New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-11-29
By HAYWOOD BROUN

Owen Davis is no Robinson Crusoe
There is many a footprint on the well
worn beach which he has chosen as III:
path for the progress OF "Mile-a-Min'
ute Kendall" But for all Of that the
author has contrived an amusing play.
He is wei, within his rights in enlist
ing the old crouch, the oyerworked
young girl, the thin and pessimistic
maiden lady, the young man who used
to drink and doesn't after the first act
and all the rest of them, for he has
used these types TO just about as good
purpose as any Of the playwrights who
have gone before. And perhaps as well
as those who shall come after.
There is something Of "The Fortune
Hunter" and just a suggestion of "Turn
to the Right" in the play about rural
and city folk which was produced at
the Lyceum last night. The hero uses
crude oil to run the motor that sells
for half million dollars in the last
act. We haven't a doubt that it would
have turned out as well II he had
taken the tip Of Winchell Smith and
poured peach jam into the contriyance'
The exigencies of the first edition
caused US TO leave few minutes before
the end Of the play, but if the wastrei
who reformed into an inventor didn't
marry the heroine who nursed him
through delirium tremens there is 40
such thing as dramatic justice.
The humor of the play is not the
penetrating sort which rises from close
study of character The characters
never break loose and just say what
they want to without regard for the
feelings of the author He has them
pretty well under control all the time,
but ne has succeeded in giving them
much funnier lines than they could
possibly have thought up for them
selves.
Best Of all, the play is well cast.
William Sampson, who was so cross
last season in young America" is stu
grouchy and very funny. Helen Lowell
does type Of the kind which she has
performed many times before, but we
did not find that her acting grew the
less amusing for the repetition. But
the best work of all, or at least the
most interesting, since it is done by
less surely established player, falls TO
the lot Of Tom Powers, who made his
mark in "Mr. Lazarus" This Is
Young man who may step into the gap
left by Douglas Fairbanks II his luck
and his skill hold out. He Is the most
promising juvenile seen along this way
for a season.
The play begins with rather choppy
first act, in which the hero motors out
to the country with siren whom he
intends to marry. At rusty hotel he
picks up a fever and loses hancee.
Chicken broth and true love bring him
around in the second act, and when
the old crouch wants TO turn him out
the heroine, unbeknown 10 the young
man. pays his board bill. She gets her
money back, for in the third act the
hero perfects the motor which burns
crude oil instead Of gasolene.
Almost everybody is induced to take
a little stock in the company. Even
the old crouch puts up Nl,OVV' louuly
protesting the while. And, of course,
he sells out for $3.50 just before the
big deal goes through and thereby
loses $256,7S9.21.
Before ending a review which may
sound no more than mildly favorable
we must confess a few things. Nile
a-Minute Kendall" is old stuff. ~
bears no relation to life. There Is
pump i'm one act. II contains nothing
to stimulate the intellect. There is
scene in which stockbroker says
"Goodby and God bless you!" One or
two situations have been devised for a
pair Of comic lovers and the heroine is
an orphan, but we like "Mile-a-Minute
Kendall" It's no play at all, but it's
an excellent show, and we were not the
only person in the theatre who laughed
a lot.