Aid Propaganda Drama

THEATERS—ART—MUSIC—BOOKS RADIO—JUNIOR STAR-DOGS CIVICS WASHINGTON, D. C., FEBRUARY 14, 1943. E Sunday Jikf HOBBIES—STAMPS Nazis Ruled Russians by Miss Hayes a Great Boon Aid Propaganda Drama To History’s Great Ladies ‘Counterattack’ Called Play They Fare With Invariable Success Distilled in Sardonic, At Her Hands, While Male Heroes Emotion Mood Vengeful Meet Lesser, Sadder Fates By Lawrence Perry, By Jny Carmndy. North American Newspaper Alliance, One of the surprises of waking up in civilian life again is that one NEW YORK;—In the onward of the German sweep Army manv is permitted a thought which the soldier in the next hospital bed will Russian cities and villages were placed under the hobnail boot. Now. in not challenge. There is no soldier, there is no hospital, and the long row* their turn. Soviet forces are advancing, are areas. reclaiming captured of high white metal beds are somewhere else. Their absence gives one Therefore, insofar as situation is involved, the new melodrama. Counter- that sense of bravado and freedom of thought which makes columning attack.” by Janet and Philip Stevenson, based cn the Russian play by such a pleasant, ivory towerlike business. Uva Vershinin and Mikhail Ruderman. at the Windsor presented Theater No longer surrounded by the natural truculence of such it by Lee Sanford Sabinson, is well ;•--- neighbors, no to assert tnat* established in requires intrepidity fact. ("Counterat- It is pathetic to see an so actor, history’s great ladies are luckier than in the same part in the Hollywood tack’’ was seen in Washington in late in his splendidly equipped profes- its heroes in having Helen .Hayes to version of Mary's tormented reign. January.) sion as Roland | Young is. trying to play them while the latter must de- Unfortunately, however, it is less make of a of Queen of Another Sort. something play which more minor and inade- well established in dramatic art. pend upon nothing by any possibility can be quate mimics. In the Army, espe- Still earlier, Cleopatra enjoyed Presumably the original Russian made. His forlorn medium. "Ask cially in one of its hospitals where the vitalizing force of Miss Kayes* authors dashed off this play in a Friend was My Sandy,” written by bellicosity outruns both fevers and acting, as powerful a hand of sardonic mood of vengeful emotion. and Stanley Young presented by pulses, one would hesitate to make Queens as any one actress ever held. The American playwrights faithfully Alfred de at Bilt- Liagre, jr„ the such an observation, not because it For her next h>'orlcal figure, retain its spirit, but also, just as more Theater. There is one clever, is not obviously true, but because all Miss Hayes turned homeward to faithfully, they retain its defects. first act. thoroughly amusing observations are challenged. Thus Harriet Beecher Stowe, the peace- Here is a play in which an exciting Thereafter the piece falls apart and do sick and injured soldiers fill their loving. war-inspiring heroine of and splendidly directed third act in process reaches the farthest con- chafing, idle days. On the whole, it “Harriet,” which opens a two-week mast compensate for preceding fines of boredom and ineptitude. is an to share engagement at the National tomor- fumbling and occasional tedium. It interesting experience with but it is a much more row night. Heretofore, her gallery mav save the them, show, and another sav- of American placid one merely to write a column portraits has been lim- ing element that may prove to be which what Miss 5 ited to comparatively rune-of-the- an intense satisfaction—as evinced Term Contract contemplates Hayes has meant to historically im- mill characters whose chief luster by a first-night audience—arises out members of her sex. has inhered in the circumstance that of an in portant evening spent watching 10 Falls Into she impersonated them. Nazis under the comnlcte Lap Because she is around to imper- captive The play, by Florence Rverson domination cf a and sonate them, to give them a deep, corporal private and Colin Clements, arrives he-e of the Soviet detailed to Of RolleivSkater new warmth of life long after their Army keep after brief try-out periods at New them secure until such time as time, women who made their marks they Haven and Philadelphia. can be questioned by are safer dramatic material than the military Director Le Roy It gives Miss Hayes another go at authorities. comparable males. Was Impressed the great lady type, which she does German Stupidity. Pity the Male Geniuses. with such skill that her press agents At the outset the task looks to be At First devote their time Sight That, of course, has not kept play- largely to proving a simple one. The have she