New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-09-09
Julia and Joseph Cswhorn in Rambler Rose in which they will
mnus evening the Empire

the dialogue of the play of the Persian
tentmaker. Mr.. Post, probably more
than any other actor on the native
scene-unless It be Otis Skinner-has
the sense of make believe, that rough
power to conjurc up shapes and beings
however crude they may be. But some
times it leads to indiscretions, and
Mr.. Post appears to much better ad-
vantage as Loder, where the need for
business" is slight, than he does as
Chilcote, where the demand for char
acterization pushes him to the begin
ming of the grotesquc.
So to the inevitable comparison that
the week presented! The never quite
concealed Guy Bates Post behind all
the elaborate make-believe of Chilcote
and Loder, and the never once dis
coverable Ina Claire behind the Polly
from East Gilead, Ohio, and the Paul
cite from Paris in polly With
Past" A difference, should say, be-
N"ttH Nlo HidNIlitiJ VI dNblhs anu
imaginative creation,
But a word, before passing on for
That's Lawton as Chilcote's wife, bit
Of playing quite the equal Of anything
of its kind these four weeks have dis
closed, in delicacy and reserve.
4 PART of the pleasure to be got
~ ten from "De Luxe Annie" is the
pleasure of all we'll oiled and smoothly
running machinery. "The Thirteenth
Chair" had that in part, although try
as hard as I could | never could find
the knife in the ceiling before the final
act and the moment set for exposure.
But "De Luxe Annie" is done with a
neatness and completeness that sug-
gest only one thing-the stage
magician. There was only one moment
last Tuesday night in which the
illusion of efficiency failed. 1t was in
the first act that Jack MacBride
peered uncertainty into the pit Of the
theatre from the stage Pullman and
remarked that the train had stopped.
Just then the porter entered and the
peculiar rolling scenery which Mr..
Hammerstein has evolved could be
seen still rolling on and on at sixty
mile clip.
~IFFERENT people probably find q
- different cause for the fascination
exercised by peter Ibbetson." But a
good deal of it may go back to the
heavy emotional pull that lies in any
recreation for an adult stage figure
of the best days of youth. 1t is hard
not TO believe momentarily that Mimsi
and Gogo are real, impossible to deny
sympathy and even tears to the grown
up Peter when he tries to push past
the veil Of his dream and touch the
beloved past. For a second there is
afforded a glimpse Of that terrible
LONELINESS into which we are born"
after Peters wail-"Ihey don't hear
me. I'm all alone" A part Of it is
due to the music that runs through
the several scenes-rather an unfair
advantage to take of an already pre-
disposed audience-but even more is
due TO the emotional timbre of Miss
Constance Golfers voice, and the eX-
the sentiment of the play from push
ing past the point OF moderation and
legitimacy.
TUST where acting for the films diff
~ fers from acting for the stage is
not yet entirely clear. There is proba-
bly, greater foridity Of expression
for the films, II anything For despite
the fact that the field of the cameras
view is no less CONSTRUCTED than the
picture-frame setting we call the stage,
the camera demands that every tone
and value in expression be raised TO
a higher point than on the stage itself.
| That may be the reason for all the
/ horrors of most present day film play
| ing, and a reason as well for con-
/ tinued surprise at the subtleties that
mark the playing Of Mae Marsh for
/ the screen. An invitation 10 view
Polly of the Circus" disclosed two
/ interesting facts about the first Gold
wyn release One of them was the
ease Of Mae Marsh's manner and her
natural selection OF details in express
sion. The other was the informality
hich-intentionally or not-distin-
guishes the Goldwyn film from the cut
and dried, we'll manicured film Of pres
sat aAy coIaaRJcA