Evening star., 1927-05-01

~ effort TO get from Ddd 10
~ worse was frustrated when
4 n The Night Hawk" was pre-
sented. There is no longer any
worse. The limit was reached some
time ago. A toboggan must have
an end. The bump has taken place.
A favorite motto of oynicism, Cheer
up, the worst is yet to come, no
longer holds.
X
The Lepane Amusement Co. IS
one OF the unfamiliar enterprises
that huttcr through the theater
from time to time. It must be said
for the commercial playhouse that
an encounter with reeking audacity
is far less frequent under its aus
pices than under those whose inter-
est is evidently experimental and
based on the assumption that mat
ters commonly rated as 'unspeak-
able will be heard with pleasure by
= public whose taste has been entire
" demorahzed.
The willingness of the public TO
accept rough material for the sake
Of some powerful story. or some
peculiar dexterity in the handling of
human speech, has emboldened pro-
ducers of the less responsible class
TO assume that the public desires in
reality what it pretends to deplore.
It is a sort of bootleg drama which
undertakes to flourish on hypocrisy
and DEFY the police.
The unpleasant drama which brief
fy asserts itself through lack OF in
telligent theme and we'll studied ex-
preston is usually the sheerest
mimicry. 1t is composite fan
tasy. like a NEUROLOGICAL beast con-
structed by employing the body OF
one animal and the head OF another,
and, perhaps, the feet of still an
other.
The Night Hawk" first addresses
its initiative attentions to Ladies of
the Evening" retrogrades from that
point to Damaged Goods" and then
falls back into a remote era that
told the fable of Faust and as
sumes that the science OF a very
learned man can discover the secret
OF turning old age into youth.
x X x
1t is too bad that the authorship
OF the play felt it necessary to go
into the scientific and clinical aspect
of the assumed situation. 1t would
have been much more satisfying if
the lady had been intent to have her
face lifted and proceed from that
point with the reformatory aspira-
tions which long custom in other
directions made difficult.
x 4 4 X
The work lacks the element of
thoughtful sincerity which, however
slight, must at least afford the mar
rative an opportunity TO clutch for
support. Damaged Goods" asserted
this element in its introduction of
one OF the most terrifying warnings
that could be conveyed by the vivid
mechanism of the theater Even
Ladies of the Evening" held out the
little message of hope to which
every one on earth is entitled, even
the man who waits for some miracle
TO release him from the death cell.
4 x
"The Night Hawk" does not even
permit sympathy with the leading
role. 1t falls into a farcical wreck
age from which no amount of effort
at sentimental leverage can extricate
it. 1t is unfortunate that Grace
Valentine should have permitted her
self to be linked into SO impractical
an enterprise. TO which she lends by
her acting its one suggestion of
praiseworthy relief. Her work is
suggestive OF that of Miss Eagles in
Rain" and compares with it.
X
There is something to admire in
the mind of an author who, with
keen perception and a strong arm,
reaches for a theme into the muck
where human experience produces
strange specimens. There is nothing
TO bring cheer in the rude copy that
offers only a distorted image of the
original. Compared with the study
of Miss Sadie Thompson in Rain"
the character analysis of Miss Maisie
Buck is very arid affair.
The copy seldom strikes with en-
phasis the note which mag redeem
the play based on viciousnessfn some
little degree toward a claim for
human sympathy. In Ladies of the
Evening it was not the character
of the heroine that attracted the
most interest, carefully directed as
II was to tread some perilous paths
IN the plot. It was Edna Hibbard as
the outlaw, hard as nails and merci-
less toward every passing check
book, who gave the cue for numer-
GUS resembling types. 1t was one of
the few instances where Mr.. Be-
lasco's comedy relief ran away with
his original intentions.
+
It is the custom when a play or a
story or a dance arouses resentfu1
comment to point to some artist who
has used the same story of the same
character with no dimunitiou of re-
spect Tor his talents and personality.
It is quite d common incident for
musicians to trace a melody which
lays no claim to respectful appreci-
alton to one Of the great composers
who lived long ago. The process by
which the natural musician huns
something by ear which has struck
his fancy and turns it into a compo-
sltion Of his own is similar to that OF
the inexperienced author who is
struck by something that he has OBJ
served i'll his playgoing or reading
1orgets its source and proceeds to
reinterpret it within his own lmita-
tons.