The New York herald., 1921-12-27
DitrichStein as
Wall Street Man
In Face Value
Plays Well Role Of Financier
in Comedy Adapted From
the italian.

Leo DltflcnStein mas set out 10 pe
great lover. even among stocks and
bonds. In Face Value" the comedy in
which he became the votive offering
last night at the dedication of the Shu-
berts's new Forty-ninth Street Theater,
he carried the grand manner Of a squire
OF danes into a business office in Wall
street. He had TO overcome a double
handicap. for he not only had to make
the magic of romance break through a
bankers frock coat and radiate from pin
striped trousers. but he also had to have
It shine from what was advertised as a
face so homely 1t amounted to dis
tnction.
Yes, the suave Mr.. Ditrichstein. who
has heretofore played beau cavaliers.
last night appeared as a middle aged
gentleman so ugly his friends seemed
to take pride in pointing that fact out
to him. TO accentuate the evidence. he
played the part In a wig-shades of
THE Purple Mask" a red wig! It's
carroty color was as flaming as the
grand passions that he has hitherto de-
picted
He may have been preparing the
public for this last season when he
played an elderly roue with a homely
gray toupee that might have come OFF a
spitz dog. But last evening, when he
suddenly burst forth In a family hotel
reception room in New York with his
fiery headpiece, aggravated by black
horn-rimmed spectaclee, the audience
clutched its chair arms. To add to the
deception, he had acquired little sandy
tc4o 1t,o 1xak In "a IA
ger of being swallowed in the corners
os his mouth
His Cowic Performance.
This made his performance comic
priori, so that whenever the dialogue
failed to scintillate. the audience had only
TO look at the star and feel they were
getting their moneys worth. Perhaps 1t
was suggested because "Toto,' in which
he appeared here last season, was the
name OF a Hippodrome clown. who like
wise had red thatch. But 1t compelled
the actor to work twice as hard to ex-
hibit his romantic flair. which may have
been one reason why the grand manner
seemed trihe subdued. just as he had
20 subdue the lights whenever ladies
were to look upon his face.
But that method of love a Ia grand
opera was infused into the second act,
even when he was saving the wife of a
good friend from handsome philan-
derer with whom she had a rendezvous
in the family hotel where, as Is the way
Of some family hotels, the atmosphere Of
gossip was almost as strong as the
aroma of cooking.
One suspects that in the original
italian comedy by Sabatino Lopez the
banker stayed in the wife's room merely
to maintain her husbands credit with
her. But Miss Solita Solano, in adapting
the play with a certain degree Of skill,
seems to have turned It so that Ditrich-
stein might have his appropriate moment
for being swept away by his feelings.
An Engaging Scene.
So quite an engaging. II somewhat
Drotracted. scene ensues, in which the
financier seeks tactfully to win his wager
with the handsome rounder that a clever
man can win woman in the face of q
sketchy countenance. In this act
woman mistakes him for the physician
and won't go away till he gives her
prescription, and for an adept curtain
;he banker leaves with the husband of
he woman he has Just kissed begging
his pardon. The last act would make 1t
appear that the principal business trans
sctcd in n brokers office consists of
ing wherein the banker proposes to a
ward one had hardly suspected him of
loving.
The star carries the burden of the
play readily with his varied and eco
nomic methods, never losing his suavity,
oven when taking medicine. His ma
tionality as Jose Henriques seems as in
definite as the plays close. Miss
Frances Underwood gives him a fair
measure of support, though inclined to
run the scales with her voice. Orlando
Daily and Miss Nellie Burt assist capably
IN propounding an interesting question:
VIII the public as well as a woman take
10 n homely man?
The new theater Is one of the most
attractive yet opened. with walls In
matched oak, combined with shadings of
antique blue, and q handling in the
Renaissance period that sugRagD the
drawing room in an old English man
sion.