Evening star., 1935-01-29


has not the brittle sophistication Of
1.-The Wives" or THE Loves Of
Charles II" it is distinctly another
feather in Miss SINNERS cap and
one which, we should think, she
should be proudest of all for having.
For her characters this time have
been created out of the air-no sign
posts and biographies to guide her
and she delveS into the innermoSt
pockets of her Imagination, snatching
therefrom a wealth of material which,
catching fire in the first instance,
bursts more and more into flame
until, as the final curtain descends.
1t has burned itself out and Is dead
and alone in its ashes.
Thus the Howland family that lived
at Tall Trees-thus the story of the
Mansion on the Hudson"
MISS SKINNER appears first as
AVA that Mrs. Stanley Rowland who
finds happiness with her three chill
dren on those acres overlooking the
Hudson even when her husband has
deserted her for the pleasures of
0dIdJOSd. Ill Illc O1 IIcL
estate she dreams of founding fam
lily that will do its home proud-and,
although she is unhappy with her
husband, she cannot bring herself to
accept the man whom she really loves
crying out that she will not be
divorcee-that she has never even
met a divorcee." (This in 1900
From there on, bit by bit, the
Rowland family disintegrates. Miss
Skinner plays next the young South
ern girl who marrieS the elder How
land son, only to lose him in the war
of '98. Next she is that bitter old
maid, Carrie Rowland, who in 1920
sees the house gone from under her
through young De Witt HoWland's
faulty jugglings with the estate. Next
''the family next door," the family
with whom the Howland's were never
allowed to associate as children, the
Joseph KelleyS, move in-and Miss
Skinner appears in 1927 dress, plus
pearls, plus a drink as the new and
frightful owner of Tall Trees" Final
1y the house has changed hands again
and is now a gambling hangout, a
raucous remnant of the once proud
Rowland home.
& x x *
A LII but one of these sketches and
scenes are written in Miss Skin
ner's best style and are unquestion-
ably the finest thing she has done.
We doubt if that episode, next before
the last, where she appears as Tonys
wife, is quite up to the level of the
Others Something of the sort is
needed, of course. to carry the idea
across. But whether it is the fault
of the script or the way it is acted,
1t lacks the perSuaSiveness of the
others.
You should certainly not miss, how
ever, this excellent actress depletion
of a gum-chewing heiress of 1927. In
a shell-pink dress that reaches only
to her knees, in wig that Is curled
into a thousand curls, in a collection
of jewelry that could only have ar
rived by Arlumping a whole jewelry
shop over her neck and shoulders, and
in a voice that smacks strongly of
the stock yards, she is miracle of
awfulness, hideous reminder of what
grand people the Howlands were,
and how mannerly even with their
imperfections.
The other characterization that
reached nearest to truth seemed to
us to be that old maid Carrie How
land. Here Miss Skinner has created
fiction that is unsurpassed in vision,
strength and emotion-and she makes
that old woman a sorrowing symbol
of all that the Howlands stood for.
Somehow, that shawl, those square
brown shoes, the saddened features
lit by the ghostly illumination of that
lamp, give tremendous impetus to the
artists drama of the years and what
they can do to you.
X X y \
THE particular force of Miss Skin
ner's new offering lies not only in
her own careful acting, in the way she
stops and starts and walks about that
stage as though facing crowd of peo-
pie, but in the way she has touched so
keenly on the drama of the present.
Few families have not seen something
Where and When