Evening Star Newspaper, October 4, 1931, Page 22

B—8 YOUTHS FORM OWN THEATRICAL GROUP 15 Under 29 Organized to Try| Out Theories of Stage Production. B> the Associated Press. NEW YOR!}; ?{éflur 3. ambitious youths wi an *“ taken over an old tradition-filled the- ater on the fringe of Broadway and e staking their all on a motto of success or starvation.” Their “idea” is a youthful one from beginning to end. They plan to get plays written about youth and by youth, and produce them with a youthful cast, | youthful directors and under the man- | agement of their own very youthful erganization. Not one of the 15 collaborators in| the idea has had a twenty-ninth birth- | day yet. Their average age is 23. Some recently have come from college drama_ schools, bubbling with the- oretical ideas, but many gave up worth- | while jobs in the theater to join the group, and accordingly knew before | they started how hard it would be to | compete with “big-time” Broadway. Co-operative Group. i Marvin S. Borowsky, executive direc- | tor of the group, known as the Mid-| town Players, explained the project to- day as he sat in the Princess Theater in a chair once occupied by Morris | Gest when the playhouse was in its| heyday. | “We're entirely a co-operative group,” he sald. “Our permanent organiza- tion includes playwrights, directors, | executives, a technical department. | costume and scenery designers. And everyone else essential for the produc- | tion of a play except the cast. | “We are drawing little, if any s: aries, now. “One of our chief ideas is to give | youth a chance. Youthful actors, actresses and playwrights, who haven't | yet established a reputation have a| hard time ‘breaking in’ We aim to| give them their big opportunis “ Get Experienced Ald. ‘Then he disclosed that Midtown | Players intends, as soon as their suc-| cess has been assured, to answer the| call of actors’ equity for some producer | to subsidize promising young play- wrights. Among the 15 organizers are Jerome Mayer, who left the Theater Guild to join the group: Harriett Taylor, who| was manager of the Little Theater in| Niagara Falls, Y.; Maxine Levy, | who was with the Goodman Theater | in Chicago, and Rea Mooney, for three | vears assistant director of ‘the Civic | Repertory Theater and for six years an actress with the Abbey Theater of Dublin. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER 4, 1931—PART ()NE.' From the Front Row Reviews and News of Washington's Theaters. Bankhead and March Excel in “My Sin.” N “MY SIN,” the new Bankhead- March film at the Earle, Fredric March may be seen as a Har- vard alumnus and one-time foot ball hero (he has gained undage to prove the latter) who gone aground in the limpid cafes of Panama. Also aground in the same spot is the wonderfully fair Miss Bank- head, who sings noisy “hey-hey” patters in night clubs, and who is followed here and there by a “husband,” who demands half his “wife’s” earnings any time and every time she has any earnings at hand. Both these former handsome and loose young things live the kind of life which makes visiting Harvard gentry shudder with fright and yearn to get them back on the pedestals which they obviously once commanded. Before this can be done (and an honest old gentleman who travels in oil has volunteered to accomplish it), the silken Tallulah shoots dead her erstwhile husband, whereupon Mr. March, tossing his bottle to the winds, resumes his practice as an alma mater lawyer and wins the case for her by proving that every one else in the same predicament would bave done this same thing. Then, presto, as the lady prepares to en- gulf her freedom from the law by tossing down a glass of poison, in comes Mr. March to say, “Stop—you must be crazy. " and tells her that the old gal she was is dead and that she must be somebody new —Ann Trevor, for Instance, living in New York—her old self denied and forgotten. So she goes to New York on the wings of $1.000, which the generous Mr. March has given her—and in a jiffy is a successful interior decora- tor living on the fat of the land, and having won the affections of a so- cial-register lad who dabbles in mil- lions as a stock broker. All goes well until her past—in the form of young Fredric—comes back and hits her in the face (the past, not Mr. March) and she realizes that such a social-register existence would not have been square. The upshot of it all is—well, figure it out. ‘This sounds perhaps a good deal like plain and simple hokum. And it is. But it is distinctly palatable through the eloquent services of Miss Bankhead—photographed a Tallulah Bankhead. million per cent better than in her first picture and positively beautiful in some scenes, and because of her lothario—this March man—seems an excellent foil for her. The others don’t matter much. The audience seemed to like it— every bit of it—so pcrtha the story isn’t so bad. Certainly the two principals aren’t. Prominent on this week’s stage show is & boisterous mule, which comes mnear stealing the bill (in Happy Harrison's Circus); the Bos- well Sisters, loudly acclaimed; Joe Browning, and Betty & Jerry Browne in “Is That Funny?” which isn't—very. E.deS. MELCHER. Artificial News Drama, at Metropolitan, Has Good Cast. AN outlaw newspaper furnishes the latest step in the progres- sion of the dynamic movie figure bearing the name of Edward G. Robinson. His selection for the dominating role in “The Five Star Final,” the story of a so-called “scandal sheet,” at the Metropolitan, represents a step in his recession from the atmosphere of the gang- sters and racketeers, but retains the effect of the man of fosceful action. In fact, his acting in this imagin: tive production is worthy of atten- tion, and from the standpoint of the seeker for diversion achieves the result of gripping the mind in a way that carries the attention from one invention to another without giving too great offense. There are two suicides and an attempted pistol assault which grow out of the ruth- less handling of printed material, but they are momentary incidents and the two deaths are only sug- gested without accompanying agony. There is some crudeness in the dia- logue, for the benefit of those who enjoy a sardonic laugh. 