New-York tribune., 1921-01-31
Grace George
Returns to Stage
In ssNew Morality
Uneven Comedy by Harold
Chaplin Affords q Good
Opportunity to Star, ssThe
Night Watch at Century
BY Haywood Broun

duced at the Playhouse last night, IL
play Of intentions, Of 20 many inten-
tions and such diverse onsa that they
furnish rather uneven paving. There
are flashes Of Wit In the play, as well
az flashes and longer intervals Of dull
ness. Az least one speech ID not only
stirring IN context but admirably de-
|livered, and Harold Chaplin, the drsmat-
lat, hit upon the happy expedient Of
entrusting the wisest and shrewdest
words of the play to Q character freed
from inhibitions by intoxicstion. Still
more shrewly the producer has cast
Lawrence Grossmith for the role. AL
though the play has been selected as :
play it during series Of special matt
nees, the best opportunities fall to
Grossmith, and his is by far the best
performance.
It is indeed one Of the NEST light
comedy performances Of the season, q
performance good enough to recall the
work done by Mr.. Grossmith himself
last season in "Too Many Husbands"
Miss George plays expertly and anus
ingly in hte chief role. Ernest Lawford
is thrown away on . part which offers
him next to nothing, and Lillian Kemble
Cooper Is pleasant in another unim-
portant role. Warburton Gamble fails
to bring sufficiently light touch to the
blemish, as the play, for all its wealth
Of notions lightly touched upon, is in
substantial stuff. It concerns the COM
plications which occur when Betty
Jones speaks her mind to Mrs. Wister
on a neighboring houseboat. Mrs.
Wister insists on an apology, and three
acts are required to bring It about.
There are, as we have suggested,
bursts OF sparkling dialogue. but often
the wit is overelaborated to q point
where it becomes dull through inco-
herence. Harold Chaplin, the author,
S,,,.. wss young Englishman who was
seems lunquestionably to have been =
playwright of substantial promise, but
"The New Morality" does not carry the
conviction of finished piece of work.
"ln the Night Watch" an adaptation
from the French, which has spent the
better part of the seasop waiting about
for New York theater, arrived on
Saturday night at the Century and
failed. to show cause why it should
have been let in before. 1t had mo-
effectiveness, but the play did not
come up to the spectacle-did not, in
fact, even play fair duet with it. In
the plays interims of scenic value
there was simply no drama at all, and
| whore there vas drama it was not very
thrilling, nor was the acting Of it
more than middling good.
Michael Morton is the adapter Of
"The Night Watch" which the program
describes as having been done freely"
from Ferrere and Nepoty's LA Veille
N'ArTnoa 40 -.
in France and here, it depended on
whatever dramatic effectiveness there
might have been in the neglected wife
OF an engrossed husband, captain on a
ship or Of the French fleet, after she
had been told that the neet was not to
war and had thereupon retired with
an under officer to his cabin in her has
bands ship. The spectacular back
ground was added later.
once in the cabin she discovers that
the ship is going to war after all, and
there she is. Before she can manage
to get away the ship is sunk. A dis
aster Of some kind to the scenic finish
OF the sinking leaves US q little mud
died as to what happened at this
point. but presently we were all into
the third act, court martial, in which
the captain, who had somehow sur
vived, was being tried for losing his
SS.ip' MS arm nad Deen broken, but
his ignorance Of his wife's behavior
vas intact, SO that when the villain
denied that the captain had had signals
in secret code from the approaching
vessel with the torpedo 1t looked as II
all were over and the captain must die.
But then the wife made the "ereat sac
rifice'" and told how, she had also seen
the signals and from whose cabin.
I'm the Night Watch" must either
learn really to sink its ship and give
us spectacle. or Mr.. Morton must
adapt still more freely from his French
original and give US story. The per-
formances would perhaps have been
better If the play had been. So that
it seems hardly fair to do more than
say that the cast included Jeanne
Margaret Dale, Edmund Love. MAY
Figman and Macklyn Arbuckle, They
all. we think, did the best they could.
RhiIh n y~v,, n,>s~ Dp~, n.l.e