The Washington herald., 1920-04-13
sAubert-Garriek-tThree Live
Ghosts.s
ny EARLE DORSEY.


Your correspondent spent nearly
three hours wallowing in the up
holstery of the -C-1 listening post
in the Garrick sector last night.
on the bare hint that q new play
Of worthwhile proportions might
reveal itself, but the effort was
rather vain.
To begin with. the new play was
announced as Three Live Ghosts"
comedy in three acts. Apparently.
il is based on an original by Fred
erick Isham, a young writer, who
Is credited with Nothing But the
Truth" the erstwhile Collier COM
edy.
II is only just and truthful to
say that Three Live Ghosts" Is not
Nothing But the Truth" though
by no manner of means Is 1t an
impossible play. provided-always
provided-someone Is summoned to
rewrite its sophomore dialogue, to
replant with a trace of subtlcty
such things as newspapers, pearl
necklaces and dramatic situations,
and provided further. that someone
goes out and finds cast that
knows the difference between elo-
cution and acting. Then. we re-
peat, there may be enough of a
play in Three Live Ghosts" to
satisfy an entertainment standard
slightly above the nurse-maid order.
Tho really high content Of op-
timism already noted is due to the
~ @nlU
from the slough of stodginess, an
ond act when Frank Monroe. a
competent actor, in the role of a
Scotland Yard detective, gets a
chance at the dialogue and with
the assistance of Beryl Mercer and
Charles McNaughton, manages to
make sentient a play that other
wise displays the intense. animated
interest of a Punch and Judy per-
formance.
Three Live Ghosts is the story
Of three British war prisoners who
escape from Germany to find them
selves listed as dead. The action
is laid in the rooming house con-
Quoted by the stepmother of one
of the prisoners-an estimable lady
who drinks gin. discusses the young
American lady next door who paints
china and listens to the tale of a
detective offering $1,000 reward for
Information concerning a pal of her
dead stepson, Jimmy. All this.
badly enough. is, the cue for Jimmy
to enter. bringing with him his
American pal for whom the reward
is offered. as well as a she'll
shocked gentleman who purloins
anything in sight.
with this as a basis, the plot ad-
dresses itself to the task of connect
ing up the China-painting lady with
Jimmys American pal as well as
solving the identity OF the she'll
shock victim who. crazily enough,
takes Jimmy's mother for a lady.
Such Is a theme that thinly lards
itself over three acts. In the end,
Jimmy's American pal is found to
be the heir to an estate instead of
the criminal they all thought him:
the China decorating girl next door
is his sweetheart who came to Eng
land to do nursing. and the she'll
shocked gentleman is finally caught
purloining a baby and some neck
laces from his own wife-an act
which brings about his identifica-
tion by that outraged lady herself.
All this. we insist, is not such a
bad story when you start to reduce
it to a synopsis, but the manner in
which 1t finds expression on this
day and date is a manner that fails
to do justice to even a second-rate
idea.
Beryl Mercer. in the role of
Jimmy's step-mother. still has her
acting standard above par. and
Charles McNaughton is, to all ap-
pearances, very convincing as a re-
turned British Tommy" Frank
Monroe, as already stated, is thor
oughly competent actor. Cyril Chad
wick struggled manfully with a
role that was once or twice funny,
thanks to Chadwick.