Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-01-18
BERTHA, THE BEAUTIFUL
CLOAK MODEL, REFORMS
Owen Davis Heroines and Viii
lians No Longer so Pure White
and Deep Black in Sinners"

II fIaf sn hour later Act ExnESSSe,,ier e ,sp Of
Even melodrama can reform. II has
done II splendidly in a good many pretty
bad cases since within the Law and
II looks ms II Il intended to keep the
pledge on most occasions But sinners,
which came to the Adelphi last night, is
a little wobbly In it's resolution. 1t
doesn't pull any shootin' irons or tie
heroines on the railroad track. But for
all its rise in the social scale, the drama
OF Owen Davis still smells OF the study
lamp under whose gliding beams bertha,
the Beautiful Cloak Model" and other
Davisian plays took sentimental shape.
OF course. people aren't so one-sided
as they used to be- Not even villains
That's progress. Such one. time sinks OF
inuuity as "mistresses" and their men
develop human qualities. Occasionally
they try TO save some poor child from
Primrose Alley with the words, "She
happens to be straight. That's ALL" Hero
ines aren't quite so utterly heroic. They
occasionally embrace the cocktail with
giadness after the usual period of six
weeks In which lass from the country
finds IL impossible to get employment in
the great city. Young men who love
the open spaces" in the Rockies and Times
Square are developing qualms about as
sisting at the toboggan launching.
But mothers back in Great Falls, still
get threatening sicknesses at the proper
moments to drag heroines back out of
the jaws of Nineveh. Towns are still
foul: the country still fall. And sanct-
monlous country lovers still turn out Just
the same narrow-minded villains as Of
old.
Now, no one wants TO deny that 1t is
better to take our villainy and heroism in
mixed doses. No one can object to get
ting a little sophisticated Broadway
a A. ID
giving the sawmill and the railroad track
a rest But, II melodrama is going to
reform few rungs, 1t Isn't at all unfair
to ask whether we really want prob
lens instead of murder sin and heroines,
II they are going to be handled Just as
sentimentaly- and with just as little
knowledge of bitter-sweet reality as when
Bertha draped cloaks upon her threat
ened person. Gray heroes and gray VIII
lains are better than the white and black
variety; but do we care to find ourselves
taking seriously--even from an emotional
angle--all the old tommyrotten sentl-
mentality and sloppy thinking?
II we do. we like Sinners" And, in
the other case, we get ourselves accused
of taking things seriously that even
high brow ought to dodge.
In New York sinners was acted by
Robert Edeson. Charles Richman, Emma
Dunn, Alice Brady. Florence Nash, four
others and Frances Mcleod. In Phila-
delphia Sinners Is acted by nine others
and Frances Mcleod. The difference is
not quite so great as it seems. The
Adelphi is charging only $3.50 for seats
down front: Jean Adair has learned every
of Miss Dunn, Gladys Webster
acts like Charlotte Greenwood and Helen
McKellar like Julia Dean; Hayward CHM
could teach William Gillette a lot about
''the illusion of the first time" and
Frances Mcleod says some May Vokes
lines so we'll that she gets the only
"hand" In the cast. X. NJ