Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-24
Romping Drama and
History IN Films
Bv Ph1ander Johnson.

WHEN that great controversiaiist.
w Houdini. decided to adopt brow
beating audiences into satisfied sub
mission as a life career, the world
lost d great politician He has
facile method of creating an impress
sion that a great argument Is gong
ping forward with the assumption
that he. and he alone. is competent
to settle it. From the outset no
man was more defiant OF the popu-
lace. His tricks OF escape from
ropes. chains and boxes were height
encd in interest by the lack of pic
turcsque embellishments which left
an audience sitting sometimes Tor
nearly an hour with nothing to do
except to picture in its own mind
the terrific struggling OF a Sitting
t1nan who perhaps this time was go
ing TO iai!. And all the while no
doubt the cunning magician real
ling the psychological effect OF de
lay, was sitting back>tage in com
tort, smoking a cigarette.
x r K
IN argument was apparently on
between Houdini and Mark Con-
nelly. the author of The Wisdom
Tooth. as to the possibility OF
trauslating the supernatural INTO
r1naterialistic terms: that Is, such an
argument seemed preSumahIe during
the earlier progress OF the play
which avoids, however, laying down
sny dogrnatic assertions one way or
another It preserves an ethereal
imaginative quality very rare III the
American theater. The play i III
danger OF missing appreciation. tor
the reason that il is so unexpected
no amount of persua sion is likely to
convince any large number OF play
.coors that anything so closely AKIN
to the charming fancies OF James
Barrie could be produced in New
York show factory.
1t cannot be quite claimed that Mr..
Connolly shows the same delicate
land apparently ingenious gilt Tor
tprcposterous drolleries such as ra-
sliate continually through such crea-
tons as Peter Pan or Mss Tor
K indcrella." But drollcry is there,
and behind il a sweet sympathy Tor
Mouth that humanizeS il with poetic
dignity.
The fearful handicap OF the con-
~vcntional New York dialect phllol-
hgy unto itself. rejecting distortions
pi English through the influence. IN
greater or less degree. OF every Ian
guage spoken in the world. is easily
Carricd by the excellent young actor.
Mr.. Mitchell, who plays the part
XII the bov too ready to surrender
rlaims to a personality Of his own.
4 !: 4
Barrie's PLAYS give him an advan
Hacc in allowing him to use the dia-
beet proper 10 his street scenes
Without so much afront to the ear.
While it is sometimes broad and
funny. it is still English speaking
dialect and not the harsh Babel esque
Eonglomeration OF noises so rapidly
welding itself into sort Of homo
pcneity in the United States Me
tropolis.
There arc pretty "reminiscences
throughout the play which survive
b1dNtlN anu II dNSIulN> NoiliPai suns
1,cre with Maeterlinck S Blue Bird.
or there. with the Return Of Peter
Grim" 1t is the kind of play a sue
Ucssiul author should compel himself
10 write now and then for the sake
81 the appreciative patron who may
dave grown little weary OF the
Jingle of coin i'll the box Office or
The odor of paste on the billboards.
Under his seeming fantasies there
continues to be protest against the
bondage attempted by commercial
routine. in so far as It may tend to
crush out ideals and individuality :
protest such as was suggested so
adroitlv in "Beggar on Horseback.
It's an old German proverb that
what cannot be said may often be
sung" While Mr. Connolly does not
90 so far as to adjust his social re-
sentiments 70 metrical form. he GOV
srs them warily with smiling eN-
travagance and goes on, through
sheer ina blity to restrain himself
5ron conhding 50 great joke. He