is not prisoners HOLLYWOOD. wrights from turning out hopeful typed. been disarmed. Their guardians are term contract at MGM studio manuscripts in recent years on equipped with everything from A and a featured role in the new Shelley, Keats, Rembrandt, William knives to hand grenades. But duty Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland musi- Godwin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexan- is soon complicated by a bomb which cale, "Private Miss Jones,” fell into der Hamilton and other masculine The Little Girl completely wrecks a four-story stone the of Melva Block, 18- geniuses who contributed something building in the basement of which lap pretty national roller skating to the dignity, the beauty or the the Germans are held. Thus, buried year-old In the Bonnet one of the most progress of mankind. A good case Under hundreds of tons of stone, champion, after film on record. could be made, however, that it has steel, dirt and lumber, no food, five j unique tryouts A native of Detroit, Melva came kept these plays from being success- to Town pints of water, dramatic suspense Coming Without ex- j out a week ago and was introduced ful. exception, they thence-forward relates itself to sev- j to Le Roy, whose pired very quickly, living long eral problems. Primarily you are Director Mervyn *Sunnybrook Farm* with the names enough only to give the critics and concerned about the success of the talent belt is notched to observe it was • J of Loretta Clark Gable, Lana public opportunity Is Fourth two captors in keeping a greatly Young, Play and other celebrities silly of So-and-So. the actor, to re- superior number of Germans under i Turner many Of Child Series gard himself as capable of evoking subjection. But almost immediately of the silver screen. hard to look was the greatness of Such-and-Such, the "Rebecca of Sunnybrook you are amazed at the cowardice of “You're not at,” Farm," to a stun- genius. With the exception of Ray- Kate the prisoners in not taking a chance Le Roy's greeting Melva, Douglas Wiggin's popular brunette with a lithe, 112- mond Massey’s portrait of Lincoln and rushing their guards, especially ning story, which was written almost a "but can do any- in Robert Sherwood's lofty play, it when one of them, suffering from a pound figure, you ; has been critical routine to approach half century ago and has been read battle wound, is asleep and in fever, thing?” Miss Block's straightfor- Annabella Returns such with a conviction with while the other is ward reply was: "I can do every- plays weary enjoyment by boys and girls practically asleep that should have been allowed on his feet. You wonder, too, at the thing on roller skates that Sonja To Work for Home genius of every generation since, is to be Henie does on ice.” to speak for itself. unbelievable stupidity of the Nazis Annabella, the French ac- the fourth play in the series which In failing time after time to take Le Roy telephoned a rink a half- tress-wife of *ryrone Power, has In general, even the best of actors and had the fortune when Clare Tree Major’s Children’s Thea- advantage of negligences on the part mile from the studio arranged re-entered pictures seriously have worst of an exhi- ter of New York is of the Russians. Then, too, you for the champion to stage following the enlistment of her they undertook portraiture of the bringing to the cannot overlook many minor flaws, bition there the following afternoon. husband in the marines. She historically renowned. They have National Theater this season. a A dozen MGM executives, including it so that she succeeded in creating the impression single instance of which is found Is doing may keep Rebecca’s trials and tribulations in the and Louis B. Mayer, general manager; the Power home in that two very dull fellows, the real long arguments ideolog- open Brent- on the farm way down East in ical the Sam Katz, vice president; Billy wood. and the fictional ones, were victimiz- interchanges among various Maine make for as much fun as talent scout; Rufus La "I think it is for a man ing an audience which had done characters, thereby presupposing Grady, good sympathy. Mrs. Major’s dramatiza- facile of the Maire, dance director, and Joseph who is or in to nothing to deserve it. knowledge German fighting camp tion is faithful to the book, and the Russians Pasternak, credited with the de- know that his home is Contrariwise, in her sphere, Miss tongue by and vice versa.' always young woman who plays Rebecca velopment of Deanna Durbin, turned there, for him when the Hayes has achieved the reverse First Two Acts Tedious. waiting gives a spirited portrayal of the out for the novel test.

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