New-York tribune., 1920-02-03
By Haywood Broun

Miss Maxine Elliott made trium
phant temperance on the American
stage last night at the theater which
bears her name in William Hurlbut's
comedy, Trimmed in Scarlet" Her
dressmaker shared the honors. for if
was a triumph which was wholly per
sonal and visual. The lines of the play
were not nearly as good
IN 1act, Irimmed in Scarlet" is per
maps the sllliest play of the season. At
times 1t is fatuous beyond the limits
OF endurance. For instance, the plav
sets forth that Cordelia, the heroine.
mas galllvanted about Europe with
scores of men for fifteen years without
the slightest deviation from rectitude.
~ seems TO US that virtue Of that sort
Is little short Of indecent
Again. there was a scene in the first
act II which Miss Elliott as the hero
me was called upon to stand and gaze
upon an infant child Of three months
OF age in his carriage and to weep and
gurgle as she gazed. 1t was child to
which she had not even been intro
duced and 1t was asleep. Perhaps Mr.
1iurlbut has some insight into a
mothers heart which is denied to US,
but we have considerable baby carriage
mileage to our credit and we have
never been moved to cry while he slept.
In fact we have never been able to
teel any more emotional than an At
lantic City negro pushing a tired bust
ness man up the boardwalk
once more we were moved almost to
revolt when Cordelia put her nineteen
year-old son to sleep by reading him
fairy tale. When the play goes on the
road we trust that the manager will not
neglect to book it for two weeks at the
bottom Of the treacle we'll, for the three
bn 70
the days of Alice in Wonderland"
would undoubtedly be moved TO cry
'goody, goody.' at the end Of every
act.
Every strange and implausible device
OF artificial comedy is employed at one
time or another during the evening.
Cordelia's son steals money from his
employer out of the sheer goodness of
his heart in order to protect his mother
from blackmailers He just knows the
stones about her scandalous character
can be true because everybody repeats
them and II Is q good dramatic axiom
that where there is much smoke there
can't possibly be any ire Of course,
ne doesn't go to prison, because his
mother wheedles $4,000 out of the
employer and then virtuously tells the
brute to leave her apartment before
he can insult her further by giving her
any more money.
The play is OF such An Impossible
nature that it presents difficult task
for any actress, but it seemed to us
that the false air of extreme .gayetv
which Miss Elliott carried with her
throughout the greater part Of the eve
ming wa: not particularly fetching or
artful. However. it might be possible
TO take a text from one character. who
said, Il don't see how anybody could
blame you for anything" and it is true
that Miss Elliott looks so beautiful
that her evening in the theater must
be said to count for something.
The opportunities afforded to the
members of her company are not dis
tinguished. Lumsden Hare is pleasant
and there is a promising performance
by young actor named Sidney Black
mer in an exceedingly silly part.
Charles Hanna as the blackmailer was
by far the most likable person in the
play, because he never said anything
about how perfectly, wonderfully, rapt-
urously happy il made him to receive OF
give mother love.