Critical Moments

Victor Moore’s make-up in the grand, riotous musical comedy “Anything Goes,” which opened at the Alvin Theatre last night to an audience which for once was not disappointed in the preview enthusiasm, is the funniest ever seen on a New York stage and, by the way, Moore is even more amusing than he was in “Of Thee I Sing.”…

Lillian Hellman is faintly elated by the reception accorded her play, “The Children’s Hour,” at the Maxine Elliott. The critics seemed very much impressed, but most of them could not resist the temptation to give Miss Hellman a few pointers on how to improve her play, rather a strange thing for critics to do. Usually these gents, who spend an evening with one eye on the stage and the other on their watches, damn or kiss a production with little ado. Whether the play will do any business is doubtful. The theme—the untrue and unfounded accusation that two women are guilty of an unnatural relationship—is not calculated to bring much laughter and cheer to the soapy hearts of the average playgoer, but it cannot be denied that Miss Hellman has done an honest and sincere job. If the same snoopers and censors who busied themselves with “The Captive” and “The Well of Loneliness” get after “The Children’s Hour” Miss Hellman will be gratified….

Not that anybody requested it, but here is a list of plays that will satisfy every taste: “Anything Goes” and “Say When,” two musicals; the Abbey Players from Ireland, the D’Oyly Carte company from London; “Conversation Piece,” with Yvonne Printemps; “Dark Victory,” in which Tallulah Bankhead emotes successfully; “Personal Appearance,” a very slight but entirely amusing satire on a Hollywood star; “The Great Waltz,” for those who like spectacles and waltz music—especially waltz music….

Variety, the theatrical weekly, printed the result of the United States government survey of the amount of money spent by its citizens in the pursuit of amusement in the theatre in one year. Roughly, Americans—and I might as well mean that literally—tossed nearly $600,000,000 through the box-office windows of the nation’s cinema and legitimate theatres.

Of this amount the drama got no more than a mere $6,000,000, the movies the remainder. My rapid calculator figures that all Americans go to a movie on an average of once a week, which may or may not be what’s wrong with this country….

FROM THE CINEMA

“The Gay Divorcee,” my idea of what a light amusing picture should be, grossed no less than $100,000 at the Radio City Music Hall its first week. It will be held over and rightly so….

At the Mayfair Theatre this week Fox Films are presenting “Marie Galante” with Ketti Gallian. This is an adaptation of the French novel by Jacques Deval. What the movies have done to this rather strong book about a loose lady very much on the loose in Panama City can only be realized by a visit to the Mayfair and, in view of the triviality of the picture, it is hardly worthwhile. Take my word for it, Fox has made something quite different. In the book the lady of practically no virtue had one ambition—to return to Paris; she finally goes back, in a coffin. The picture has cleaned up the heroine and made her into a priggish sort of Girl Scout who ends up victoriously….

The English idea of “One Night of Love” may be seen at the Roxy in the Gaumont-British “Evensong,” with Evelyn Laye singing and playing the leading role. The English girl has as pleasant a voice as Grace Moore and the entire picture is an enjoyable, pleasing-to-the-ear production.