Evening Star Newspaper, March 6, 1932, Page 47

- Stage, Musi Screen and ¢ Reviews o AMUSEMENT SECTION he Sunday Star, WASHINGTON, D. C, CAROLE LOMBARD “NO ONE MAN’ EARLE BEN LYON STHE BIG TIMER” Fox Despite Som e Defects Washington Can Boast Of aGood Drama Season Bicentennial Celebration Brings Best Plays. Prob- ably Indicating Better Critics and Critici By W. H. ATE, as a rule, has such a Puck-like way of playing sportive pranks with the affairs of mankind that one may seldom, if ever, find him- self able to foretell what results are likely to follow a given action. Yet in our quaint simplicity many of us have done seemingly fool- ish things in the hope that some- thing we longed for might be ul- timately attained. For instance, they used to shoot cannon charges into the skies to make the rain fall during a drought. and others used fo wish for something while lobking at the new moomn over their left shoul- der, but who, in all the world, would have guessed that the Bi- centennial anniversary of the birth of George Washington would contribute to the dignity and the importance of the thea- ter in Washington? And yet it has done so, not only generously, but in a way likely to be remem- bered by our most knowing youngsters long after they have begun to be numbered among the old-timers of the future. And think of it, incidentally. Our young and thoughtless irrepres- sibles who are so prone to shove their elders in the background as being “not up with the times,” some day will find themselves— and much to their surprise—just that kind of old-timers. X HOWEVER poor in quality and unprofitable in patronage the current season in the theater may have seemed to be in other dis- tricts of our depressed Republic, Washington, at least, during the few months of the new year, really has been blessed with en- tertainment upon its legitimate stage such as few preceding sea- sons will match. It has been ac- corded the privilege, for instance, of witnessing the very best of the | metropolitan musical spectacles— one of them, by the way, at the cost of $4.40 per seat, which the | great metropolis will enjoy at $3, while the range of its drama, presented by the bright- est lights of the American stage, Bookings in the Future. sm in the Theater. Laadvoigt. the intelligent and cultural cen- ters of our land outside the more or less 10 square miles that have been allotted to the District of Columbia. This much, at least, seems due the National Capital. No less is expected in the here- after. * *x X % 'HERE is no doubt in the world —at least, among the super- sensitive who are given to ex- pressing themselves in one form or another—that there are too many critics of 2ll kinds in the world. The theater, of course, like the stock market, politics and other institutions that lie close to the public heart, is, perhaps, not at all diffident in providing its quota. There is also little doubt that, in the mad struggle for success, some of the critics oc- casionally do get caustic, a little too gay with the vernacular, re- gardless of consequences to other folks and things. But in weigh- ing the faults of the commenta- tors the fact should not be over- looked that the ‘“columnist” has been giving them a hard run for their money, and dramatic writers are never slow in taking a tip or in their perception of a fine point. | Popularity and the ability “to | make the yokels laugh” are sore temptations. It is always sad to see a good man go wrong, and with profound modesty it |is earnestly urged that there are a | great many good men among the | dramatic critics, as bad as_they |may seem to be as a whole to | the furtive observer. If, per- | chance, among the great multi- |tude of these, one should be found here or there who seems | disposed to be malicious, he should ‘lation and squelched. o :THERE is, however, this to be remembered: All men are not of one mind. This inexorable truism is manifest in every walk of life. For instance, even when |it is trying to do its best to get |our country out of a hole, witness | how Congress itself is criticized on all sides and with the utmost unfairness and This at once be withdrawn from circu- | not to mention “the greatest play | of modern times,” could not|really seems to be one of the great easily be surpassed. We have the weaknesses of the art of criticism. memory still fresh of the delight- |1t is even doubtful that in a sin- ful