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Assuming that a newspaper such as is here depicted would come within the classification of those things which are not done, and that if there were such things they would come within the group of enterprises of the subnormal, for the subnormal and by the subnormal, it is possible to separa!~ : fascinating story from its background and to enjoy the romance of a young couple arriving at the marriage day, while the town gossips about the experience of the bride's mother, two decades into the past. The older woman was ac- quitted of crime, but Robinson, as the circulation hound, under orders of a superior, who poses as a re- former,, but is purely commercial, rakes up the old story with damag- ing results. The loyalty of the bridegroom is the most impressive thing in the tale. Marian Marsh, as the bride, should be credited with both the abllity to create the evidence of a wrought-up mind and the capacity to_display the finer qualities of a refined and buoyant young woman. Her lover is played by Anthony Bushell with good poise, and Aline MacMahon, as a secretary, Is an effective member of the cast, with a varlety of moods to her credit. ‘The contributions of Prances Starr and H. B. Warner, as the older couple, are in the admirable tone that should be expected of these famous stage figures, and it is ex- tremely fortunate that they have a fairly large part in the development of the plot. Others who share in the production are George E. Stone, Ona Munson, Boris Karloff, Oscar Apfel, Robert Elliott, Purnell Pratt, David . Torrence, Gladys Lloyd, Evelyn Hall and Harold Waidridge, all with real'roles. It is good en- tertainment but utterly false. D.C.C. “Pagan Lady” at alto Is Tale from Troples. ¢'T'HE lust of the world is but & grain of sand compared to cne's immortal soul,” lustily pro- claims the ardent reformer in “Pagan Lady” at the Rialto this week., And a few moments later that somewhat dripping tropical fable moves to a conclusion in which both the grain of sand and the immortal soul are properly rewarded, which everyone agreed was much better than having the immortal soulers get the better of the lusters, or vice versa, as such dramas of conflict are prone o end. Since it concerns a fallen lady with a heart of gold, “Pagan Lady” passes through the customary bar room scenes until the “demi” meets a bright, strong man also pcssessed of a heart of gold beneath his rough exterior, and he decides to take her away from it all—but not very far away. No sooner has her muscle-bound swain departed to cicse a business deal—regarding some Scotch and rye and other goods—than the gilded pagan, Dct Hunter (Evelyn Brent) becomes lightly entangled with an earnest young missionary. The evangelical gent has had inward intimations that all is not well with ~ENTRANCE You Cannat Use Two Garments Bring a Friend and Divide in the city of Washington. - his immortal soul on account of the emotional starvation of his mortal being, and when he sees the titilla- tive Miss Hunter, it requires only the conventional rainstorm to drive him into a hut with her. Although he dces not fall from grace, apparently the prospect ap- peals to him, for he abandons his career as a preachifier and announces that he will lawfully wed the way- ward pagan. The shrewd, though shameless Hunter, agrees to this, she can easily see that otherwise her bootlegger Lotharlo is going ‘to make pulp of the ecclesiastical youth when this hut peccadillo is dis- covered. Restrained by respect for the word marriage, the rum runner permits Dot and her religious swain to embark unmolested in the direc- tion of a license bureau. On the way they pass a church and Ernle, 'the missionary, upon hearing the dulcet organ music and the sweet, sonorous sermonizing, snorts like an old firehorse at the sound of a third alarm. Heartily urged by his erstwhile flancee, he promptly tumbles back into the cleistered folds of the moral life, while Dot sadly contemplates leaving the rough but worthy mug she loves. ‘That noble soul is tipped off that the marriage plot was only Dot's trick to preserve the preacher, snd immediately sets out to find her— which he does in time fcr a grin- ning fadeout with his pagan lady in his arms and his heart pledged against further participation in the uncouth Scotch and rye business, Ghosts of Sadie Thompson flit through every scene of “Pagan Lady,” as it is equipped with tropics, the reformer-trollope sequence, the scornful hero and the wise know-all, hear-all, see-all doctor. Unfortuna ly none of the more pleasant shades of “Rain” seem to have been notified of the disguised revival of that sa g8. The alleged comedies on the pro- gram are dull. R.B. P, Jr. VIRGINIANS BARRED FROM CIVIL SERVICE D. C. and Maryland Also Over| Quota for Typists and Stenographers. | By the Associated Press. The Civil Service Commission yes- H terday repeated an oft-sung song. Virginia is nearly three times over its quota of civil service appointments and Tesidents of the Old Dominion need | not apply for jobs as stenographers and typlsts, will be held soon. examinations for which On the basis of population, Virginia was sllotted 751 places on the civil service list. ginians holding civil service jobs. Residents of the District of Columbia | and Maryland also are barred from appointments because the quota has been passed. | Today there are 2,226 Vir- GRADE CROSSING CASE TO BE HEARD OCTOBER 13 Special Dispateh to The Stas. RICHMOND, Va., October 3.—Hear~ ing of a case of the Washington and Old Dominjon Railway Co. Henry G. Shirley, State highway com= missioner, is scheduled to be heard before the State Corporation Commis~ sion October 12. 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