Evening star., 1932-08-07

! brlgand, and Henry Sherwood, the mo-
rose brigsnd. Somehow 1t is nucf
easier to forget plays that are presun'
/ ably lar more concerned with esthetlcs
I MO doubt What Price Glory was
~ finer play. For a time after th'
production OF Journeys End" there
was considerable doubt as to wnethel
the English or the American war drama
was the finer 1t seems that there were
even observers who placed the importa-
ton far ahead of the local product. By
new 1t is hard to believe that any seri.
Gus student of the respective merits OF
the TWO works would not accept the
rowdy. hard-boiled. salty What Price
Glory" as definitely the most distin-
guished of the ar-time dramas. In Its
sardonic, contemptous vigor; in its un-
ashamed pictureSqueness and its proud
dramatization Of the fact that to Flagg
and Quirt, those professional fighters
their own fued was far more important
than mere war of the nations, the Stall
lings- Anderson play possessed hearty
living, breathing power and gift foI
biting Characterization that set II
among the best of modern plays.
In recognizing its merits. one should
strive earnestly to forget the Rover Boy
edition Of the play made by the cinema
a sentimentalized distortion OF the orig
inal which led one to believe that the
film version should have been called
How Love Came to Sergt. Quirt." Even
more desperately should you try to dis
regard the Sequels made in Hollywood
wherein Flage and Quirt frolicked about
the globe in innumerable vaudeville
farces, suggesting that they really had
escaped from one of the decidedly lesser
comic strips. Rather you should con-
centrate on the memory OF the original
performances In the original production
There. with the late Louis Wolheim
playing the roughneck Capt. Flagg and
William Boyd portraying the dapper
Sergt. Quirt, were two performances SO
close to perfect that it is hard to be-
lieve that they could have been found
in less than perfect universe. II only
a motion picture record of the real play
could have been made, with the original
cast, instead of that ridiculous travesty!
Now 1t is too late, and to see Louis VOL
helm in a wartime play you must seek
out that best Of the American talking
pictures, "All Quiet on the Western
Front"
IN these days Of something less than
hilarity II is possible to find GER
tain consoling lesson in the current
status of these two plays. When they
were first presented "What Price Glory
was accepted as bitter anti-waI
drama. while Broadway" was regarded
as dealing with one of the more dis
agreeable phases of modern existence.
Yet now, after the passage Of these few
years we realize that both Of them are
romantic sagas. dealing picturesquely
and amid a certain lyric nostalgia with
a more glorious day Is 1t not likely.
therefore, that few more seasons will
reveal works IN which the gray and
humdrum present will take on a rose
color and remind us Of a fine, hardy
epoch in which. after decade Of ex-
travagance, we found ourselves? know
that in Russia time OF greater hor-
ror. the White counter-revolution of a
decade ago is regarded in such play
as The Days of the Turbins" an almost
romantic period of the far-away past
and is so accepted by Moscow playgoers
and censors Possibly we will grow
equally liberal