Judge — April 4, 1931 — page 18: what you’re looking at

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

; grr” JUDGE I (UADEACIIRE: 0 GEORGE J NACHHIAN ALLED upon to ms whatever the i ay rtor may a speech, It would be very hard indeed to dramatist Barrie, after all, is and how find a critic who wa such } -d facetious over greatly befuddled were the critics of . together with its act- another day who saw profound merits take a fling at the critics. All such The Barretts of Wim- in him. Only one of his plays, I ven speeches are much the same. The bur- pole Street.” Or any other play or ture to say, will in any way last after den of them is that the trouble with any other performances of relative him, “Peter F The rest will go the critics is that they take the merit. You'll never find what the to the grave with him, transiently drama and the great actors call wisecracking in such cases. little things, the amiable due seriousness and Nor will you find the actors who ¢ y and a night, without ine Whatsoever. ‘Another item in connection with the presentation concerns Mr. Walter nant rhetoric, just wise 1 it wisecracking playing in such plays. any importanc : The word wisecracker, in the ac You'll find them, rather in’ thing: like “Heat Wav H vocabulary, is so closel | with the word critic that there ter Love, g- Hampden. That I happen to be one 1 i} | hardly room enough between them for nd tripe of a kind. Poor, pa- of the few critics who - not been Wa a hyphen. The critic, te hams in poor, pathetic attempts able to grasp this Mr. Hampden as a { notion, whether he be a Sh: s, the ¢ naturally eager to talented actor has always disturbed i or Walkley on the one hand or some } popgun ona provincial inkblatt on the and their own miserable unimportar 4 other, is simply a fellow whose pur- in the scheme of t upon other gentlemen falling into” line. Mr. | pose in life is making jokes at the shoulders. Year by year, painting up Hampden's performance. of the: role expense of the artists of the theatre. their faces, suffering the stings of ob- of Crichton is a cruel and final be- These jokes, according to the actor, loquy and trying vainly to trade their trayal of his woefully limited capabil- | have little to do with the subject in abysmal incompetence for a little — ities. If you are doubtful, run in and hand but are merchanted by the er money, they grab at any chance to get take a look at the way he plays Bar- just for the sake of attracting atten- a free lunch or dinner out of some old rie’s third act. tion to himself and making a show. ladies’ drama aid society and to de- oe While I will not go so far as to say plore the existence of writers who, in (Tim notion that Ernest Truex is an blame for their own failure me. I am now somewhat relieved to j discover most of the other reviewing Why | that there may not conceivably be — the course of professional duty, deny uncommonly droll and — skilful i | ‘ times when the actor is right, it never- them the right of existence in turn. comedian has always seemed to me to t Hh theless is worthy of obs« n that | F have mentioned a be based upon nothing mor nal l the: worse ‘the: actor) the more ‘con- hadow,” lately than the circumstance that he is only HH}, vinced he apparently is that erities these parts and acted by one of the about four fect, ten inches in height. a i foul and evil dogs. No actor who sourest gations of pantaloons ‘The critical appraisal of his comedic it | been praised by ther under a spot- gifts is apparently predicated upon ii Hh! found making speec gues on the daily his miniature stature. If he were five | | When you read of an actor inve papers let go against the exhibition a feet seven or eight and had exactly ih) against critics, all you have to do to blast of large razzberries which, de- the measure of comedy talent he Hi) get to the bottom of the matter is to spite the speeches that will undoubt- shows as four feet ten, he would } go back a little way in the files and edly be made by the actors involved doubtless be dismissed as a pretty i read the notices he has been getting. at various future Hotel Astor lunches, — mediocre clown. He is heralded as a But that is not the pi exactly the proper thing to let go iy Ghat, as the theatre, d at it. Any actor who would maintain ing go these days, wisecracking is that such deserved any other about the only thing any self-respect- form of sm should be immedi- fine comedian, in short, simply be- cause of his lack of altitude, which strikes me as a decidedly foolish way i a ! to estimate the ability of com | i] ing critic can do about them. I don't ately locked up in an insane asylum. Jp the movies, of course, any man over | like the word wisecracking, so make it S18 -% six feet tall is regarded as a very ex- } spoofing, ridicule, slat-swinging or Is these pages last week, I touched — cellent and very impressive actor, but what you will, But, whatever you upon the re i al of “The I should think that there would be make it, it still seems to me to be the © Admirable Crichton” at the New Am- a somewhat sounder standard for judg- | | only and the best way at hand to de: sterdam. al word or two ing actors in the theatre than a mere WW with much of the stuff that is being on the subject may be in order. The i unloaded on the theatre in the name play, put on after these twenty Truex again discloses | of drama and a eight years, emphasizes what a trivial (Continued on page 29) | 16 Hy | comicbooks.com