Evening star., 1929-09-01
A K R. COHAN'S new play. Cam
M bling" is a sincere effort by a
w cunning and conscientious

NJ R. COHAN'S new play. Cam
Nh bling" is sincere effort by a
IvK cunning and conscientious
1 i Snowman to narrate for the
amusement of his fellow men
some vivid paragraphs in the history Of
a sentimental gamester. That it lacks
the velocity habitual to the Cohan
operas is deplorable, but amends are
made for its laZineSS by the fruitful
labors of Mr.. Cohan himself as he por-
trays with sure deliberation the char
acter of a super-Canf1eld or Honest
John Kelly. Professional gamblers. they
say, are the most honorable of business
men, as well as the most fascinating.
From Montauk Point to Palm Beach
they are distinguished for their recti-
tude, and the word Of an humble crou-
pier in French Lick is as dependable as
the bond of a Wall street f1nancler. Mr..
Cohan at the Fulton Theater is gam
bier de luxe, In whose steely eyes there
is no CLINT of perfidy, and whose every
iron-gray hair is a scrupulouS symbol OF
good faith and square dealing.
Who, Mr.. Cohan asks in Gambling"
murdered the little girl who had been
entrusted to him by her dying father,
his best pal and the gamest chap that
Seattle? Ray Braddock, the butterfly
scion of the Braddock family of metro
politan bankers, was indicted for the
crime and acquitted, so it was up to Mr..
Cohan to devote his life thereafter to
discover her slayer and bring him to
judgment. This determination brought
him into contact with couple Of little
sisters of the night, one noble, the other
a hard-boiled villainess. And after all
his sly flirtations and diplomacies he
found that he was all wrong in his sus-
picions. Perhaps it Is because Mr..
Cohan Is in such troubled state of
mind that the conversation in Cam
bling" is not of the graphic character
expected from a Broadway racketeer.
There isn't % nifty" In all of its four
acts.
THE season so far has given us no
= inkling of the topics that will be
favorites with the dramatists this year.
From the long and cryptic list of an
nounced titles it is impossible to detect
the nature of the rich gifts the play
wrights plan to give us. In recent years
there has been tendency in the drama
to survey the human soul as 1t Is win
dowed In the night clubs, the newspaper
Offices, the prize-f1ght arenas, the evan
gelists' pulpitS and the more spectacular
centers of robbery, homicides, bootleg |
ging and concubinage. Those subjects, |
having been drained, II not exhausted,
are abandoned, no doubt. for fresher |
themes, and we shall have light ere
Spring arrives again on several propo-
sitions now awaiting expression upon
the stage.
Many matters Of consequence to the
public are ripe for the dramas strin-
gent inquiries The Hague, farm relief,
Rudy Valee driving while intoxicated,
the Boy Scout movement and the influ-
ence on American culture and home
life Of Graham McNamee and the radio
lecturers-an deserve to be called upon
the stages carpet. What a play, or
what not a play. could Eugene O'Neill
or Sidney Howard write about the
Smoots and Heflins as they perform
their peculiar feats of legislation in the
state houses! Samuel Shipman, they
tell me, goes about as Dumas did, with
a reticule filled with 30 plays, all of
them overdowing with illustrations and
examples. Charming Pollack, having
dedicated himself to dramatic sermons.