The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-02-01
MACK HAS LIVELY
FIGHT IN NEW PLAY
Near Santa Barbara Former
ly Poker Ranch Here.

When Near Santa Barbara" willard
Mack's latest romantic drama, opened at
the Greenwich Village Theatre last night
it drew the first real blood of the theat-
rical season. For when Mack. starring
himself in the play as Bin Tratnor,
Western rancher learned that Phil
Yedocr-one of them slick fasteners
had planted a servant In the Trdinor
home for his own fen purposes, Mack
walloped the other man so nard on the
nose that he shed some of his precious
red corpuscles for art.
That round was distinctly in favor Of
the actor-dramatist. Perhaps Mack's
talk earlier in the play as the inveterate
gambler about losing money on the Will
lard-Johnson brawl had spurred him on
almost to putting the other actor almost
hors de combat before he was finally
shot behind the scenes. But IL Joseph f.
Sweeney as YedGer has enough vital
fluid to furnish nightly and is willing to
have his proboscis tapped like this for
the run of the piece it's bound to be
success It's almost a knockout at this
point The spectators were so stirred
that they practically forgot the rumbling
of the subway underneath. which earlier
in the evening they had confused with
the stage storm.
But aside from the very real punch In
this third act there are other moments
which Indicate that Mack didn't always
have the same strong right arm in writ
ing IT, To begin with, the situation is
as familiar as poker. Trdtnor addicted
to cards. loses $4,000 TO his neighbor,
Yod0er, doesn't want 10 tell his wife,
tas a jolly hard time raising the money
and then complications set In like an cpl
Genie The upshot is that Yca1cr IL
killed, and after everyone. particularly
Trdinor has been suspected. the play
wright clears up the mystery with an
entlseptic solution. Everybody is happy,
you might say. but the corpse.
This piece. originally called Poker
Ranch" is a good lesson against gam
bling. but not good lesson in play writ
ing. verglng at times on melodrama. It
yet has a mild first act that makes the
locality appear so tame a rattlesnake
would die of ennui there. That act
could be dropped overheard, making
scarcely splash. Moreover, as the au-
dlence can see, the hero is on the stage
when the fatal shots are fired out in the
property room, Il refuses TO believe the
accused hero will suffer more than the
temporary Inconvenience of having his
{ cigarettes cut off in jail On the other
hand, the finger OF suspicion isn't
strongly enough levelled al all the other
cl aracters in turn to keep the interest
up by making this first rate guessing
contest for the spectators.
Yet the play has much entertaining
and sometimes thrilling material. with
seveYal character sketches that lift 1t
above the meridian OF Sheridan Square.
Charles Able makes Of Mtke NcKenste,
an old prospector and plainsman, d.
verting Lightnin' Bin Jones character,
human enough not to seem TO have been
made on tho premises. Miss Clara Joel
had somewhat special character OF an
Eastern girl who developed Western
primitive traits, though she insisted on
playing mild as well as emotional scenes
with a vibrant dark brown voice. Macks
own personality stood out fairly well,
but except for Luis Albernl and Miss
lola Talma, as two MexIcans, the other
were as colorless as chapar-
raj william II. Wellman, the producer
has given Il an ambitious staging and II
will serve 20 pass the long winter eve
rfp