The sun., 1919-09-30
RUTH CHATTERTON
IN CHARMING ROLE
"Moonlight and Honeysuckle"
Is a Story Of Many
Loves.
COMEDY TOUCHES RELIEVE
New Drama by George Scar
borough Pleases in Henry
Miller Theatre.
COMEDY TOUCHES RELIEVE
Moonlight and Hc..ysuckis''-At the

Mrs. Langley ............ Lucille Watson !
Moonlight and Honeysuckle" and
Ruth Chatterton--how easy is the COM
b1natlon. Indeed the actress seems after
all easy enough TO link in the mind with
any such idyllic and fragrant and al
together harmless thoughts. Yet in her
new play Miss Chatterdon had--merely
for the purposes Of the dramatist-a past
She is the daughter OF Senator from
Arizona, and in his Washington home
all the action OF George Scarborough's
new drama passes. Two suitors too
many embarrass her. She decides to
test the love OF the three and invents a
story which sends two OF them away.
| She has been loved before and when
the moonlight and the honeysuckle had
gone to her heart one May night she
! fell in love-but with quite another per-
so,i. Her admirer in Congress as we'll
as the sutton OF Washington society take
| fright at once. Her naval sutton hav-
/ ing sailed away never heard the sad
story Of the young woman who had
/ succumbed-in her own little yarn-to
Z
mixed with moonlight and May.
The Fourth of Her Admirers.
! But 1t happens that the story travels
/ to a faithful ranchman devoted to her
| family and he sets out to ind the man
| that trlfled with the attentions OF
young lady affected by the combined
influences of honeysuckle and moonlight
on a May night 1t Is this search which
makes the play and provides Miss Chat
terton with just the sort of a role that
her admirers love TO see her in. Quite
uselessly this champion OF youthful and
| foolish beauty under the influence of
! honeysuckle and moonlight on a May
/ night interrogates the Congressman and
the man of society and is prepared TO
use impulsively the fighting irons he
! carries about with him. He Is deter
mined TO discover who was the man as
| ISOLATED with three intoxicating elements
that befuddled the heroine.
OF course there was nobody in the
! theatre who did not wonder at the
imagination of a girl OF 20 who, to rid
herself OF too persistent wooers, was
willing to be thought a Magdalen.
Frankly II was not a pretty idea. Nc
Scarborough approached It delicately
enough, but the audience was compelled
| to hear the heronie tell the apocryphal
| story to two lovers and then to listen
, to its reaction on them and several other
| persons. Her father learned of II and
| talked of the family disgrace The
faithful ranchman from Arizona with
the six shooter in his pocket was bent
on murder, having already made his
| mark in the same way at home as
defender of woman's honor.
There was indeed a genuinely comic
scene between him and the two innocent
men suspected not only by him. but by
one another. Mr.. Scarborough achieved
an uncommonly fine technical tour de
force here and its effect was bound to
tell even If there was back in the con-
seriousness of every spectator some sense
OF revulsion at the idea that to make the
play a young girl should have been
compelled to declare that she was a
victim of the perfdy Of a lover to whom
she mad surrendered.
The Mood OF the Acting.
Occasionally there was an intimation
OF burlesque In the playing, Gilbertian
burlesque, as II in that spirit the incon-
gruity of the situation might best be
met. But such treatment was of course
out OF the question when the sincere
grief OF the father, so well expressed
by Edward Fielding. gave its serious
wrote at the beginning of Moonlight
and Honeycuskle" several very enter
tanning passages that were in the most
/ agreeable spirit of comedy. Then, how
ever, the honeysuckle complex had not
! embittered the story.
Miss Chatterton, who was the same
picture of girlish loneliness, played with
her usual facility. Some of the
peculiarities OF manner which married
her acting in the past, have disappeared.
The handkerchief which seemed to have
become one OF her indispensable artistic
Instruments Is happily gone. She no
longer twists her mouth out of shape
nor does she add emphasizing mods and
syllables TO the end of a speech OF
course all these changes are an advan-
tage to her style. Her personal charm
is as great as ever. AS TO depth of
feeling she is able 10 arouse or the de-
gree to which she is capable OF creating
sense of character, there are still
ample grounds for disagreement.
Lucille Watson, who is now a blond.
has changed in other aspects, being less
brittle in style last night and more
human. James Rennie gave an attrac-
tive sketch OF the ranchman Sydney
Booth was admirable as a hypocrltical
congressman. and Lawrence Eddinger's
faithful delineation OF a respectful
negro servant was uncommonly true TO
life. The whole production was in the
fine style for which Mr.. Miller is noted.