Critical Moments

It’s down the home stretch now. In another month legitimate openings will be as rare as a pair of button shoes. Producers are digging for backing, playwrights are scratching over paper and directors are polishing scripts. They all want to get that opening night curtain up before the warm weather sets in and the first-line critics go off to be impressed by foreign productions.

Last week was a fine instance of this commendable desire to put actors to work. Besides such plays as "Moor Born", "Brain Sweat", "House of Remsen" and "One More Honeymoon", the Gilbert & Sullivan series commenced. a variety show headed by George Jessel and Walter O’Kcefe was ushered in at what was once the Earl Carroll Theatre and "Four Saints In Three Acts" came back to town.

The next seven days will be just as active. Four new shows are on the schedule. "The Pirates of Penzance" at the Majestic on Monday night, "Furnished Rooms," a play by Ranhilde Bruland, "Wife Insurance" by Frederick Jackson and on Thursday Crane Wilbur’s "Are You Decent?" will commence a run. The author should be remembered from silent film days when his white-thatched crown was a familiar sight.

NEW BUT NOT EXCITING

Of last week’s crop the one piece that may have a {SPAN}##{/SPAN} is Don Totheroh’s "Moor Born" which opened at the Playhouse. Although this is the fourth play in recent times which has dealt with the unfathomable Bronte sisters, it is by far the best, which may be faint praise, but it is so well acted and directed and so delicately written that it might get by. "One More Honeymoon" will probably be gone by the time these lines reach you and it will pass on without regret. "The House of Remsen," dealing with an old theme in a new way is not entirely without merit but it does seem a little dated. "Brain Sweat", with an all Negro cast, is interesting and sometimes amusing but right now it is too early to make any prediction about its lasting quality. As to the "Mikado" revival, I’ve already said my piece about that and can only add that if you missed it, you have nobody but yourself to blame. However, there is "The Pirates of Penzance" for this week.

LOOKING AHEAD AT THE CINEMA

No fewer than five and possibly seven new films are due this week. Three of them, "This Man is Mine" with Irene Dunn which is at the Music Hall; "You’re Telling Me," starring W. C. Fields at the Paramounts, and a film version of Margaret Kennedy’s "The Constant Nymph" at the Roxy with Victoria Hopper and Brian Aherne, are already being shown.

On Tuesday night at the Criterion "Viva Villa" will begin a special two-a-day run and on Wednesday "Looking For Trouble" with Jack Oakie and Spencer Tracy will open at the Rivoli. The two films about which no definite information can be given are "I Believed In You" which may open at the Mayfair on Tuesday and "As The Earth Turns" scheduled for Wednesday night at the Strand. This last named film has the endorsement of the Hays organization and this group of guardians of our morals has broadcast the word that the picture is an example of what Hollywood can do in the way of clean, wholesome fun. If the public does not take to it, it will be embarrassing for the lads who, have been hollering about "clean" pictures.

The Yiddish stage is also getting ready to pack itself in mothballs for the season. The Yiddish Art Theatre has been playing pictures and now I learn that over in Brooklyn at the Rolland and Hopkinson Theatres the finale is to be performed. "The Dream Weaver", a musical piece at the Rolland, will end the proceedings. This is a new venture and tells of the tribulations of a Yiddish radio crooner. At the Hopkinson Theatre Harry Kalmanowitch’s "Fradel Seeks a Husband" has been resurrected under the title of "A Bit of Happiness" but it is still the same boloney.