Los Angeles herald., 1909-08-09
THE CAST

Joseph bfluAu.
BOTniche e................... Elmer andrews
General Carpenter .......... Ill. y. Dunield
! Captain POtel. el........... Warren Ellsworth
Captain Renard. ....... Henry stockbridge
COmmandant MignODnet. go. Gavin Young
Ors anto. ......'..........'.'' wins Marhs 1a
! KOuski. .................,..'. Norman Heap
| Flora Brazier. r...............B blanche Ha'l
Madame Bridau. .............. Louise Royce
| La Verde ................M .Margo Duffet
BY w. HERBERT BLAKE
There was precious littlej French at
n osphere about the Burbank stock
company's production of Otis SINNERS
recent starring vehicle yesterday after
noon. Perhaps it was too much to ex-
pect it, but "The Honor of the Fami-
| lv" Is so distinctively Gallo in its
! treatment of both nouns in its title
that an American version evades the
! effect Of farce at times only by singu-
! lar hexibility and adroitness on the
part of both adapter and players. To
be sure, there is the halo of the elder
romantic school about Col. Philippe
Bridau and the flamboyant way he
| sets about to rescue his miserly dotard
| of an uncle from the clutches of a
selfish and constituencies servant and
her lover. Upon this slender scaffold is
built the structure of a duel with the
! lover, the cleansing of the household
|
umph of the staggering nephew.
| In the atmosphere of very fairyland,
as in the better sort of farce-comedy,
! such a play might be satisfying. and
in the skillful hands of Otis Skinner
! the absurd heroics of the Bridau role
may have been tempered by certain
| shrewd and practical sagacity which
fits i~ with the atmosphere of the Rou-
| get household. I cannot say, for l did
not see the original production. But
certain it is that the impression left
on yesterdays audience was that Col
onel Philippe took a quantity round
| about way to do what a good Ameri-
can would have accomplished in half
as many acts and with considerably
less sword play and romantic murder
Part of the blame for this conclu-
sion must rest on the impersonations
and l am afraid not a little on the
| lora BraZier of Miss Hall. We have
| here very human and a Thoroughly
despicable type of domestic adven-
turess-a woman of no sense of re-
s~onsibilitY beyond her ardent but
shallow affection for her lover Even
| thls the playwright let's us see Is not
invulnerable to her greed for pelf as
when she listens with more than a
deceptive complaisance to the trif1ine
advances of Philippe and to the earn
est wooing of Captain Potel. ANY
thought of marriage to either she SCOTS
at, however which alone is sufficient
TO define her character with graphic
accuracy
1t is a difficult type to portray-and
q graceless one. as the play concludes,
The exact antithesis of Dorothy Fitz-
geral whom Miss Hall last week i'm
| personated in "The Greater Claim {"
her Flora yesterday bore more than
the superficial resemblance of dress
| and tone fn tho harof,,o of 4,
drama. In the opening acts Miss Hall
failed to convey the note of all but
| utter faithlessness which Is a COM
manding one in the character. She NOT
only did not make her role French
she almost made her admirably Amer
lean Up to the episode of the duel
ana ana her sidelons glances at Bridau.
the housekeeper had not a little of the
sympathy of the audience, as several
misses showed when the colonel forced
ner into her own room in Act II. The
deed was brutal, but If the pIay is "a
| convince us. We must feel it necessary
even commendable.
=, MISS Hall depicted the changes in
the character with insight. She showed
us a woman's keen Intuition Of con-
ing disaster In her first greeting of
Fnlippe. Later, she exemplified the
erect of his disciplinary measures nv
her mllder craftier mien in Act III
Tess the bully, more the cajoler. But
| she made us sympathize with her
| character more than the strict merits
OF the structural struggle of the pIay
ADMIT OF, and she gave scant sugges-
tlon of the feline treachery which is
| at It's heart, as Fabre conceived II
Eerhaps 1t is compliment to Miss
Hairs personality that this is difficult.
IL is hardly so to her impersonation.
Mr Desmond met perfect fusillade
OF applause on his jauntv entrance,
Whlch he wisely waved aside, reserv-
ing his modest word of thanks for the
end of the third act. I understand
that Colonel Bridau is a favorite role
with this popular actor, who is so soon
| to leave us for other fields. He showed
his liking for the part by the gay and
care-free air with which the assumed
| 1t yesterday. He was a gallant hero
| OF the old school-a school which we
practical moderns are somewhat loath
to accept. with its insouciant disre-
gard of human life and it's careless ac-
ceptance of the code duello He was
not too French for American under
standing; indeed, he was not French
at all, save in ghost of an accent
| and an accurate makeup. But he
held our interest fairly consecutively
by the sincerity of his impersonation
and by his strong and absorbed acting
in the climaxes.
have seen Mr. Desmond do bigger
and worthier work in other roles-in
| Secret Service" for instance or aS
the curate in "The Hypocrites" or last
week. never have seen him enjoy
himself so much on the stage as yes
| terday. And If man can't play the
sort of thing he likes his farewell
week, then there's no such thing as
poetic Justice. Only it's pity the fair
half Of yesterdays house had to carry
away their last memory of a favorite
actor as a benevolent domestic tyrant
| And the wav he pinched Ia Verdie's
ear was certainly all of "horrid" as
several voices around me testified.
The Burbank loses a good. and fire.
| duently brilliant. actor in William
Desmond. Here's luck to him, and a
| truce to all banteri
! William Yerance continued his ex-
cellent and consistent work of recent
| weeks as the seXagenarian dotard
whose inept surrender of his household
to a clever and unprincipled servant
| caused all the trouble. His Jean
! JACQUES Rouget was an unlovoly pic
ture of thoroughly unloveIv human,
weak and absurd in his inability to
rule under his own roof cravenly
| jealous of his rival for the affections
of Flora and p piteons figure of mur-
derous malevolence in his appeals To
! his nephew to kill that rival at the
! last AS Mr. Yerance faithfully por-
! trayed him, the old curmudgeon was