Evening star., 1933-09-12


beset by a nervousness which almost
shattered Gilda for good and all last
night. However, after a miserable first
act. in which none of the other actors
came to her rescue, she pulled herselt
together and was comparatively at ease
in the Lynn Fontanne role which tEs
lady last season made an absorbing,
almost baritone solo study OF woman
who bounces from the arms OF one man
to the arms of another.
Actually Miss Griffith has nothing 10
fear on the stage. She is by far the
loveliest lady this theater has seen since:
say Billie Burke was younger or Ethel
Barrymore was definite Juliet. She
carries her head well, she wears her
clothes beautifully (even that lamp
shade outfit in the last act which a
lady-friend assures us Is absolutely the
final "crie" in smartnesS) and she can
turn this way or that without having
to fear the dissatisfying slurs Of cash
customers.
In such a devastating role as Gilda
she lacks, however, the spontaneous
good humor, the gruff bravado. the sly
and sleek meneuvers that such role
requires. She recites her lines rather
than thinking them, and when she gives
her all first to one man and then an
other you are not at all sure that she
isn't something of an icicle when doing
this.
This GOODNESS of manner will probably
disappear when the germs Of fright
have escaped her. Miss Griffith is
very, very new to the footlights, having
attended mostly to the silent films in
the past That she was courageous
in attempting the role Of Gilda last
night there is no question. much
more seasoned actress might have with
cred under such an ordeal. And that
she Jared occasionally well there is no
question either She looked the part.
and sometimes she dug her teeth into
the lines and evoked their naughty
meanings with real success.
To be a Coward actress, or a Coward
actor, however. 1t would seem that you
have to be bubbling with some kind Of
suppressed desires which manifest them
selves in curious leaps and bounds and
shoulder shaking and whatnot on the
stage. Shades of the Coward-Lunt-Fon-
tanne remind us Of this. When they
laugh, they roar, and when they roar,
they bellow-and when they are doing
neither, they are so serious and discreet
in the reciting Of their lines that they
whistle their double meanings close to
the strings Of your heart.
All Of this was 50 lacking in the
first act last night that cold shadow
of premonition loomed over the audience
The lobby was a respectful tomb during
the first intermission. Then something
happened. Miss Griffith melted, and
John Litel and Robert Ober became
men instead Of puppets. Then, too, 1t
became impossible to tell which OF
these two was the better. BY the end
of that uproarious drinking scene they
both seemed one and the same-which
was very, very good indeed.
From the second act on, all was well.
Bernice Bartl, Washington's own Zasu
Pitts, began by shattering the ice; then
along came Karl Nelson in the famous
Lucius Beebe Coward interview scene,
and shattered little more ice; and
then Clifford Brooke, who had been
punctuating his lines with slew OF
"er-er-ers," broke down and became
his very nice self; and Freddie Sher-
man, Edith Gresham and Helen Dodge
dug into the third act and made it as
funny as it should be.
The result of all this was that you
got more out Of Design for Living
than YOU had expected that you might.
You listened for the sound and fury
Of the lines more than you did when
YOU saw the play the first time and
were watching the author and his two
satellites with greedy enjoyment. You
got the true meaning of the lines and
some Of the other meanings that are
perhaps too true. You were pleasantly
Shocked, and pleasantly regaled. and
perhaps. too. YOU were OF the opinion