New-York tribune., 1918-03-14
TIE CAST
By Haywood Broun

BY Haywood Broun
The production of a new Hatton
comedy is usually the signal for some
body to run around to George Creel
with request for the use of the moral
firing squad on its first afternoon off.
"The SQUAD Farm" however, has only
one act which is messy and smirky.
With the exception Of the first act, the
comedy at the Bijou is entertaining and
amusing. Of course there were some
uneasy moments further on. AS late
as the third act Lowell Sherman
threatened to lay bare his soul.
The play is somewhat mixed in
moods and gives the spectator some
thing of farce, something of melo-
drama, with not infrequent sentimental
interludes. There is a suggestion OF
The Great Lover" in The Squab
Farm but this time he is d moving
picture director. Like the tenor in the
earlier play, the hero inds true love
only after he has loved a great deal,
and. like Paurel, the girl he vents is
the girl who will not have him. Lowell
Sherman, who played Bruce Sanford,
possesses to a high degree the quality
of authority. And yet we We're not al
together surprised when he was out
distanced by a less attractive man.
Sanford may have been all the play
wrights said about him. but it seemed
to me that in the affair by which he
set the greatest store his methods were
distinctly bad. Muck too frequently he
told the girl he loved, II have known q
great many women" and he also had a
tendency 10 dwell upon the fact that
his emotions were clean. 1t suggested
sozodont or sapolio, rather than ro-
nance.
However, we are speaking of the part
and not tho actor. Sherman played
effectively throughout and did burst
of rage in the second act with great
force This act, which was a somewha.
farcical study of movie Methods was
distinctly amusing Raymond Bioomer
was highly diverting as a self-con-
scious leading man and Julia Bruins did
we'll as feline leading woman. In fact
the Hattons succeeded in introducing
a number Of we'll drawn types. Gloom
Johnson, the assistant director, gave
Harry Davenport an excellent oppor
tunity Of which he availed himself
fully. Susanne Villa was good as
Pop Tracy" although it seemed to
me that the one good girl around the
studio seemed somewhat overly con-
scious of her virtue. Helen Barnes
succeeded in making the small part
of Hortense Hogan count for good
deal, not only because it was good
part, but because she did it we'll
Alma Tell was an attractive heroine
ard did her best work in the mco-
dramatic but exceedingly effective
climax of act two, when the heroine de-
cides that she won't play Eve in San
ford's big picture after all. 1t is then
that the director attempts to tear off
the robe of the frightened girl who is
afraid to appear in the daring costume
which has been designed for her. How
ever, he does no more than tear the
back of the kimono q little and nobody
viii ever know just what the Eve cos
tune was. If it was like the rest it
was probably scant and ugly. However,
the Girls were pretty.
GooG bits were contributed by AL
fred Dayton as the office boy and
Florence Doyle as one of the squads.
The dialogue of the play is bright.
though not all the epigrams are effort
less. 1t provides a good evenings en-
tertainment.