Sol Sells His Soul For Success at-Maxine Elliott's
Sol Sells His Soul For Success at—Maxine Elliott's The Week on the Stage By Joseph T. Shipley WHEN SUCCESS IS FAILURE "SUCCESS STORY." By John Ho ware* /««««< The Group Theatre at Maxine...
...It is convenient to be born with a gold spoon in the mouth...
...Sol dares not go to the galleries, for the dread bogie, Insecurity, has him by the t a i l ; he must go on and on making more and more money so that he will have power to beat down this dread—and shroud the ghost of that early radical, the young Sol Ginsberg, now sometimes leering around corners at the moneymind that inhabits his body...
...Stella Adler could be no more natural, as Sarah the faithful, the true love and loyal secretary ;nor could Luther Adler bring more intensity into the role of the seeking Sol...
...and "Success Story" may well have a story of Broadway success...
...Lucky aristocrat Merrill: the worse his fortune grows, the stronger his character...
...And one day life (aided by Mr...
...Sol's career is buttressed by two contrasting female pictures...
...But the critic remembers that the last words of the play are: "Too ambitious...
...Life through, it facilitates feeding, Raymond Merritt, who began business with an inherited $50,000, smiles and goes gaily to speakeasies in fair fortune and foul...
...hut it seems rather tint the charactera take measure of vitality from the brilliant performances of the beat company the season baa yet brought together...
...and insecurity is the latest bogie with which psychologists are belaboring the age...
...Bravely .'he resists the lures of the boss, Merritt...
...at times the feeling returns...
...Conaider, by contrast, the case of Sol Ginsberg...
...ia suavely eondescending to them all, as the man who holds the strings—pursestrings...
...There is also Sarah, his friend In early misery, steadfast to him and to their early ideals...
...therefore he grew to be • radical, hungry for a share in the good things of the world...
...Morris Caraovsk...
...There is Agnes, who sells her body as he his soul, who symbolizes the woman's feverish quest for security and surety, as he the man's...
...In the background, smiling upon these four figures, is the banker, a man who takes life as he finds it, and weaves it to his ends.Makes one wonder whether there be profounditka in some of the swiftly passing remarks...
...Money, money, money...
...a quick revulsion from it brings his end—one more who has gained the world and lost his soul...
...Sol Sells His Soul For Success at—Maxine Elliott's The Week on the Stage By Joseph T. Shipley WHEN SUCCESS IS FAILURE "SUCCESS STORY...
...And poor damned Sol: the more he makes, the worse it makes him . He once was tenderhearted...
...Merr i t t ' s sense of humor) gave him " a break"—so he called it...
...Never having known poverty, he likewise knows no insecurity...
...Franchot Ton* takes life aa a light com* paion, which ia true Merritt...
...she the sincere, the unchanging...
...Power, power...
...Mordeeai Gorclick has given an excellent setting to the advertising office where all these folk wax and whine...
...In almost hectic rush John Howard Laws in tells this story, and somehow he manages to make some of us think it is more significant than second thought it seems: the picture of a young radical whom wealth corrupts, who grows as fervid for fortune as once for a better world...
...Rather than have him otherwise, she saves him from too long existence with his sorry self...
...Bhe wants only the onetime Sol...
...By John Ho ware* /««««< The Group Theatre at Maxine Elliot...
...Sol was born poor...
...When Merritt was tired of drinking, he could go to an art gallery, and perhaps recognize the most publicized pictures...
Vol. 14 • October 1932 • No. 14