performances given by the|gle newspaper office throughout injustice. Lunts, Pauline Lord, Mary Ellis, |the length and breadth of the| Basil Sidney and Ethel Barry-|land the copy boy will agree with more, truly the lady royal of the | the dramatic editor, while in ail American theater, to mention but | newspaper offices, perhaps, the a few, which are to be immedi- | would-be dramatic critics range ately followed by Katherine Cor- ' from the roof to the subcellar. nell” in “The Barretts of Wimpole | Happily, during the warm months Street,” the sensation of the year, |ahead the fire of this criticism Washington can well afford to fold its arms in perfect con- will be diverted to other fields. | But how, and by whom, is it to be tentment and face the future without fear. * %% JOR should the pleasure of all this obscure the fact that we are now beginning to receive the attention in our theater which should have been accorded before. headed off? Criticism always | hurts the criticized, particularly |the writer of poor plays and bad actors. And yet have we not been | told by the sages that criticism | points” the way to progress and toward perfection? We do know that scores of plays have It may be that it marksthe grad- uation of the Capital of our coun- try from “the tank towns of the road” to the status of a city whose intelligence and culture are of quite as much importance ¢o the theater itself as may be the hoarded wealth of Washing- ton, one of the present mysteries of a mystery-loving day. While we do not expect to rival New York with its 60 or 70, maybe 90, temples of the legitimate drama —“most _of them dismally dark, inasmuch as we have but two and achieved the highest success after having been roundly and | sometimes almost unanimously {denounced by the critics. Doesn’t | this prove that you cannot hide |down? Until things, including | plays and players, reach the sub- {lime state of perfection, which | Holy Writ assures us is not pos- ible in this world, however hard we may try—but this will lead to | speculation, and speculation is being more scorchingly criticized | |a light under a bushel, also that | you cannot keep a good man| occasionally one or the other of |just now than almost anything those two without a tenant—it | else. Why not stop here? should not be forgotten that the | - - Capital of these United States is | the one proud city of them all| that belongs to all the inhabit- Guild Gets New Play. HE New York Theater Guild has ants between the Gulf of Mexico | thing e Fore gs"m(]izwcw:y:dol‘figgfe; and Canada and between the wide | : : Atlantic and the wider Pacific | Vit hitherto known as a novelist and Ocean. Yet withal we are not| Mr. O'Neil's novels include “That obstreperous. We shall be quite | Bright Heat” and a fictionized work on content if the metropolitan book- | Keats, “Special Hunger.” His published ing offices will kindly remember |poetry includes “White Rooster,” “Cob- doiken our two/itheaters iwell | J6C X1 Willow Sirest' and “God Be- supplied, at all times, with enter- 3 ' ufllmmt such as they deem |- i fi?‘:fifm?fifi:{ ::'meb“ 1:( the worthy of exploitation in any of ' playwright, who spells it O'Neill, MARION DAVIES CLARK GABLE *POLLY OF THE CIRCUSY PALACE DOROTHY STONE N PERSON KEITH'S Cash-Paying Public Ti comes Electra™—The HE news is that Eugene O'Neill's period of recuperation has| passed, and that he is again astir with plans for three piays dealing with America in 1776, | |in 1840 and 1832. Thus at about the time “Mourning Becomes Electra” | reaches the angle of its repose, replace- ments will be at hand from the O'Neill reservoir, assuring the theater of en| | uninterrupted supply. The trilogy still thrives in New York if not in other | capitals. : Mr. O'Neill has an especial advantage | | over dramatists of lesser vogue. His| as the “first playwright” e to disregard the rules that| | restrict his brethren, and to employ as | much time and space in the spinning of his tragedies as he deems to be nec- | essary. Wrereas others are required by the conventional ordinance of the | theater to begin at 9 o'clock and to be through as soon as possible, Mr. O'Neill | rings up at 5 and rings down at such | an hour as is pleasing to him. How, it may be asked, did Mr. O'Neill earn a privilege not permitted Philip Barry of “The Animal Kingdom S. M. Behrman of “Brief Moment,” Marc Connelly of “The Green