The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-19


matter, any other lost soil, get a footi
identity OF some more fortunate woma
So her apparition was awaited. She
might come back in a variety of mani
festations. She might be a Red Cross
nurse, who had taken the name of
another lost in the tragedy abroad
or she might be any American direlict
who tried to Chamber back to decency
by impersonating another of superior
station in life. The manager waited
Evidently the playwrights had no
longer any confidence in the power of
this false heroine to hold the interest
of her public. Certain characters in
fiction and in the drama seem to ex-
haust their power to charm after
periods Of usefulness. Evidently the
woman who came back as another had
fallen into this. group. So the New
Magdalen in spite of the passage of
time after the arnistice did not take
her place again on the stage.
she Belongs in MeIodrnma.
Such character belongs of course,
70 melodrama, whether the action pass
in the quietude Of a dwelling or be
played all over the island Of Manhat-
VhclOuTdHlt ~ no longer easy TO
place In public credulity. The body
blow that the cinema has dealt the
theatre Is the discounting OF melo-
drama It is so much better adapted
to the screen. It's incongruties may
there be reconciled. The spoken word
seems to accentuate its improbabilities
So nobody nibbled at the old bait and
no new incarnation of Mercy Me7rfck
was seen In the theatre.
Then suddenly she came from an
together unsuspected source. Dod-
ION Mitchell wrote "Cornered," in which
a girl Of the slums is able to imper-
senate young woman of wealth, so
great Is their physical resemblance.
She takes the place of the more for
iunate girl just as in the earlier melo-
dramas. the false guest Is received in
he place Of the Just. In the case of
he play at the Aston Theatre. how
aver. the deception was intended to
erdure only while her accomplices
robbed the house.
Thief Made Much or.
But Immediately this importer. very
,, 2 iuringly impersonated by Miss Madge
Kennedy, becomes the heroine of the
play. Even the lover who had pro-
fessed affection for the woman she is
falsely representing, becomes her
-uorer. When the unfortunate woman
VINO has innocently been supplanted in
her own house does return she Is shot
in the head for her pains. Entirely
innocent of all wrong. she is immedi-
ately made the unsympathetic charac-
ter in her battle with the intruder.
Never was the criminal in play more
coddled than this arrival from China
town. Everybody comes to the rescue
az the counterfeiting guttersnipe. She
fs petted by the admiring throng while
the woman whose place she Is trying
70 take lies with her wound unable to
defend herself.
II isl after all. just as well that she
was insensble while her successor In
the affections OF all was making her
Nv so easily. The shot had the agree
bic effect of an anaesthetic.
errh a. conversion OF the cheat into the
snroine OF a story continued until there
Vas complete sanctity for her. She was,
of.nr all. twin sister to tire rich girl
~, identlv this fact made 1t all right 70
shoot the other, rob her of her lover as
,yell "a her friends and put her into
uositlon altogether subsidiary TO the
honest girl who had been an entirely
proper person. Just see what she got Tor
n. Ask her IL she believes virtue is Its
own reward. Such an amazing distor-
| ton OF symoathies as "Cornered" con-
| talna has rarely been witnessed In melo-
drama. But there are other things In
| "Cornered" which have never been wit
| seescd In melodrama and probably never
| will be so long as that style Of play
exists
The Departing visiters.
body need take the failure of THE
I.iStIo Visters' TO repeat here It's Lon
dDn prosperity as any indication Of a
acls OF artistic discrimination Already
there IL tendency TO refer to the greater
appreciation of bedroom farces by New
York audiences ms cause for the few
Representations of the piece.
AS n matter OF fact there was very
little In the dramatic--or rather stage
version of the so-called Daisy Ashford
story to amuse the general public. II
was capital diversion to those familiar
with Miss Ashford's book. 1t was a
rcvel and fantastic arrangement OF a
nfrrV. The sight az fha T,rfrco ~ yUoIoe