New-York tribune., 1921-12-23
The New PLAY
By Percy Hammond
H. B. Warner Is Employed
in ssDanger,'' Mr.. Cosno
Hamilton's Most
Flossy Drama
THIN CAST

xss ~ S,tuts ess. Leslie fowaru
Eliaaheth ............s.. Ruth Hammond @
Mary Mary Hubbard Kathlene Masponeli
s9nm aen fatSroy scorrier. III. u, Warner
The Hon, Algernon Meakn, N. P..,K. orsle
Mr.. Cosmo Hainilton's works for the
htheater have been so smooth in manu-
faeture and so astute Of intention that
one is troubled this forenoon to iden-
tify his newest product, "Danger!" as
an output Of his efficient laboratories.
A keen playwright. Mr.. Hamilton,
with much sophistication in his points
OF view and with q vast shrewdness,
tempered for the more wary by smart,
if somewhat elegant, literacy. He told
| the tale of Scandal" with thin, vel
vety impudence and in "The Silver Fox"
he managed deftly to assign a lot of
handsome ideas and conversations to
interesting characters equipped for
their utterance.
No botch issues from Mr.. Hamilton's
pen. Yet something resembling that
sorry thing was performed at the
j ul1t ~illiAtA OtlcGt 1ucdtSI ldSI StC~
ming, when the upright Mr.. H. B. War
ner and others were called upon to
quicken and to make lifelike the stilted
and elocutionary proceedings entitled
"Dangeri"
X * *
Mr.. Warner was righteous British
barrister, married beneath him and
madly in love with the soulless and
sexless offspring of horse trainer.
Though slim, blond and good to look
upon, ice inhabited her veins, and his
honeymoon advances were repulsed by
her. On their wedding night he took
her in his arms and pleaded to be alone
with her because he wanted the taste
of her lips. But she laughed at him
and locked her chamber door. She, as
Mr.. Hamilton explained, hoisted the
bleak colors of disillusioned feminism.
and declined to make her white and
slender person either headquarters
tor passion or mere incubator of the
human race. She yearned for politics,
and, as the saying goes, for social pre-
/ feYment. Mr.. Warmers winning caligra-
pher (Miss Katherine MacDonell) had
other ideas. Sock-darning, child bear
| ing and thankfulness constituted her
! salubrious creed. Aghast at the awful
frigidity of his lovely bride, Mr.. War
ner took the old gun out of the old
drawer, aimed it at the old bean and
was rescued in the old nick of time by
his sweet amanuensis, who told him
quietly that she loved him.
| * I. !:
The principal handicap of Mr.. Ham
ilton's Danger" is its miasmatic ora
tory. The speech of all its characters
is planned and rhetorical, full of
commas and semi-colons. It's graceful
adjectives, like those of some dramatic
critics, "hunt in pairs" and are formal
and affected. You must, of course, be
told about the "big scene'' of the play.
Eager to have her husband become a
member of Parliament, the arctic bride
promises him that if he will do so she
| will unlock her door and open her
arms. Mr.. Warner becomes indignant
at the proposition. "Shall trade my
honesty" he cries, "for my own wife's
virgin body?" and the echoes of probity
answer, "No!"
!: x :..s
Mr.. Warner, in the play, is, as is his
habit, a fine, suffering fellow. The War
ner handclasp is closer than that of
most actors, and his grip upon the
shoulder of a friend is among the
most fervent in the playhouses. Miss
MacDonell as the lovely typewriter is
that wonderful thing in the theater, a
nice girl, and Miss Marie Goff, though
burdened by Mr.. Hamilton's phrases, is
cold and evolutionary; and there is a
hully trifie by Miss Ruth Hammond as
one of those humorous maid servants.
I'll wager that like Danger" better
than Mr.. Cosmo Hamilton does, and
that it was written long, long time
ego.