The New York herald., 1922-08-20

their success may be, are in good
company. 1t must be borne in mind
that Henri Bernstein, Edward
knoblock, Sacha Guitry, and this
year William Shakespeare, as well as
the undivulged number of well known
foreign playwrights whose works are
acquired and then for one reason or
another passed on to other managers
are also to be included In the list of
playwrights selected by this man
ager.
With "The Woman" which was
credited on the program to an idea of
Cecil de Mile. Mr.. Belasco announced
that he was going to try a new way
of acquiring the plays he needed. He
was going to buy ideas and not dramas
when there seemed to him the kernel
of success in a playwright's theme.
Evidently the plan did not work out,
as no subsequent work was described
as the result OF such a process. Or 1t
may be that he is still pursuing the
same method, since some of his dra-
matists seem SO completely his own
creation.
Maybe Mr.. Osborne win keep right
on and pile up success after success as
the result OF his "own unaided efforts"
as the suspicious pedagogues used to
make the boys write on their examina-
ton papers. More power to him. but
that does not weaken the evidence Of
"Shore Leave that he Is to-day one of
the Belasco playwrights.
"The Monsters" Second Act.
The second act of Crane wilbur's
''The Monster" provokes as much inter-
est In the minds OF the audience as the
divulgence of a magician's prepara-
tlons for "see aunts," as the medium
in w. ID. Howells's The Undiscovered
Country" was in the habit of calling
an exhibition OF her hocus-pocus.
There are TO be sure no heavily en-
broidered fiounces OF velvet about the
tables and no Oriental draperies are
pendent in convenient spaces on the
walls. But there are equally sus-
picious paraphernalia to suggest the
chills 10 come.
Over a bed at the rear of the room
there is a canopy OF tufted satin, sky
blue In tint. Obviously it's purpose is
not the innocent protection Of the
sleeper beneath. Nearer the front of
the stage is a stuffed divan SO rigid in
outline as to intimate Enthusiastically
its purpose in keeping up the houp-la
when that shall become necessary. In
corner Is a stiff bench covered with
drapery under which the hero is
destined ultimately TO rest. II is only
when one OF tho characters seeks
sleep on these phony bits Of furniture
that their modus operandi becomes
apparent.
Slowly the tufted canopy descends 70
suffocate the heroine once she Is on
the bed, The hero falls Immediately
into some subterranean prison once
he has been stretched on the bench.
The last resort OF the harassed maiden
is the divan, and az the cuStain falls
shc is seen clasped In the black arms
OF the hosts dumb. servant This
elaborate decoration has exactly the
Same effect on tho spectator that all
tho mechanism OF the prestlgitateur
arouses. Whatever its power 70 excite
may be. one is impressed that he had
TO take a dickens OF lot OF apparatus
TO do II all.
Just as the magician accomplishes
his effects more impressively when he
is wearing a dinner coat or even a So
called swallow tail than when he is
swathed in Japanese garments so does
tho mystery play mystify most COM
pletely when It's means are simplest.