Life, 1918-09-12 · page 18 of 34
Life — September 12, 1918 — page 18: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains theatrical reviews from what appears to be the WWI era. The cartoons and illustrations satirize wartime drama productions. **Top cartoon ("No More of That, My Boy"):** Shows a man in formal dress rejecting a woman's advances, labeled "PROHIBITION." This satirizes how war-themed melodramas were being artificially forced onto audiences—the joke being that audiences were "intoxicated" or oversaturated with war plays. **Main section ("Advancing in Close Formation"):** Reviews two theatrical productions. The text criticizes "Where Poppies Bloom," a war melodrama adapted from a French play, as a forced attempt to capitalize on wartime interest rather than genuine artistic merit. It mocks how theaters use war themes mechanically to attract audiences. **"The Woman on the Index":** Another melodrama review, described as frankly derivative but potentially entertaining for those who enjoy such fare. The underlying satire: Broadway producers were cynically mass-producing war-themed plays ("advancing in close formation") to exploit public wartime anxieties and patriotic sentiment, rather than creating substantive art. The reviews suggest this commercialization was transparent and tiresome to sophisticated audiences.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
LVEE subway som ow do not quite fit. into scenes in a ruined French chateau under aerial bombardment by the Germans. following the French model, uses the war The original auth simply as mate ial to exploit the inevita le hushand-wife-lover ual, a particular zest ct that the husband is not valid, because with the lover triump! as being given to the complication by the f is a Ger an spy. Tr the lady had shifted Intere jorie R. her for she brought America the exe ¢ knew of this fact. of Mar- me for 1 affections before was enhanced by the castin rt Not all the bi n new Laurels can he put on the play, in the act hea for the leadi rilure to only the impersonation of the heroine s in bearing 1 Mr. an the most threadbare of melodramatic methe and declan de Cordoba officer ostensibly French but a Hun under bis skin and for the French officer who is more aMicted with senti- mental melancholi n. In the cast Mr. Lewis Stone a were not happy selections for the Ge an \ \\ Nt Kh i A wl AN ie n blessed with G: lic spirit Tn mate nd performance “ Where Poppies Bloo seems more a forced concoction wet a fancied de- mand for war plays than a consistent artistic effort a. ing to stow the scenery of over-numerous war plays. {2 Os, eae It will possibly soon move te he big warehouse hi 2 WOMAN ON THE INDEN Irama, bat very frankly so. The authors start the is also a highly criminal one the 1 luxury in “So MORE OF THAT, MY BOY. IT'S TOO ENTONICATING ” with a prot cht of subsequent events, see hese days. of universal conservati proper the story is developed confusedly, i mystify, but with the distinct ady that if the spectator concentrates iently to follow it he will at least find that thoughts of the war ora else have been completely driven from his mind. Dist str ticians find the same pleasure in ab- sl problems in conic sec- Julia Dean, as the heroine. fir brilliantly lurid r Is herself quite at home in a 1 Mr. George Probert is lifted with considerable stiecess nthe ri of dege acy to a mewhat more hit of interpretation. Mr. pnergan . . 3 5 has no striking opportunities for elocutionary ability, by Advancing in Close Formation ' AGEINE OF : bills, buts along with the rest of the cast, s! gles bravely with the mys. ITH new theatres opening and old the teries and r solution g Ws Pee) tres reopening almost every evening. the “The Woman on the Index " will please those who like their nD <a WAR mental strain on the Hon. Claude Ki hin, melodrama melodram:. fut will carry the sophisticated back Sree, 0 our con nal scientific tax-expert.ought to the joys of other days. Se to relax somewhat "Uider his new schedule everyone le who goes to the theatre will pay an increased tax on the price associates have Mr. Kitchin and ersons to the theatre, and the ) of admission. so that to do is to get en ug & whole matter of keepin vernment in funds will be quick ly and easily settled. The theatre may not be an essential in- dustry, but it lays quite a few golden WAY down in the prox c of “Head Over Heels,” below several score composers, librettists, staxers, pro- ducers and the delightfully selected Christ ndreds of distin an and fa names of m: h chorus girls, one finally discovers the nar shed and celebra ¢ of Mitzi, the star, binetti, Hav- HE title of “ Where Poppies Bloom ve anticipation of and learns that she is impersonati 4 minor interest suggested by one of st widely read ing accomplished this task, the eu es, and the amuse. war poems. Instead of being sad, it turned out to be a war ment provided turns out to be a bright girl-and-music show melodrama with a strongly developed mystery, Taken with a st of novelty in plot. considerable fun and from the French, Mr. Roi Cooper M. it to fit Am e has carpentered more than nally pleasant musical nur nbers. In it centres rican taste b: of humorous char nably inspired by deep the interject i with ce. Met gamine « ities, her acrobatics and er cooing acters and lines unquest alations of the atmosphere of Broadway near Forty-second street. The result is far from happy. Jokes about the completion of the rf names on enabled in any w to dist might also be possible to identify those who were more pretty and shapely comicbooks.com