Evening star., 1932-09-18
New York Theaters Are
Displaying Their Wares
First New Plays of the Season Draw Comment
From Critic Who Has Spent the Summer
Among Natures Wonders"
By Percy Hammond.

journeymen in the business Of solemn
kidding! The puppets in Here Today"
were ephemeral, inducing wearinesS
after a moment or two of their robot
sparkling, though Miss Parker. Mr..
Benchley, Mr.. Adams and Mr.. Kauf-
man are classic and more or less ever
lasting.
r HOPE to linger upon the outskirts
of show business until such time
as Miss Kathrine Alexander-Brody Will
be cast in q merry role. For many
years I have watched Miss Alexander
undergo the agonies Of n-trodden
women, accepting the bad breaks mol
genous to her sex with Q noble Tor
bearance, patient and smiling. No IN
Justice cortrived by her several play
wrights has been ingenious enough 10
thwart her holy complaisance. She mas
laughed quietly in her impersonat1ons
at every wrong that man can DO 70
woman, and she has been the theaters
most convincing evidence that there Is
q double standard of morals and that
ladies, not gentlemen, must pay ana
pay the penalties of sex. She Is q per-
suasive embodiment of the maternal IN
stinct> that understands the dn1erence
between male mischief and male evil.
Now. In "Best Years" Miss AeXan-
der impersonates a pretty girl In thrall
to her tyrant mother. When sex
beckons her to matrimony with an
outstanding civil engineer she hes1tates
between desire and duty, preferring the
one. but accepting the other. Her
parent, a Jealous old beldan1e. demands
absolute devotion from her The hand
some lovers presence Is abhorred en-
Enthusiastically, and poor Miss Alexan-
der seems doomed to the frig1d fate
of a warm and dissatisfied spinster-
hood. However, in q stilted and stacy
outburst Of Times Square rhetoric the
old pest miss Jean Adair) Is put to
death in a happy ending. The way Is
cleared thereby for Miss Alexander TO
90 with her man to Siberia, where
he has q two-year contract with the
Soviets to build bridges and to dig
canals. Life. as the saying goes,
is like that-at least upon the stage.
Still I wish that Miss Alexander may
be rewarded for her past and present
martyrdom, by role, later IN the
season, that will enable her to be
wicked and a joyful heroine, indulging
in the RANT and sinful pastimes that
are due to attractive women Of the
theater.
T REGARD Claude Rains as one OF
L the most intelligent and competent
mediums that ever brought two dis
tant worlds together. He has the
knack that Henry Irving had and Beer
bohm Tree, of blending a spacious and
spectacular histrionism with a subtle
reticence of characterization almost
hypnotic In its effect. He can combine
simplicity and extravaganza, the zephyr
and the tempest, the whisper and the
shout. the secret and the obvious in
meSmeric result that makes his acting
well night dramaproof. That ability,
perhaps tempted him to appear last
week in pretentious tumble Of the
atrical oddments and remainders called
The Man Who Reclaimed His Head"
In it he was to be seen as a copious
hero, crippled in body but athletic of
brain. winning France by his agile pen,
but losing his lovely bride to the shall
low politician that he had made its
premier. Mr.. Rains filled the plays
empty tableauS with hypnotic speech
and gesture, and when at the end it
was found that he had cut the vii
lain's head off and had put it in his
portmanteau. the first night carillons
chimed in Broadway hallelujahs, than
which 1t Is said no hymns are more
ho1v