New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-10-09
By Ralph Block

Some day somebody VIII write an
absorbing comedy which will succeed
by violating. controyerting and ami
hilatine all the rules. In the mean time
there is Glare Hummer who, without
so much violence, reaches somewhere
near the same effect by writing as II
there weren't any rules. In THE
Rescuing Angel" whose function at
the Hudson Theatre last night APP
peared TO be in part to rescue Miss
Billie Burke from domesticity and the
films. Miss Hummer ignores the CON
ventions of stage procedure in fash
ion that is neither audaeious nor dar-
Ing. but extremely amusing. Indeed,
Miss hummer creates an entirely new
set Of rules. n kind Of highly personal
style, in which dialogue and its various
vehicles wander about the stage APP
parently at will, people walk on and
of without any more reason than they
have in real life, and the curtain re-
tires the actors from view only when
they have finished all the conversation
that the particular moments subject
could impart Happily, the traditional
true falls This time in Miss RUNNERS
favor. Some plays that follow all the
rules are extremely tiresome. and
equally there are plays that are bore
because their authors were not clever
enoughNto fit the rules to their mate
rial. But one may suppose that some
where, beyond sll the rules that sec
ond-rate people use TO support them
selves, there are other things that
count in the theatre, and the peculiar
whimsical Hummer wit appears TO be
onc of them.
IL one has the proper material 10
oestow on set OF characters. getting
plot IN which 10 involve them is the
least important thing about il. II is
easy enough imagining Miss Hummer
picking UP the first thing that came
10 hand-"itll do as well as any" might
has been her comment. with her eye
on the plot Of the young woman who
welded for money 70 save her family
and then foolishly fell in love with her
husband. Yet, even so thin a bit Of
stuff finds itself transformed into some
thing quite different from what any
other, Of the accepted play carpenters
might have made out OF H.
The young woman's father has trust
ed too much in his brother. and sudden
ly discovers II was too much. His
daughter returns from an Hawaiian
trip at the moment, and 10 retrieve the
fortune resolves 10 marry the rich man
she met on the boat, who, because of has
buying power. is somewhat implicated
in her fathers loss. She thrusts her
self upon him, weds him the next morn
ing, not without some intimatlon that
=. L
only when she discovers he is in tenn
per because another sutton has told
him she welded for his money. The
situation is not without It's points when
the angry husband pursues his wife to
her home. 20 discover her there tryst-
ing with still another sutton, held by a
promise 10 we'd as soon as he finds
way TO separate her from her first.
Unfortunately, the story itself disap-
pears at this point, resolving itself into
an exhibition Of how skilfully and with
how much humor Miss Hummer can
staye off the reconciliation and the last
curtain.
1t is possible 10 forgive the play
wright some Of this because conven-
tional Miss Hummer would he deadly.
II is her fouting of established prac-
tees. not merely in the fashion of play
wrighting, but in the style Of wit Itself,
that gives favor 10 "The Rescuing An
gel" Miss Hummer as wit appears
kind of sly spirit, who creeps upon
the attention and captures It at odd
and unexpected moments. But success
in "The Rescuing Ange" would not
have been so easily forthcoming with
out Miss Billie Burke, because despite
a manner that is too oyerladen some
what with sweetness-the deadly heri-
taEe of the films-Miss Burke is =
comedian of no mean quality. And
more 70 her credit. she understand
the unusual Hummer whimsicalities
and how TO point them across the ROOT
lights.
II is doubtless another manifestation
of the law OF compensation, for u is a
distinct addition TO the Billie Burke one
used to know, in exchange, perhaps, for
a slight if not clearly marked diminu-
ton of the festhery lightness OF an
other day. The rest Of the cast echoes
much OF "A Successful Calamity
equally in personality as well as quail
ity. Roland Young does not quite have
the same chance, but he makes much OF
the stupid though entirely willing
sutton he portrays. Frederick Perry IL
the husband, more convincingly than
the atmosphere of the play might seem
TO allow; Marie Wainwright and Claude
Gillingwater the naive Iarents, with
Mr.. Gillingwater playing successfully
in d subdued Gilletisn style; and Rob
ert McWsde, once he has settled just
where his accents should lie, not un-
amusing lawyer named Meyer Kolinsky.
The harmonies Of the Robert Edmund
Jones decorations are pleasant, If some
what monotonous, running to an uneX-
risipahle taste for nanels