New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-25

Chockful OF shocks, and quite over.
whelming in its entirety, Branded" is
one of the most startling plays since
the era Of old-fashioned melodrama.
1t is a direct descendant of the oil
melodrama, in fact, modified by film
methods. The only way to describe it
in phrase is to lken it to a fifteen
reel serial cut to four reels The
story is one of human persecution. the
tiendish bounding of an innocent wom-
an until the cup of anguish is filled
TO overlooking and keeps on spilling
over. And the moral of it all is that
sweet and innocent young girls cannot
be 200 careful about selecting their
parents, especially their mothers.
Now, all this does not mean that
large audiences may not fall under the
spell of the players. but they must be
prepared TO find the recent practices
in play writing thrown TO the winds.
1t might prepare the minds of specta-
tors If the programme indicated the
episode nature of the entertainment.
The first and second acts are practi-
cally separate playlets in themselves,
while the third and fourth make an
other.
The drama affords Christine Norman
an exceptional opportunity for dis
play of virtuosity in the various ago
MES of the heroine's fortunes. At the
outset she is young girl in fashion
able school At the moment when she
is about TO admit her love for a wealthy
sutton the first blow falls. A woman of
coarse manners, &C companied by a
young scion of the under world who
bears all the earmarks of the conven-
tiOnal cadet, comes TO the school TO
claim her daughter. A providential po-
liceman recognizes the beldame and her
coworker as bad eggs and saves the
girl, but the caddish sutton has not the
moral courage 20 so on with the mar
riage.
SO far there is nothing TO show that
there is to be any radical departure
from the modern methods of crooky
drama in a drawing room set, nor is
there in the second. in which. three
years later, the unfortunate heroine
has made a happy start. and, as Mrs.
Courtney, is the wife of a rich and
handsome American, living in Paris.
who is in a somewhat inexpicable but
blissful state of ignorance as TO her
antecedents. II soon appears that Mrs.
Courtney is paying heavy blackmaii.
She has had TO sell some of her dir-
monds and replace them with paste
Finally, she is unable TO pay any more.
Her mothers former companion now
comes on the scene and declares in a
most unfeeling way that he will con-
tinue to collect from her husband.
Courtney IL noble fellow. He
stands by his wife. Apparently the
blackmailers are foiled, but the Fate
plays with loaded dice. When the hus-
band learns that his wife has been to
the hotel where the blackmailer il
stopping" he loses all faith. IL is in
vain that she points out the occasion
of her visit TO the hostelry, which was
10 pay the hush money. All is ended.
Seventeen years later the persistent
villain has Mrs. Courtney still In his
power. 1t might seem that he would
take little satisfaction in bounding a
poor, broken woman, who Is addicted
to drugs, but through all his course
has been directed by foresight as well
as enterprise Mrs. Courtney's daugh-
ter, whom he has given the benefits Of
an expensive education, is now of an
age suitable TO lucrative but unlaw-
full transaction. The agonized mother
knows that the trap is about to be
sprung. but is powerless TO interfere.
The last act finds the young girl at
the acme of peril in an Infamous den.
But the villains have been betrayed by
one of their victims. The father. in
expicably absent for so many years
comes to the rescue, and after the gun
play there is a happy ending. I
Such a summary is unfair TO the
players, who do the utmost with their
material. The performance, however,
has not the cumulative effect of con-
nected story. 1t might be well to give
it on the plan OF the Chinese theatre,
so that spectators would not be ex-
pected to sit throughout the entire per-
Torrance, but might drop in casually
to enjoy the portions to their taste.
j. A. y.