Pastures” and, | to cut the list short, Mr. Harwood of | “Cynara”? Why is he allowed to go on | and on and on while Ed Wynn in “The Laugh Parade” has to wash up after three hours of entertainment and Mr. Galsworthy’s “The Roof” was dismissed before it Tan not much longer than a single performance of “Strange Inter- | lude”? " The answer is that Mr. O'Neill is a crafty showman as well as & com- | petent playwright, knowing the baits that hook the wary drama-lovers. Born |and bred in the deep purple of bad acting and bad melodrama, he is wise | enough to improve upon his heritage | and write reasonably square and agi- | tating plays, rouged considerably with | beguiling tints of abnormality. In ad- dition, he has been the pet of the show | business’ canniest producing concern. { the Theater Guild, and has been bally- | | hooed by its brilliant publicity service | { into something like a colossus. Were I not fearful that I should be | hissed as a blasphemist, I should sug- | gest that Mr. O'Neill is'a blend of the sincere artist and the tricky mounte- | bank. Even when, as one of the satir- ists in the New Yorker said, he is “Thinking, thinking,” he has his mind upon the gadgets of the drama, the little talking points of salesmanship. The masks in “The Great God Brown,” the asides in “Strange Interlude” and the Greek “trilogy” device in *Mourn- ing Becomes Electra” are but the sale- able nostrums of a cunning vendor of theatrical produce. All of this, no doubt, is legitimate practice in the most charletan of the arts. And it is to be praised for the dignity and skill with which it achieves results. You cannot get in to see “Mourning Becomes Elec- tra” unless you have influence. When a play is able to arouse an indolent community from inertia to frenzy. as “Mourning Becomes Electra” does. it is. nstx have hinted, more than a work of art. Nevertheless, calm while lugubrious h it | O'Neill That is to Its ugly people e gloomy perversions may be observed with tranquility by cooler playgoers. who will have almost as good & time as the hysterical fanatics. Complaints are made that the “show” Eugene O’Neill Plans Three More _Iigng Plays One of Them Will Be Ready for the Stage After res of uI"[numing Be- Playwright's System. | By Percy Hammond. is too long and too cathedral. To these INDAY objections one reluctantly agrees. Miss | Isabel Paterson, writing in the books | section of a New York newspaper, says that now she knows what became of the missing Judge Crater, who pawned his scales and ermine not long ago and vanished. “He went to a play by Eu- gene O'Neill,” she says, “and he's there yet.” But while Miss Paterson, O. O. Mcintyre, Frank Sullivan, Robert Benchley and other opponents of pious hooey in the theater pooh-pooh Mr. O'Neill's morbid affectations, the fact remains that ‘“Mourning Becomes Elec- | tra” is as popular a shrine as ever was kowtowed to by drama worshipers in | search of a holy sho | Ben Bard Versatility. EN BARD not only wrote most of | the material in Fanchon & Mar- co's “All at Sea” idea now at the Fox, | but also directed the spoken parts of the production. Bard has been seen in many pictures Motor, AViation, Radio Programs MORNING, MARCH 6, 1932. LEW AYRES = SMPATIENT MAIDEN” RIALTO NANCY CARROLL LIONEL BARRYMORE/ YTHE BROKEN LULLABY 7 METROPOLITAN KATHARINE CORNELL *THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET” BELASCO RONALD COLMAN “ARROW SMITH'-COLUMBIA Washington’s Players What Various Dramatic Organizations Are Doing and Propose to Do. DRAMA GUILD—“Berkeley Square.” will offer “Berkeley Square,” by | who will return to Washington scon to John Balderson, s its third pro- | duction this season. Theater- | It is now being presented in Wash- | ington for the first time since that | engagement. Performances will | given at Wardman Park Theater Fri- day and Saturday evenings, April 1|jatter part of the eighteenth century, and the costumes will be reminiscent | The choice of this play is & continua- |of the Revolutionary perlod. A tech- | and 2. only through the co-operation and in- ; | E. Cochran of the Na- 5 | \HE Drama Guild of Washington | tiona] Theater and Clifford Brooke, terest of - S. direct the National Theater Players. The steadily increasing membership goers will recall the enthusiasm | of the Drama Guild in its first season with which this play was received when | ot Wardman Park Theater is