Judge — May 19, 1928 — page 22: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Skull A THEATRE REVIEW 1. ne Sxuty,” by the MM. McOwen and Hum- phrey, both strangers to my statistical dey ment, was as shameless a slice of junk as | eased its way into a Broadway theatre since “Kidding Kidders,” by the M. Stephen Champlin, also a stranger to the bureau. Both were produced on the same night, but, since the curtain of the latter was hoisted six minutes earlier than that of the forme took priority in the historical records. If our m continue to allow such bilge to show on their s' and in its latter-day profusion, it won't be long before they will have to drug the public to persuade it to enter their houses. With plays getting wors this time of the year, with the movies so impossible that only half-wits can stand them and with the weather still a little too chilly for rural pleasures, about the only thing left for the diversion of any half-way rational human being these nights is what made Hoboken in famous. The literary quality of “The Skull” may be a ted by noting such a line as this, spoken by acter designated as the Professor: “It is only one of ny phenomenon.” As for the dramatic element, what is nothing more than a ten-cent a revamping of the stale mystery tripe about th ective who turns out to be the inter- nationally nus crook. The old rigmarole of doors that open without any visible human aid save a black wire pulled by a nd, of terrorized shrieks when a character bumps against a chair in the dark, of ghosts that have voices like Robert B. Mantell, of secret panels and worse at udience can clearly detect, the moment. the scends, from defectively matched canvas and woodwork, of actors who transform themselves py evil Mr. Hydes by suddenly going stoop-shouldered and reading their lines through clenched teeth, and of thunderclaps that duly follow the rules of dramatic -orology by occurrin 1 enters— all pathetically in evic ns to be an ng the Broadw anyone, how- pmpetent, can easily write a mystery play. That a good mystery play is just as dificult to write as almost any other kind of play docs not impress. itself upon them, As a result, our stages annually disgorge a lot of theoretically mysterious garbage that sends an audience out into the night cussing at the top of its lungs and that lands in the storehouse as soon as Dr. Cain can hitch up his meritorious nags. when the vil There se illiterati t ever in Il. Aver dose of tripe was recently uncovered in the Pheatre. It bore the title, “The concocted by the M. Lester Lonerg: the M. Charlton Andrews, who was partly le some seasons ago for the great art-work called “Ladies Night in a Turkish Bath,” published a book dubbed “The Drama i cal delicatessen as Age actor, o responsib nd who once Today,” con fr. Augustus ‘ atic technique y no other American and passed in England only by Pinero” and typical exponent of such national drama; (Continued on page 27) a mastery of drat s yet sur- comicbooks.com