Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-07-13

"Temperamental Henry" has the max
ings Of a good comedy.
That appeared to be the verdict of the
initial performance Of "Temperamental
Henry" by Samuel SIerwIn at the Murat
last night.
There are some sure fire scenes IN the
comedy and some that lack action, espe-
cially the frs; thirty minutes.
1t remains to be decided II an adult
audience is keenly interested in a boy
who thinks he is a genius and whose love
affairs appear to be the compelling mo-
tive Of high accomplishments in the art
of short story writing.
Mr.. Merwin's Henry" Is the sort Of
lad who is probably called strange In
the community IN which he lives.
lie grows a little haIf-inch mustache.
carries little cane, runs up 4 $50 and
then some candy and soda bill at
small town drug store.
The Henry Of the play is a rare speci-
men, but we admit that he isn't just the
sort Of lad who IS bordering on TO
twenty-one and yet some OF his emotions
are natural.
There Is one splendid scene built
F dANAAiA the hbAAA EaAASpA VI tAb NbbN 81
and the very young bad" Rirl--both
have one bad quality, they both indl-
vldually meet Henry alone IN a room
whore there Is a cot.
Cicely is the good girl. played by Lael
Davis. who meets Henry in a room where
she fed after her parents forbade her
to meet Henry becauEe 81 small town
gossip.
Clcely has a pure heart and IS mighty
sweet in a little love scene but fear soon
causes her to run home. scared but a
little more In love with Henry.
Then Corinne Dong, played by Chris
label Hunter, enters the room whore
Henry is during the midnight hour.
Corinne is one OF those small town
vampires who attempts 10 strut like
Theda Bara and who raves over the
smart clothes OF Henry and his young
hut ambitious must8che.
To our way Of thinking. Miss Hunter
in the second act does some work which
| is as zine, honest and as powerful as we
have seen for many moons.
/ Judging by the applause. Miss Hunter
/ rang up the great big individual hit of
4 the evening as the small town girl against
/ whom careful mothers point their fingers
as the glowing example of a wicked crea-
/ ture.
Fine mighty fine work, Miss Hunter
and We would not care to see "Tempera-
mental Henry" without you.
1t is this second scene, In our humble
| opinion, which will save the comedy. as
both the first and third acts are stretched
out and bit too talky.
It is a new idea to introduce n small
town vamp, Mr.. Merwin, and it Is a
bully good idea
Now this small town vamp, this Cor
lime, would be called Chicken" In the
slang Of the street and It is to this
character that Mr.. Merwin's genius has
been best applied
In fact Corinne is immense as Just
printed page character. but she is
many times moro interesting as acted
by Miss Hunter.
You may know many Henrys in your
list OF promising Juveniles, but the writer
| is not so fortunate.
We believe. that Elliott Nugent has
created Henry just as the author intend
| ed and his performance is always inter
esting and Mt times is very fine.
| In fact, Mr.. Walker, the splendid work
Of your three players, Nugent, Miss
! Hunter and Miss Davis. caused a great
| part of the demonstration Of approval
on the part of the audience
| The audience liked the work Of the
three principal players and they showed
| 1t many, many times.
Others In the cast include Aldrich
Bowker. John Wray. Mckay Norris,
George Somnes and many others