The Washington herald., 1919-01-21
BcIasco-"Polly witt. Pastr
Rx EARLE DORSEY.


Once in a pale, blue moon 1t is per-
missible to use the word "scintillant"
in speaking of a play. That time is
now and the play is Polly With
Past" a play that sent Belasco
audience home last night tittering
with merriment.
Polly With a Past serves several
purposes. but in particular 1t serves
to demonstrate that a girl from East
Gilead, Ohio, can live down per-
fectly shameful. though fictitious past
and that a girl from Ziegfeld's Fol
lies" can live down whatever reputa-
ton that association may have given
her as a negligible dramatic equation.
As rule, one does not search for
international sirens in East Gilead.
Ohio, nor does one commonly search
for Belasco stage stars in the ranks
of a ziegfeldian extravaganza, but
Miss Ina Claire. who used to dabble
her bare tootsies in the old fountain
at North Capitol street and Florida
avenue, in this city, convinced
US last night that East Gilead can
turn out an International siren when
1t wants to, and that occasionally
Ziegfeld singer can become a Belasco
star and prove her right to the title.
Miss Ina Claire proved both points of
the contention last night in Polly
With Past" For one and two-thirds
Nfl hn Mt sir
but she was a Belasco star with all
that phrase means. for the entire even
ing. and she has been going right
along, playing the real and the unreal
roles aforementioned ever since the
wizard of Forty-fourth street decided
that she was capable of taking rank
with his two other stellar proteges,
Frances Starr and Leonore Ulrich.
Polly Shannon left East Gilead,
Ohio, after her Methodist preacher
father and her French butterfly moth
er. passed away. She came to New
York and got job tending a nat for
two young bachelors. In walks Rex
Van Zile, one summer day, incoming
over his love for Myrtle Davis, who's
more interested in saving buns than
in marrying Rex. Polly reveals her
Middle West family history and offers
to fix it for Rex by posing as an in
ternational vampire with whom Rex
must fall madly in love, to the end
that Myrtle's penchant for saving hu-
man wrecks may be brought into play.
Polly, who used to speak English with
French accent, back in East Gilead.
becomes a YER naughty girl. with
a record behind her OF a suicided ar
tiste, a wrecked king and several other
romantic but entirely fictitious trage-
dies to her cerdit. All goes well until
Rex foolishly falls in love with the
fascinating Polly who. all the while
had been going rather balmy over
Rex. In the end. We see Polly's past
revealed to a relieved Van Zile family
with the cold-hearted Myrtle getting
her just deserts and not Rex.
Such is the vehicle that George
Middleton furnished, with the aid and
assistance of Guy Bolton. It's not
especially great as a story. but Mr.
Belasco staged and directed the per-
formance, and 10, we have a thing
that sparkles and glints with colloquy
and situation and which embodies that
strange, mystic element to describe
which is next to impossible, and
which can only be hinted at by en-
ploying such words as depth" and
perspective"
! In that one element. Polly with a
Past" is like the other plays that Mt
| Belasco produces. 1t is an element
which places a play on a balIasted,
broad-gauge track, along which It
| play moves with an even. resistless
sweep. 1t is the element that one
commonly describes as the Belasco
| touch" and its only analogy is found
! in the delicate, finished touch that
David Griffith imparts to a motion
picture to make it stand forth and
live.
Miss Ina Claire mirrors forth anew
those quaint, deft touches OF the
! Claire personality which pleased us
when she sang in the Follies. AS the
girl from East Gilead. she is a deli
cate hoyden. She steps into the siren
role, and behold the siren is a thing
Of smiles and warmth and vivacity
and not thing OF ice and steel and
mOCking smiles that chill mems souls
The cast, as all Behsco casts are,
has been preserved for its road tour
Herbert Yost makes a most convinc-
ing showing as lover who's a little
bit Oid-fashioned. Cyril Scott domi-
mates the performance Of George
Christie in the roles of Rex's two
men friends. though Christie is suffi-
ciently appreciatiye of the demands
of his part. Betty Lindley makes US
extremely impatient with the faddi.h
ideas of her character as she should
and stiles. of East Gilead, also, an
other OF Myrtle's brands from the
burning, shaded his defiance and his
humility in very proper blendings
through the performance of LLOYD
Neal.