Evening star., 1932-11-13
Good Books Do Not Make
The Best of Stage Plays
Also There Is Difficulty in Selecting Entertain
ment for the Mass of Theatergoers-AW Word
on the Cinema and German Picture.
By Percy Hammond.

natural playing of score Of vividl
unaffected young German actresses. Blu
now I am told by scholars more learre
than I in the necromancy of show bust
ness that spectators are attracted to
because it presents a note of perversior
+ % II
CONCERNING the things of tn
~ theater, Ernest Boyd writes to m
as follows
Dear Percy: Whenever a play
based upon novel or short
story is a flop it is the custom to
announce that such plays are always
unsatisfactory. Last Sunday, apropos
of "The Good Earth Mr.. Ruhl
muttered words to that effect. and
in 1.-THE Nation" of last week your
equally eminent confrere, Mr..
Krutch. even more emphatically
said similar words. Somewhat dis
mayed by these devastating general
izations, 1 should like to have the
benefit of your wisdom. Am dream
ing or am not, when suggest that
the following plays were good theater
and quite successful? Were they not all
dramatizations of novels or short
stories: Show Boat, ""Grand Hotel"
Rain" AN American Tragedy"
The Letter, :" East Lynne" "Sher-
lock Holmes" Becky Sharpe" The
Virginian." Rupert of Hentzau,"
Under Two Flags" THE Light
That Failed" "The Count Of Monte
Cristo," Uncle Toms Cabin"
; Peter Ibbetson," 1T Pays to Adver-
tise," THE Little Minister" Peter
Pan The Prisoner Of zenda,"
"Trilby," 1.-THE Three Musketeers,
"a Tale Of Two Cities" oliver
Twist" David Copperfield" Sap
pho" Ben Hur," Resurrection"
THE Deemster," THE Sorrows of
Satan" THE Manxman," THE
Christian" 1.-THE Sign Of the Cross,
Camille, +" "The Vicar of Wakefield"
Cupid and Commonsense," "Raf-
fles,' The Great Adventure" }" Mile
stones" Monsieur Beaucaire?"
These are a few successes which
have seen in my own playgoing life
time, jotted down as they occur to
me. There must be hundreds Of
others. Are they any better or worse:
is the rate of mortality among them
any higher than among the plays
during the same period originally
written for the stage? Reassure me,
Percy, or I shall begin to think that
my memory is as weak as that Of
presidential candidate.
.- ERNEST BOYD.
4 X
EVEN if I had the time and space
II would not have the nerve to ex
plain to Mr.. Boyd how ridiculous is hi
list of successful" plays made from
books. But unlike Mr. Mencken, Mr.
Rascoe, MI. Nathan, Mr.. Stallings, Mr.
Mr.. Broun or Mr.. Shaw. h
has faith in his opinions
Of the theater. He can sit in front o.
Uncle Toms Cabin" East Lynne,
The Count of Monte Cristo." "Mer
Must Fight" THE Sign Of the Cross,
Ben Hur," Or Lillian Gishs Camille
and convince himself that he is seeint
the mirrors held up to Nature. Lik'
many other sane and brilliant men HI
loses his head upon entering theatel
and becomes mesmerized fanatic. HI
dances to the discordant tunes ant
rhythms of the drama, and woult
rather see THE Good Earth" shorn ant
barren upon the stage than to read 1t
rich and savory, in book. I am en-
yious, Of Mr. Boyds proud passion fol
in the theater. But neve
could I be so impudently shameless a
to confess as Mr.. Boyd does, that Pete
Ibbetson." "Trilby," can American
Tragedy" or "Oliver Twist" were any
thing but dissertations when reduces
and behttled by the theater. He is,
fear. the sort of playgoer who would en-
10y "The Two Orphans" as thorough.
as he would Men Must Fight" ''Bally
hoo" Criminal at Large" or Miss l.
Galiienne's perfervid revival of thI
lnusty "Lillion." After scrutinizing hi
dubious catalogue of likable arnuse
ments I am persuaded that critics, NJ
matter how lofty their posture, ar
snaring and deiusive.