believed it was presented here two seasons ago |¢o clearly indicate that Washington is with Leslie Howard in the leading role. | wining to patronize good drama when it is presented in a finished and profes- sional manner. This has been the con- stant aim of the Drama Guild. Some of the scenes are laid in the tion of a policy to offer to Washington | nical staff under the direction of Col. audiences the best and most interest- | John Otto Johnson is said to have made ing plays which can be secured. The |considerable progress in constructing forthcoming offering has been secured | the sets, which have been designed by so0 soon after its New York appearance 'Robert M. Wick. also, including “The Bat Whispers,” “Born Reckless,” “Dressed to Kill” and “Seventh Heaven,” and he has been | headlined on every big circuit in Amer- jca. He is rated a fine straignt man in vaudeville and he sings, dances and acts, can handle a radio program for an hour by himself, wrote “The Vaga- bond Song” used by Harry Richman, and also aided Harry with “Puttin’ on the Ritz” In addition to all this he worked as straight man with two of | America's foremost comics, Bert Lahr and Jack Pearl. T was Michael Arlen's “The Green Hat” which made a star of Kath- arine Cornell. It was against her| wish that her name go up in lights, | but the management capitalized the fast-growing reputation of the actress in spite of her refusal. Somer- set Maugham selected her for his play, | “The Letter,” and this was followed by‘ Edith Wharton's “The Age of Inno- cence” and Margaret Ayer Barnes' | Katharine Cornell. producing center, and there she expects to bring out her future productions. While in boarding school, Cornell wrote a drama called, fairly cnough, “Play,” and a New York stage director, Edward Goodman, came to the school to stage it. He was sufficiently impressed to tell the young author that if ever she wanted to go on the stage to apply to him. This she did shortly afterward, when he was with the Wash- Miss T an de Wofn Far Ahead 0{ Other Fea O women of vastly differ- ent physiognomies have done themselves proud in the local movie houses dur- ing the past week—Marie Dress- ler and Marlene Dietrich. These two stars are flourishing the way few expected they would & year or so back. Miss Dressler has flung all burlesque manner- into a distant hinterland and settled down to being not only a good actress, but a near- eat actress. And Miss Dietrich as her own self. At the moment Frau Dietrich is, of course, not up to the mark of the incomparable Marie, who, as “Emma,” makes mincemeat of the theory that no heroine can be a heroine without youth, beau- ty and a dimple in her right cheek. . But Miss Dietrich has definitely overcome the handicap imposed on her association with the Garbo legend, and at the mo- ment and after viewing “Shang- hai Express,” should be listed not only as a great beauty, but as may develop a real personality. It is this lack of warmth, or personality, which baffles the average moviegoer. The sight of Miss Dietrich’s blond curls. slightly | sunken cheeks, and that weari- ness around the eyes is undoubt- | edly stimulating. She, too, has a voice which, while not a resound- ing basso a la Garbo, is still an | interesting quantity and attracts rather than repels. But, in the | final analysis, what does she do |other than look to the right and to the left, crosswise and side- |ways, and allow the camera to | snap her just as she looks into heaven? One of these days a director will come along who will shake her into fits, make her rant and | roar and tear the lining from the | |great restraint that she creates| all around herself. Her emotion | at that time will be visible in her hands and, perhaps, in her feet | as well as in the Botticellian gaze | which is now her chief asset. At that moment, too, perhaps, she will have attained that inner ring lalong with the imperishable | Garbo and be able to indulge in a few of what Bert Lahr calls | “fisticuffs” with the Venus she in no wise resembles. | _This Miss Dietrich is an actress of rapturous expression, who has \now done sufficient to be awaited |eagerly in her next celluloid ven- coming to the fore not as a part-replica of Miss Garbo, but some one who one of these days | Stars Win New Screen Glory in Their Latest Pictures Marlene Dietrich and Marie Dressler Traveling tured Player&—"Emma" and "Shanghai Express™ Big Box Office Hits. By E. de S. Melcher. tions. The only time he is said to have L 1 worsted in this in- door sport .. when he bought a vacuum cleaner and found after a week (it is not stated whether he used it himself or not) that it~was a “bust.” If you ask Mr. Lyon, too, he will tell you the dif- ference between Sheraton, Hep- plewhite, Chippendale and Queen Anne furniture—and what is his “Three Little Bears” story which has to do with beach houses out in Santa Monica? Incidentally, rumor has it that his lovely wife (Bebe Daniels, in case you have ;mnedsia) is conwmpill;mngpha roadway appearance a with Dennis fi:nm % Other screen items of the week include: Lu Velez's sudden flight from the films into Zieg- feld’s “Hot-Cha” (opening Tues- day at a paltry $16.50 a seat the opening night); Peggy Shannon’s playing opposite ames (June Knight) Dunn in “Society Girl”; the new Garbo picture, which, after “Grand Hotel,” is to be Pirandello’s “As You Desire Me,” which began its theater career at the Belasco last season with Judith Anderson featured; the | signing of Polly (Hurray) Moran |to a new long-term contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Irene Rich, looking younger than her daughter, walking along F street ‘wlth a gentleman in a new and | prosperous-looking cutaway; the talents of Richard Cromwell, | young actor who played in “Emma” last week, and who has done a masque of Katharine Cor- nell which is now the possession of Joan Crawford and which, as they say, is “the spittin’ image of her.” B . — Began n Washmgton. THE appearance of Helen Hayes with Ronald Colman in “Arrowsmith” on the screen at the Columbia Theater recalls the childhood days of this dis- tinguished actress when, as somewhat of a juvenile wonder, she played many child parts in local stock company pro- ductions. Miss Hayes is at present starring on | the stage in Ferenc Molnar's comedy, “The Good Fairy,” at Henry Miller’s | Theater in New York. She began her | career here in Washington at the age |of 8 first appearing in Mark Twain's | “The Prince and the Pauper.” Later her mother took her to New York to see Lew Fields, who had admired one | of her performances here, and he was |so pleased with her talents that he ad a special kiddie part written for her in “Old Dutch.” | Reaching maturity, Miss Hayes ap- | peared _ with ~ Willlam Gillette in ington Square Players in New York, but “Dishonored Lady.” after letting her read a part he dis- |ture—a woman who did much | “Dear Brutus” and tas immediately |more than upset a railroad car|hailed as a “find” of the dramatic Luck it was which brought “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” to her at- tention. ‘Traveling to Los Angeles by the Panama Canal Toute, she read it | among other plays she carried with her. She had for some time thought of be- coming her own manager and producer and the time and the play seemed | propitious. In her days in stock she had met Guthrie McClintic and they | Katharine Cornell's Next. ATHARINE CORNELL already is considering the actors for her next production, Sidney Howard's “Alien Corn,” in which she will appear when | she has completed her tour in “The Barretts of Wimpole Street.” | women in the cast. missed her. She thought, between her tears, of her school companions who had told her with envy how lucky she = But when her cry was over, she re- turned to the theater and by persistance was permitted to understudy the other And because she spent days and nights over a four-word Though no contracts are said to have been signed, she has in mind what she considers an “ideal” cast, and this is being planned so that it may become | the nucleus of a company that may also appear in Andre Obey’s “The Rape of Lucrece,” and “The Barretts of Wim- pole Street” on tour when her next New York season is ended. Stage and Screen Attractions This Week had been married when both of them were unknown. McClintic has staged all | | the plays in which she starred as well as many other productions seen here | and in New York. Miss Cornell has been on the stage| 15 years. She has ambitious plans for | the” future. Recently she leased the| Belasco Theater in New York, a| SHUBERT-BELASCO—“The Barretts of Wimpole Street.” Opens tomorrow evening. NATIONAL—No attraction announced. GAYETY—“The Woman Afraid” (burlesque). and evening. This afternoon ON THE SCREEN. METROPOLITAN—“The Broken