The Theatre

DODSWORTH, a play in three acts and fourteen scenes, by Sidney Howard, dramatized from Sinclair Lewis’s novel of the same name. Staged by Robert B. Sinclair; settings by Jo Mielziner; preduced by Max Gordon. At the Shubert Theatre.

Making plays and moving pictures out of novels of Sinclair Lewis has aimost gained the proportions of an industry. and not a very profitable one at that. “Main Street,” “Babbitt,” “Elmer Gantry” and “Arrowsmith” have been dramatized in one form of another and not any of these ventures caused undue excitement to the “house” treasurers. The latest effort to translate to the stage some of Mr. Lewis’s pokes at American citizenry is “Dodsworth” which opened the other night at the Shubert Theatre.

“Dodsworth” is one of the more important Lewis novels. It is the story of a successful man’s reaction to life and people when he finds himself out of the familiar surroundings in which he made his success. He is a man who has ideals but he also has an ambitious social-climbing wife who is impressed by pseudo-culture. Her nagging at his lack of socialgraces and her affairs with suave gentlemen finally drives him to another woman who recognizes the genuiness of his charactet. His discovery that his home life has not been all that it might be comes to him while he and his wife are on a continental vacation.He leaves his wife to marry the other more understanding woman.

Mr. Lewis’s idea in writing “Dodsworth” wasin the nature of a defense of the much maligned successful business man. He had poked fun at our great middle classes in his previos books and he evidently wished to demonstrate that the man immersed in business could stil have a heart, soul and ideals that soared above financial statements.

Under the hands of Sidney Howard, who ordinarily is one of our better playwrights, “Dodsworth” fails to emerge with the strength and virility of the novel. Mr. Howard does not bind himselt religiously to the book. He has created new diatogue and given a dif ferent emphasis to some of Lewis’s ideas. These are things a good playwright should do, but the version that Howard has fashioned rambles, hecomes diffuse. It is saved from complete failure by the fine acting of the cast but especially by the glorious performance of Walter Huston, who has been too long absent from the legitimate stage.

As Dodsworth, the automobile manufacturer, Mr. Huston gives as near a perfect performance as has been seen on the stage this cold and blowy winter. It seems as though the part were written with him in mind. Fay Bainter as Mrs. Dodsworth is also excellent. Others in the cast whose work stood out were: Maria Ouspenskaya, Nan Sunderland, Harlan Briggs, John Williams, Charles Halton and Kent Smith.