The Play
Skinner, R. Dana
September 1, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 407 THE...
...That is where defaulting brother...
...cipline and rules for avoiding trouble, their brutal comments on the ways of the elderly rich, and the distorted glasses Miss Field is another member of that restricted group of younger actresses with a definite quality, an understanding of through which they gaze on existence, combine to furnish a rapid-fire dialogue of considerable briskness and satiric point...
...But of the story itself, as of an impending fate of old maidhood...
...They are both of a kind...
...The cynical philosophy of their trade, with its curious inner dis- So much for this important detail...
...What interminably dull and meaningless scenes...
...His enlarging scope as an actor is one of the inter- evanescent fragility of so much of her work, and reaches moesting items to watch in the world of the theatre...
...If that doesn't place it ness...
...If the whole play had been an expanded vaudeville sketch, the "old stuff" perpetrated by Russell Mack one of the dancing boys comes in...
...But before you gather the full sense of gloom, you must And his is a strictly divided responsibility-on the one hand for some brilliantly caustic comedy, and on the other for several further add some incredibly bad casting and costuming...
...whole and you have The Little Spitfire of Myron C. Fagan...
...scenes in the hall-room occupied by these parasites...
...A. H. Van Buren, who directs main object is to extract money from elderly women in search the play and also plays Mr...
...However much we Kathleen Comegys-a sister of the delightful Claiborne Foster...
...Janney has attempted is a sort of expurgated version of The Cradle Snatchers theme-the fortunes of a becomes, by virtue of dialogue and wooden acting, a figure group of dancing instructors at public dance-halls, whose of surpassing unreality...
...In this case, she must battle against the most for her and for the Reverend Dimmesdale is utterly and artificial dialogue of the entire evening...
...the poignancy that always lurks just beneath a smile, and an innate delicacy of feeling evidenced in the smaller gesWhether it amuses you or not depends on whether you find tures, the finer bits of stage business, and the subtler shades such material worthy of the theatre-even in comedy...
...She The rest of the play concerns a young lady whose inheritance of a fortune depends on her marrying a suitable deserves a better vehicle...
...The play as a point there might be to some of the scenes depends entirely whole, does not hang together...
...and In all fairness, we must add a word for the splendid char- a fourth is the smooth and sincere direction of Victor Seastrom acterization of the hardest of the dancing boys, by Osgood Miss Gish as Hester Prynne passes beyond the mere Perkins...
...Shake up the conglomeration once known as Came the Dawn, and changed, just before its Broadway debut, to Loose Ankles...
...The rest is more grateful in the telling-largely concerning Miss Sylvia Field...
...The excessive severities of the Puritans thus become sufficiently in your mind, mix up all the other elements of nothing more than an artificial way of creating a mawkish the old timers-the chorus girl marrying into the rich family, sympathy for the lovers and of diverting the attention from the parasitic villain, the stolen money, the girl's compromis- the real import of the story...
...To put F OR the most part, this is one of those comedies where- it bluntly, they were both weak, and would, in the ordinary honest speech failing-the climax of wit is supposed to course of events, have had to pay a penalty for this weakcome in a series of "my gawds...
...One he would give it full sway, might lead him to write another is the improved acting of Lillian Gish ; another is the excelWisdom Tooth, or a play of equal insight...
...Janney displays a quality which, if story contains a few elements of real interest...
...In the picture, they sinned before Hester confessed her previous marriage-before the minister was The Little Spitfire aware of any real obstacle to their legitimate union...
...Long after I had gone to sleep-mentallyover the absurdities of Little Spitfire, I found myself watchkept it fairly free from the baser implications to which it could so easily have dropped...
...lonely, sensitive, never understood The Scarlet Letter by the generality of those about them...
...As it stood, howhe is different from the rest...
...She is resent the stern, unforgiving and un-Christian ways of the better suited, one would say, to high comedy or straight drama Puritans who branded her, the kind of sympathy worked up than to farce...
...digging...
...The lead falls to told on the screen, much less can be said...
...The chief comedy is furnished by the well-known chain of cigar stores-has seen fit to costume himself in suits with pinched-backs land slanting pockets...
...She is more forceful and Irwin does almost as well by a pert young lady convinced less dependent on passive pathos...
...Rather than be forced into a marriage, she tries to create the outer appearances of a scandal...
...Dane turns quickly after this mute little love scene, and the play being the well remembered "Slim" of The Big Parade...
...This is his first attempt at goldever, he was reaching too greedily for all the laughs...
...Another good bit of acting was made by Andrew Lawlor, Jr., who took the part of the man...
...Add in a few strong words from the current "free SAM JANNEY is the author responsible for the curious speech" of the theatre to bring it up to date...
...may understand the severe temptation of Hester Prynne, or Except in the serious moments, she was miscast...
...Janney has at least of expression...
...on the illusion of contrast between the rich family and its newly acquired in-laws...
...Carlotta ments of real emotional power...
...At best, it is rather nauseating fare...
...A ends in indescribable confusion and idiocy...
...It happens, however, that would also have been good of its kind...
...In these brief mo- T HIS much heralded screen version of the Hawthorne ments of sincerity, Mr...
...third is the great beauty of some of the photography...
...Ralston "of Southampton" What Mr...
...He confides his real feelings to the girl...
...But farce re- lent small bit contributed by Karl Dane as Giles-Mr...
...ing, fully alert, the heroic efforts Miss Field was making to redeem the play and give it the shadow of veracity...
...preposterously false...
...September 1, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 407 THE PLAY By R. DANA SKINNER Loose Ankles ing effort to get it back, the misunderstandings, and the happy curtain...
...Ralston-the president of a of young partners...
...And here the farce changes for a few moments to poetic drama...
Vol. 4 • September 1926 • No. 17
