The New York herald., 1922-08-13


They are guests of the heroine. who
she may get on the trail Of her lover.
The humors of their life. their pleasures
and their sufferings when brought
into contact with society are revealed.
So there Is a whole act of uninter-
iaqted fun. Mr.. Beiasco's interpreta-
tion Of Mr.. Osborne was undoubtedly
one Of which the play was patient
Otherwise it's complete success at the
opening performance would have been
impossible.
The Vogue Of My.tery.
II is the desire to divert a little bit
of the other fellows business which
has had the effect Of crowding the
New York stage with mystery plays
during the earlier weeks Of the sea-
son. Whispering Wires came sue
cessfully through the ordeal at the
Forty-ninth Street Theater. Even
more elaborate In it's paraphenalia of
mystery is THE Monster" by Crane
Wilbur. which is occupying the Thirty
ninth Street Theaters stage. Mr.. wal
bur is the actor who had time enough
from his efforts before the camera to
turn out q number of plays notable
for their intensely melodramatic char
acter and their search for sensation
at any cost He has made the So
called play Of mystery more elaborate
than any of his colleagues. Whisper
ing Wires" save for tho theatrical
means by which the death OF the
leading character is brought about, is
simple In It's processes. Kate Nc
Laurin took the material for her three
acts from short story contributed
to a magazine Of weekly fiction by
Henry Leverage.
1t is not healthy sign for the
future of these plays of mystery that
writers dnd it necessary to surround
their incidents with so much irrele-
want aid to bewilderment. In THE
Bat" an occasional hand reached from
behind a drapery or a symbol Of the
thief was seen on q panel. But the
action passed In country home. The
most exciting murder Is the least un-
usual. To kill a man or woman In a
two room, bath and litchenette apart
n1ent at in the afternoon on a
popular thoroughfare Is in its effects
more horrifying than any killing that
ever took place in the old belfry at
midnight. Detective stories are like
Herbert Spencer's ideal style. impress
sive in ratio to their lack of effort.
In tale or play the effort may be
present. But tho revelation Of it
weakens the effect OF every act
Mystification by the simple and every
day means of life is the most endur-
ing and striking. When Gaboriau and
Boisgobey were surrounding their
stories with all possible paraphernalia
Of crime there came into the field of
ephemeral literature story OF crime
by Anna Katherine Green which had
more genuine suspense than any pub
lished In thiS country ar Europe. 1t
was The Leavenworth Case" long
accounted the best of American de-
tective stories. This fame. 1t is need
less to say. came from the probability
and simplicity of the conditions which
the author laid down for herself. No
exotic or supernatural power was in
voked to solve this story Of murder
For Good OF Playwright.
30 It ought to be with the mystery
play that is going to be most success
full In its effect on the listener. Light
ming may flash, thunder roar, tele-
phones discharge bullets and the wind
sigh about the inky rooms. Yet to on
thrall the spectators with the aid OF
none of these arbitrary and theatrical
means. makes the best kind of a mys-
terry whether It be divided into acts or
chapters
1t is for the good OF the playwrights
therefore that they are urged to bear
in mind the value of such simple mears
OF creating their effects. Sardou wrote
In Fedora" nothing more than a good
mystery play and there are no other
qualities In Sir James Young's Jim
the Penman." Yet they made theater
history In their time. Doubtless both
playwrights could have invented un-
essential bugaboos to make them seem
more mysterious. Luckily II was not
necessary. They knew their craft. So
they could impart to every line and
action more absorbing eloquence than
might have oome from all the thunder
and lightning and midnight darkness
that tho property man could invent
for them.
In no other field do our entrepreneurs
of the theater excel more decisively
than they do in the review. Flo Zieg-
field took this altogether local form of
entertainment from the Paris stage
and improved on It year by year until
the perfected "Follies" at the New
Amsterdam Theater shows 20 what
extent he has surpassed on his model
Other managers always following him
at an appreciable distance have made
their reviews moro elaborate, more
comic or beautiful than their predeces-
sors in the City OF Light are now able
to do. There was at one time only the
question of expense in which the ma
tive article was superior to Its inspira-
tion. Now there are few details In
which the New York impresario does
not surpass his rival whether he be in
London or Paris. The reviews in Lon
don are as a matter of fact supplied as
TO their best features with the con-
tribuuons Of the American producers
Tho Follies on the stage OF Mr.. Er-
langer's theater this summer would be