Critical Moments

Although the yacht “Endeavour” lost the Cup races, England made up for this defeat by dominating the week on Broadway. On Tuesday evening at the Booth Theatre, John Van Druten’s play, “The Distaff Side,” which was brought over from London by Lee and Wiman, walked off with the week’s legitimat ehonors while on the screen of the Rivoli, the next evening Robert Donat, an English actor, played the lead in the newly arrived “The Count of Monte Cristo.” Both productions earned unanimous applause from audiences and critics alike.

“The Distaff” is one of those rare plays that is both well acted well written and well directed. It will enjoy a long run because of its undeniable appeal to the ladies. A comedy that will evoke quiet but warm smiles, it concerns the lives and characters of a group of English ladies who are all members of the same family. In plot “The Distaff” (female branch in genealogy) tells of a handsome widow (Sybil Thorndike) who is faithful to the memory of her deceased husband and her obligations as a mother of a very modern son and daughter.

Her daughter (Viola Keats) is an actress who has had an affair with a theatrical director, while her two sisters have equally important problems. One of them leads what is called a “loose life” and the other is a typical “hausfrau” who often wonders whether fidelity in marriage is quite the thing. It is the widow’s role to help her sisters and daughter and solve their emotional difficulties. How this all works out makes “The Distaff” one of the most delightful and moving plays of the season.

MONTE CRISTO

“The Count of Monte Cristo” wa sand still is one of the great melodramatic novels of the world. As a book by Alexander Dumas, it was read by millions; as a play in which Eugene O’Neill’s father starred it was seen by countless thousands and enjoyed a run of many seasons; a sa silent picture, or I should say as silent pictures, (there were at least three different productions,) it was an instantaneous success, and now, as a talkie, starring the young English player, Mr. Donat, it again will be greeted with rousing cheers.

The present version which comes from the Reliance Studios and is released by United Artist, is a cinematic achievement. Directed by Rowland V. Lee, it emerges as one of the most exciting, stirring and moving films produced in months. There is nothing arty about “Monte Cristo.” It is straight melodrama directed and filmed without the usual trick camera shots. The dialogue is delightfully old-fashioned, no modern wise cracks have been included, and the acting is neither too emotional nor underdone.

Mr. Donat, as Edmond Dantes, seen for the first time in an American-made picture is a welcome addition to the Hollywood brigade. He is extremely good-looking and plays sincerely and ably. Elissa Landi, as Mercedes, although having a comparatively slight part, acts her role with conviction. The three villians, De Villefor, Mondego, and Danglars, acted respectively by Louis Calhern, Sidney Blackmer and Raymond Walburn, would certainly earn the hisses of any audience at a melodrama. The rest of the large cast is equally convincing.

A synopsis of “The Count of Monte Cristo” would be out of place in this column. Sufficient to say that the picture follows the broad outlines of the Dumas plot. Dante’s love for Mercedes; his incarceration in the Chateau; his meeting with the Abbe Faria in prison; his escape and then his revenge when he has become the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo and finally the happy ending.

“The Count of Monte Cristo” makes me wonder why bad pictures are ever produced and why Hollywood finds it necessary to pay embarassingly large sums of money in search for picture material. Literature offers them free of charge the best plots yet conceived in the minds of men.

SMALL MIRACLE

“Small Miracle,” a melodrama by Norman Krasna, opened at the Royale and looks as though it might last longer that it takes ushers to become acquainted with the seating arrangements. I don’t mean to be too facetious because “Small Miracle” is really a more than ordinarily entertaining play. It tells what happens in the lounge of a Broadway theatre before and during the performance. The events that transpire are relevant to the lives of the people who have come to see the show. There are a multitude of characters which include about every type from a prisoner on his way to jail and a girl usher who finds herself in the usual “trouble.” It is all worked out quite skillfully.

CINEMA NOTES

This week’s film at the Music Hall is “Caravan” which Fox Films made. It is directed by Erik Charell one of the Continent’s better known directors…. “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” is the attraction at the Capitol. This is the picture made from the successful play of the same name. Charles Laughton, Norma Shearer and Frederic March are the featured players, but of course Mr. Laughton literally obliterates the other stars. Having seen him as Henry the VIII, it is hard to imagine him in any other part, but he proves his versatility in his new picture…. “Chu Chin Chow,” the great spectacle film, stays another week at the Roxy and “British Agent” will again occupy the Strand screen for the third week.