The Washington herald., 1922-05-23
BY EARLE DORSEY.

BY EARLE DORSEY.
David Belasco frequently reminds
one of a patient but hard pressed
family man, faced with the heart.
breaking business of keeping his
family clothed and fed. No sooner,
apparently, does he fix up one chic
than here Is another, clamoriag for
something.
David warfield, the oldest boy, is
getting by in the old but service
able Peter Grimm" suit. Lionel
Atwill, onthe other hand, is already
exhibiting the frayed elbows OF
The Grand Duke" Leonore Uric
is dolled up. but in "Kiki" Fran
ces Starr, the oldest girl, is now
being measured for a new fall
outfit.
Hubert Osborne is the Starr de-
signer and his new creation was
given 4 fitting at the BelaEco last
night. Though glitteringly new and
frequently gaudy, this latest provi-
sion for Frances Starr shows
streaks of shoddy. Shore Leave"
sailors and seamstresscs.
I'll NliC play Is NCIy
biguous. 1t reveals that a woman
in love can out-idiot all the idots
but it reveals, almost in the same
breath, that the highest sacrifice
can be made gladly for love. even
by a small l-town seamstress. Here
lies the chief fault of the play.
which fails conclusively to make
clear the real course of its pur-
pose and action.
Shore Leave" shows US Miss
Starr as an impecunious and un-
sought modiste. Love comes in the
uniform of a soilor. ashore. on leave
and lonesome. They talk; he brings
next night. With vast urbanity
and condescension he, eats her sup
per. kisses her, and goes his way
promising to return some day."
r The modiste. however, is a one
man woman, and love has mounted
her in her breast. The sailor. in
his rough condolences. has spoken
OF ambition and a desire to be a
master. The girl sells an heirloom,
packs off an old skipper to salvage
a wreck, and fits it up against the
coming of her sailor love He
comes a last, quite by accident, and
he doesn't remember her. GlibIy
he lies himself out of the predica-
ment and with convenient swift
ness proposes and is accepted. Be
fore the wedding can be performed
he finds she has money, and cuts
her on the spot.
This leads into Act III, which
finds Miss Star as seamstress
again, poor but eligible for a sail
or's favor. He enters. begrimed
with coal dust. telling a tale of a
navy discharge and having stocked
him way from Rio. The girls hap
piness infects the sailor in some
marvellous way. and he's ready to
marry. provided she's poor. All her
resources, 1t appears, have been
made over to her first child, provid-
ed his name Is Smith, and provided
a number of other things. Appar-
emily both are happy and both in
love. but somehow playwright,
producer and star fail to make
plausible this astonishing fact.
However,
The Belasco production, with It's
unctuous ease and deceiving grace,
goes far toward concealing the in
herent emptiness of the play. Fur
thermore. the comedy touches are
frequently profound and find much
of their basis in the sailor char
acter.
The second act marks the first
departure from plausibility, and at
points it almost touches farce. Par
ticularly strained is the play
wrights effort to bring financial
resources to the aid of such a
heroine. Profoundly puzzling be-
come the means selected by the
heroine to first isolate and then
hog-tie her hero; but it is accom-
plished with a certain amount of
dispatch. if not conviction, and the
incidental touches of comedy and
Characterization go far to blur the
emptiness of the play.
Miss Starr, however, finds no real
emotional role in the. play. Nor
does she find opportunity to por-
tray even real pathos, though a
vast amount of pains is taken to
drum up this commodity. 1t lacks
tithe of the force of THE Easiest
Way" and it is comparable, in its
a1mlessness. to Mr.. Knoblock's re-
cent One"
1t is. however, worth seeing, par
tlcularly with the cast that Miss
Starr finds grouped about her,