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INK ABOUT —^GREASEPAINT jp!^c'JO“The Moon In the Yellow River” BlSu A.' ®There is always a reason why one ;||| should see a Guild play, but in the majority of Guild offerings, there areinvariably many reasons whv thev iByAlice A!worthshould not be missed. In the case oi jthe fifth play of this, the Guild’s four' one! °h’ yes’ and somebody §etsitteenth subscription season, there are at least two very obvious reasons for seeing “The Moon in the Yellow River.Firstly, the Theatre Guild with its uncanny sense of casting, has done another perfect job of it in this play. Claud Rains, as Dobelle, and BarryMacollum, as Willie, are the two best spotted in the play, I think; and ah though I do not honestly consider Henry Hull a good actor, still he is well cast in the role of Darrell Blake. Egon Brecher, for all his experience a little inclined to give a technically obvious performance, is very con' vincing in a German role. I was happy to see Miss Gertrude Flynn, a sweet colleen, in a Guild play, and doing very well at that.Secondly, although the play is more or less of a “mouthpiece of its author” effort, (and therefore a little too talky) it is decidedly novel. And novelty ts the spice of entertainment.The story concerns life in an Irish village on the coast of the Emerald Isle. Should it, or should it not yield to the advance of the machine age? Darrell Blake, ardent Irishman, says no, and wants to blow up a power house which is bringing the machinery to his country. Herr Tauch, German electrical engineer, is horrified at the backwardness of the Irishmen, and calls in the police when Blake at' tempts to carry out his threat. Com' mandant Lanigan (well acted by Wib liam Harrigan) coolly shoots Blake, and then proceeds to justify the murder.All this while Mr. Dobelle has been looking on with a neutral eye, and in his bitterness hating even his daugh' ter. The developments of the third act settle his fate, in that they serve to show him the joy of living. How-ever we are left wondering what hap' pens to the police officer and Willie, one of Blake’s men, who was arrested for the attack on the power house.The author has written a supperscene into the first act in order tomake the excess talk a little less ob' vious, but I think he has failed there. A lecture is a lecture, whether the actors have their mouths full or not, only the smacking of lips makes the talk worse than ever. And why is it that a bomb is left in the middle of the stage during the whole of the second act is beyond me. It adds nothing to plot or atmosphere, and detracts a great deal from ease of action. Per-haps it was not meant to be so, and was merely an incident of the per-formance I saw. I hope so.However, I repeat, the TheatreGuild knows its show business, and Ican think of few better investmentsthan a subscription to its productions.* * *Meditations ....Just about the finest adventure book I’ve ever read is “A Vagabond Trouper,” the life story of Jefferson De Angelis, veteran actor . . . Ruth Gordon, in “The Church Mouse” at the Chamberlain Brown Theatre in Mount Vernon, is giving the outstand' ing feminine characterisation of the year . . . Better see “The Devil Passes” as soon as possible . . . Pet peeves: The low-brow movie comic-strip elegantly entitled “Betty Boop and Bimbo.” Marlene Dietrich’s shellacked and much-too-long fingernails. The junior Douglas Fairbanks’ too-long hair. People who preface every (invariably dumb) remark with Jeese!” And Henry Hull’s habit ofbeginning every excited sentence with“God!”—he does it in every play . . .I think the joke about the horse thebest few lines in “The Moon in theYellow River” . . . Eleanor Powell ofCrestwood is called “the beautiful ladyin gold who brings the ‘Hot-Cha’house down with her dancing.* * ❖Shanghai ExpressBecause of the excellence of the acting of Marlene Deitrich, Louise dosser Hale and Anna May Wong, andthe beauty of the first mentioned, the latest Paramount picture, “Shanghai Express,” now showing at the Rialto Theatre, is worth seeing.It is a timely picture, having a background of the Chinese revolt, and although the story is out of date, it is none the less interesting. Shanghai Lily meets a former lover on a train, and amid much Chinese plotting and intrigue she rescues him from an attempt on the part of a Chinaman to blind him. He returns the honor by saving her from worse than death,while a Chinese girl murders the Oriental bad man by stabbing him verydead. All in one picture! Three plotshimself branded, too.A competent cast including Warner Oland and Clive Brook add somegood work to the many plot threads, and an entertaining picture is woven as a result.
Newspaper Details
Bronxville Press
Bronxville, New York, US
Fri, Mar 11, 1932
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Rotten T.
USA 08 Sep 2021
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