Lullaby.” evening. COLUMBIA—*“Arrowsmith.” This afternoon and evening. FOX—“The Big Timer.” This afternoon and evening. EARLE—“No One Man.” This afternoon and evening. PALACE—“Polly of the Circus.” This afternoon and evening. RIALTO—“Impatient Maiden.” This afternoon and evening. KEITH'S—"Lost Squadron.” This afternoon and evening. This afternoon and | part, she finally was permitted to make her debut in “Bushido,” classic tragedy the players produced. After her second role, no less & per- son than Willlam Faversham offered to make her his leading woman. Here was luck again, but Miss Cornell re- fused it, preferring to learn something about acting with Jessie Bonstelle's stock companies in Buffalo and Detroit. Then for five years the god of fortune deserted her. No New York manager would give her even a “bit.” She toured in third and fourth road com- panjes in “Cheating Cheaters” and “The Man Who Came Back.” Miss Bonstelle sent her to London to act Jo in “Little Women.” Luck looked at her again. Two Scottish women saw her in the play, and when Allan Pollock, an English actor, was looking for some one to act the girl in Clemence Dane’s “A Bill of Divorcement” in America and couldn’t find the right person, these two women suggested Miss Cornell. They had seen only three plays in their lives. By good fortune they had seen “Little Women.” And so came her return to the New York stage in the character of Sydney Fairfield. The result was that the | young girl became the most talked of | new -actress of the season. In the next few years she played several parts, the most interesting of them the title role of Bernard Shaws * SEandidar | | In her last venture—who, in fact, | upset (pleasantly) a great part | of the audience. * ok K % HE fact that many people found “Shanghai Express” tedious is a curious truism. Such | reviewers said: “We knew what | was going to happen long before | it finally did happen.” Yet it is | seldom that such is not the case with a film, as also that few films have been handled with more |skill. In fact, the treatment of | the camera material is one of the | recent miracles in the picture in- | dustry. People who were inter- | ested never lost faith until the end. Somehow, there was plenty to catch other than the plot. Ar- ranged like a novel, if you didn't |care for what was going on, at least the mental attributes of the characters kept you alive, and the fact that they were all so varied and all so colorful—and all sug- gestive of that species of person which you hope you may meet when you climb aboard the Shanghai Express some day. | * X X *x | SIDELIGHTS on the week in- | clude the news that the cur- | rent celebrity at the Fox Theater, |Ben Lyon, whose smile in “Lady With a Past” did much toward | upsetting the usual savoir faire of the orchedacious Constance | Bennett, is a “bug” on finding bargains at private sales and auc- stage. She rose rapidly to the heights, | appearing in the Theater Guild's pro- duction of Bernard Shaw's “Caesar and Cleopatra,” in the title role of Polly- anna, and many other important parts. Her greatest dramatic triumph prob- |ably was achieved a few years ago | when, in the name part of “Coquette,” she became one of New York's fore- | most dramatic stars. This play ran for | more than a year at Maxine Elliott'’s | Theater. I was later made into a | movie for Mary Pickford. | _Her work in “The Sin of Madelon | Claudet” and her present triumph in | “Arrowsmith” have clearly established |that she is one of our foremost | actresses. Miss Hayes is the wife of Chartes MacArthur, well known author and | Playwright. isbae PERE i Vaudeville at Keith's. MANAGER HARDIE MEAKIN at the R-K-O Theater, not content with the eontinuation at his theater of | the record-breaking “Lost Squadron,” | that is chilling local marrows with the |stunts of movie cameramen, is ener- getically booming a new bill of vaude- ville of sufficient individuality to at- tract the most exacting old-timer. Even Fred Stone's famous daughter, Dorothy, who makes her first appear- |ance outside of her famous daddy’s | shows, gets first mention only because | of Manager Meakir’s instinctive pen- chant of favoring th> ladies The Pat Rooneys seem to be the fa- | vorite strain for'the current week at Keith's, and some of them-—there are many, all told—will grace the Keith bill and make it look like an old-time Keith vaudeville program.