oakie, who is seen in it as_the “boy wonder,” who comes to New York from Schenectady to clean up a million dol- lars by writing popular songs. Solves Old Riddle. ILLIAM POWELL claims just to have learned why men sing in bath tubs. “It is because their voices sound much better in a bath room than in anv other type of inclosure,” he says. He made the discovery while working in a bath room scene for “Ladies’ Man.” He had barely begun a rehearsal when sound technicians informed him he was speaking far too loudly and would have to lower his voice to an extremely low pitch in order to secure perfect re- cording. Sound engineers disclosed that this was caused by the voice booming with # loud resonance from the tiling in the room. Powell concluded that men sing in the bath tub because their voices are tossed about in a way that makes them sound clearer and nearer perfect than they really are. That question being solved, he now intends to bend his efforts toward find- ing cut what to do with used razor blades. Back With Paramount. MONTA BELL will direct again at Paramount's New York studio under the terms of a contract signed recently. As his first assignment Bell, who was intimately associated with this studio during its transition from silent to sound x’v’r‘odueuon. will direct Nancy Carroll t&? next picture after “The STANLEY RIDGES, Aationa/ CUNFAITHEULY Columbria .. The New York Drama By Percy HE graver theatergoer who la- ments “Peter Ibbetson’s” moody paroxysms is compensated for his discomforts by the delightful murder in the play. No matter how much the flutterings of Mimsy and Go-Go may rankle in his hardened heart, he can dismiss those dovelike Hammond. |and so litle to please us Who are | wretched when the drama is not perfect, | * ok % ¥ | R. KING, by the way, is very | dreamy as the stained glass Peter- | kin. This column approves of his painted window impersonation save in a few overtheatrical details, and it sug- sweethearts in as bitter a homicide as | gost, ever found sanctuary in the drama. | Sessiam’ e subdue them, When, for This is where the seraphic Peter, hatred | queathing his trinkets to his friends hammering in his veins, kills Col. Ibbet- | he announces a gift to the Duchess of son for claiming that he is his father. | Towers, he walks to the footlights and At the Shubert Theater Dennis King | speaks the words as if he were a butler, gratifies you first by his delineation of | It may be that such stuff is good; but amazement and horror at the hideous| even if it is, I don’t like it, 7 in a5 g libel; and then by the tense manner Y which he proceeds to rectify it. He| NOW that George C. Tyler has spat upon the critics and denounced nel, confronts him with evidence of his bastardy, and after a period of violence strikes him to death with a walking stick. Of course, it is a case of self- defense, or at worst mere manslaugh | ter, but in the play they sentence Peter locks himself in a room with the colo- them as the drama’s principal pest, the reviewers should be definitely ashamed. Here is an unselfish producer who, hrewd, talented, proud, vain, devoted to the stage and its stars, has gallantly given his life and his fortune to the to the gallows. Mr. King was 5o kindled | furtherance of the drama. Bu e by the situation and by his own good | rifices on behalf of the art hta\}rl:s ;e‘ecn acting on the first night that instead | made useless by discharged office boys, of feigning to smash Charles Coburn | who, getting jobs as dramatic critics, he really did so. A number of stitches, | turn his successes into failures. What, variously estimated at from six to nine | he cries, is he to do to overcome the were required to close the wound in Col. Coburn’s martyred summit. Mr. Kgg‘s artistic sincerity in the scene rusfles the leaves of memory and causes me to recollect a dissimilar per- formance by John Barrymore as Peter Ibbetson away back in 1918. At that time I was in the throes of a feud w a Chicago critic named Donegan, with whom I had differed ferociously as to whether or not there was genius in the work of Robert B. Mantell. The alter- cation threatened to become homicical, as each of us had vowed to let the blood of the. other in case we met in the Union Loop. Mr. Ba: ore arriving in Chicago to play “Peter Ibbctson” be: came one of my partisans. My griev- ances weighed upon his mind. After I had written ecstatically of his killing of Col. Ibbetson as a prime example of & Trelt actor forgetting him- self in a little role, he invited me to attend another performance of the play. I did so, in company, I remember, with Lon M. Housman and Willlam A. Pink- erton, who, as Mr. Cohan will tell you, knew acting as thoroughly as he did criminology. We sat in the first row and bore, with the fortitude of passion- ate drama-adorers, the nebulous half- lights of the exhibition and the eery cooings of Mimsy and Go-Go as vaguely they strayed among the Currier and Ives scenery. ‘When it was time for Mr. Barrymore to shatter the satanic colonel’s pate the audience grew hushed. He turned the key in the door, he looked at and talked to his victim with an ominous and ter- ritying calm. “This is not John Barry- more,” I whispered to Mr. Pinkerten, “4t is Hamlet and Peter Ibbetson and George Du Maurier.” Whereupon Mr. Barrymore lifted his cane and hit the colonel a brutal smack upon the skuli. “Take that, Donegan!” he cried. “I'm Hammond and I've got you where I want you!” With each whack he shout- ed “Donegan! Donegan! Donegan!” And so great was Mr. Barrymore's per- sonal wizardry that no one in the audi- ence save Mr. Pinkerton and Mr. Hous- man knew that he was taking his art in vain. My son John, who is an amateur first-nighter of 10 years’ Broadway ex- perience, assures me that I err in my impression that “Peter Ibbetson” is but a muddled and maudlin heap of senti- mental jackstraws. He tells me tha the members of My, generation are immune “fragrance pe drama even when 1t is most aromatic, {frustrate yomonce of Go-Go and I wish I could be like him theatergders who are addicted pleasure. of pretentious medio There is 80 much to make shem h .| B ther ahflw&w | plague of dramatic criticism. I, as one of Mr. Tyler's most ardent friends and adversaries, advise him that he can do nothing. His job in the drama’s scheme of things is to stick out his n and let | the critics sock it to their savage hearts’ | content. ~There isn't a dramatist, an h | impresario or an actor in the whole world who hasn't said over and over again that the critics’ opinion of a play or its performance is as a voice bellow ing in the desert and unheard in the box offices. . Tyler, being an old- time producer, knows deep in his heart | that it is he himself that makes success- | ful plays, and that the critics are no more to blame for failures than the | other pests—the dramatists, the actors | and the audiences. | ~ A £ Chatterton's New Film. RU‘;I‘H cl:tA:'rER;I;ON's great talent reported as having unrestriet play In “Unfaithful” by Jorn ven Druten, the playwright who won prize honors” with his - stage play “Young Woodley” and who fashioned this in- spiring story especially for her. As an_American girl married to the popular hero whom she loves madly; as the disillusioned who finds her hus- band’s virtues merely a mask for his secret philandering: as the reckless thrill seeker, seeking desperately to drown her pride in on> wild escapade after another—this brilliant actress is said to play a series of characterizations in which her emotional talent finds their.best expression. Again, as in “Anybody’s Woman” and “The Right to Love,” Pexl Lukas enters to save the woman from herself. His role in “Unfaithful” is said to have won him a starring eontract under the Para- mount banner. - Trying Animal Voices Now. 'HIRTEEN “animal comedies,” di- rected and supervised by Bryan Foy, screen author-actor-producer, will be added to Columbia Pictures’ line- up of shorts the coming year. < They will be “hilarious stories with trained animals taking the place of hu- man actors, but, in place of animal sounds, human voices will be synchro- nized to fit the action.” An entire menpagerie contal an assortment of ai als, including lions, “u:;;"s. giraffes, dogs and cats, will be was a vaudeville and mu- star prior to entering ;umh Since the u:dv!nl ::d talking e directed or produced more than 400 c':medv shorts, .