The Stage in Review

“Break of Hearts,” an RKO-Radio picture, adapted by Sarah Y. Mason, Victor Heerman and Anthony Veiller, from a story by Lester Cohen, directed by Phillip Moeller and presented at Radio City Music Hall.

The Cast

Constance Katherine Hepburn

Roberti Charles Boyer

Johnny John Beal

Talma Jean Hersholt

Marx Sam Hardy

“Break of Hearts” is not the best picture in which Katharine Hepburn has been seen so far. It is the old, banal story of love-divorce-reunion.

The story deals with a woman composer who falls in love with a renowned conductor of a symphony orchestra. She divorces him later when she discovers that he has affairs with other women. But she comes back to him in the end when she finds out how much he loves her.

This unoriginal story is well played at the beginning by Katharine Hepburn as Constance, the composer, and by Charles Boyer as Roberti, the conductor. However, interest in the picture diminishes during the showing as both Miss Hepburn and Mr. Boyer exhibit no special brilliancy in their acting.

Jean Hersholt attracts sympathetic attention in his role of the music professor, Talma, who brings Constance and Roberti together. Although his role here is not as big as in “Men in White,” he nevertheless makes the most of it.

The center of interest in the program at the Radio City Music Hall this week is not the film in which Miss Hepburn and Mr. Boyer are featured, but the staging of “Scheherazade.” This is a beautiful interpretation of Rimsky-Korsakoff’s composition, with original and impressive settings designed by Vincent Minnelli and Bruno Maine and rich costumes designed by M. Montedoro.

“Scheherazade,” which is produced by Leon Leonidoff, the stage director of the Music Hall, keeps the audience under a magic spell. The ballet in “Scheherazade” is excellent, the costumes are original, the scenery is superb.

Miss Beatrice Belkin, who is the Crystal Gazer in “Scheherazade,” provokes the largest applause in the fifth scene. Her singing in this scene is faultless. Applause is also showered on the group of male dancers who appear in the third scene, “The Market Place.”