Judge — March 7, 1931 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

1G Citer Natuan the Froze is discovered in a mel- liferous mood this week. True enough, the old warrior has looked upon something called “Doctor X” that left his noble features unchanged and upon some other things called ne Lived Next to the Firehou Hobo” and “America’s Sweetheart” that left his venerable counte th nce as found it, but with the advent of the ne Barretts of Wimpole Stre visage of the old sachem of the t and the pride of the y solved into a benign and unwonted grin, At the miracle, there has been « renewed wonderment in the land and from far and near the palefaces have pooses has di hered to look and behold. In less foolish language, a very good play has w York. A month or so ago, I told you of the Besier comedy after a reading of it in book form, At that time, I promised salubrious evening in the show- provided the performance was it should be. It is a pleasure to report that it is not only what. it should be, but even a shade better than that. In nothing that she has thus far done has Katharine Cornell given half so an account of her- self, and the troupe she has gathered about her is, with one exception, as satisfactory ht be desired. An English actor rd Aherne, cast for the Robert Browning part, is particu- larly excellent; his perform role that might easily be made ridicu- lous is a thoroughly convincing and commendable job. Only in the cast- ing of Charles Waldron as the father of the Barrett circle is there evidence of error. Otherwise, not only is the acting of a meritorious order, but McClintic’s direction and editing of the script are equally good. The de- letion of the stuttering of Octavius Barrett, a feeble comedy device what- ever its possible ba ‘act, the diminution of the strain for comedy in the character of Surtees Cook and other such blue-pencilings of the au- heen produced in you house ance of a JUDGE lie GEORGE J 0 thor’s intentions are marks of really nt produc’ I recommend the evening to you most highly. “8 «@ * Apienica’s Sweretneart”, the new Fields-Rodgers- Hart musical show, has just two good points: a song number called “Sw Geraldine”, spoofing the typical female movie star in terms of fan adulation, and another called “Innocent Chorus Girls of Yes- terday”, spoofing the ermine and or- chid queens of the screen in terms of their beginnings. Aside from this brace of tasties, the show is pretty dull stuff. Trying to horn in on the success of “Once in a Lifetime”, Fields has manufactured a movie lampoon made up of some of the stal est wheezes heard in the theatre in some time and has further fallen back upon skits, business, characters and situations noteworthy for the abun- dance of their whiskers. I offer a few samples: the movie that relies for ughs on the repetition of its presen- tation credit captions, the joke about its to of a Shakespearean play, the one about those two lyric writers, Gilbert and Solomon, the movie actress who wears diamonds in the role of a poor laundress, the crack about “taking tests” ef girls, the busi- ness of a conference of bonehead movie moguls, the floral basket made up of onions and carrots, the usual allusion to broccoli, the your the movie ignoramus who change the end m: tting into an office by yelling “Fire” and scaring off the persons waiting to get in ahead of him, the movie executive's observa- tion that twelve apostles aren't enough for his super-film and his order to make it 150, the one about his ability to make a girl a star, with the face- tious rejoinder that he can “make” her all right, the haughty blonde secre- » the hip-rolling French movie p, ete., ete. at the same Fields who turned out the lively book of “The New Yorkers” could turn out such ancient 16 who succeeds in g AIRE: NATHAN stuff as this is a matter for some head scratching. Where the book of the present exhibit isn’t covered with cob webs, it is, furthermore, dully dirty, the rr part of tl ing in heavy jocosities more or less directly concerned with the sex act, the esoteric portions of the female and the lavatory indulgences of man and beast. Two of Rodgers’ songs are rather better than the usual run and two of Hart's lyrics are exceptionally but the rest of the show is seedy company includes John Sheehan, a very fair comique when he thing to comique with, a p! - génue named Harriette Lake, who still has to learn how to dance, Jack Whit- ing, Gus Shy, Inez Courtney and a very trying Gallic pi Aubert. » evening consist y named Jeanne * # * irier “Doctor X", a dreary mys ry chowder, nor “She | Lived Next to the Firehouse”, a dismal at tempt at farce. calls for comment, but a word or two may be ventured on the play, “Hobo”, by Frank Merlin, even though it will in all likelihood have disappeared from the map before this s into type. ‘The M. Merlin, it ap- pears, is a passionately intense gentle- man when it comes to the subject of the bum. The bum, to him, is no low fellow, useless, dissolute and a mu- seum for vermin, but one with many points in common with the Savi He is against hypocrisy. friend of magdalenes. He is P| for the sick. He is the brother of all mankind in distress. He is misunder- stood, hounded and crucified by his misguided and misunderstanding ene- mics. All this, according to the M. Merlin who, so his press-agent con- fides to us, was at one time himself a bum, But, though our friend believes all this with an obviously consuming fer- vor and sincerity, he is just a bit timid about the nature of his convie (Continued on page 32) arg ise Remains ~” comicbooks.com