Evening star., 1936-12-20

It is true in Washington. 1t is true IN
The public is buying release frol
As a result, there is a market for
rnirth in the theater and money again
in the pockets of those who create
and produce it.
Go funny young man. is the only
sound advice of the moment to those
who would turn creative talents for
stage writing, producing or acting into
Q proud and profitable success.
To be sure. there are exceptions,
such as The Wingless Victory"
created by Maxwell Anderson and in
terpreted by Katharine Cornell. Here
was sheer, unbridled tragedy, although
Anderson did inject few more laughs
than Is his custom when he is being
depressing about mankind. To the
rule that laughter shall be the stage
fashion, as to most other rules, An
derson and Miss Cornell constitute
an exception that does not count. If
they did. it might be argued that
even Anderson is weakening in that
his newest play, High Tor" is
comedy. 1t is to be played. beginning
December 90, in Cleveland, by Bur-
CESS Meredith, who helped Anderson
make "Winterset" such unrelieved
tragedy.
THE more successful one-acters of
Noel CoWard's nine-play cycle
were those which showed Coward in
merry mood. The merriment, to be
sure. had its bitter overtones in some
instances but where it was, the crowds
went. In only two of the nine pieces
did Coward WOO the fearful muse.
These. The Astonished Heart" and
Still Life" we're always sandWiched
In the three-play programs between
two more mirthful bits. That is be-
cause the Coward formula calls for
"exits, laughing" whatever heart
break may color the moments up to
the last act.
So far as the Coward play cycle is
concerned, the critics and public are
seeing eye-to-eye in favor of the
laughter pieces. The drama reporters,
despite confessed Coward fixations,
have found themselves with impulses
toward quiet mirth when his plays
grow sad He does not carry his
unusual conviction at such moments,
or he is at odds with the audiences
mood.
The screen offers even more definite
evidence of comedy consciousness. 1t
has its public so aware of laughter
again that the latter. either from
habit or sheer ebullience of spirit
has been known to guffaw at the
wrong moments. The screen, of
course, has not had corner on that
experience this season. Those who
recall "PlumeS in the Dust may
remember that when the lovely Vir-
g1r1ia beseeches the errant Poe to mend
his ways. the audience laughed when
It should have been acutely melan-
choly. It has happened, too, with
other plays and other audiences.
TN ITS particular quest for laughter,
l. Hollywood has impressed many of
its once severest critics. Grudgingly
they grant that it appears to have
mastered a comedy technique which
Is deft and light and far removed
from the custard-pie-comic-cop re-
cipe. In the face of such recent con-
tributions to the screen as Theodore
Goes Wild" Love on the Run" and
"Born to Dance" to cite but few,
It has been shown that nonsense of
the cerebral variety is not beyond
the scope Of the camera. In Born to
Dance" the nearest approach to
revue yet undertaken, the film peo-
pie tore large holes in the book any,
time it seemed that laughing spe-
ciality was in order. Audience ap-
probation of the bravado thus shown
assures its repetition.
In the course of the comedy wave
moving down from the West, there
have been no end of surprises. That
Irene Dunno, for instance, had an
extraordinary fair for lighter things.
When she was unveiled as a come
dienne in Theodore Goes Wild"
every one thought Columbia had gone
wilder. 1t had not, no more so in
deed, than when Gary Cooper turned
"Mr. Deeds" and came to town in the
DCSb VI Allo lllCACLOAOlC obobSly
career That, too, was surprise.
Cooper was not suspected of being
able to act like that, neither by en-
ployers nor audiences who saw him in
Farewell to Arms" and a dozen
dramatic successors to that doleful
bit of Hemingway
It may be failure to catch the
public mood which explains the in
ability Of the stage and screen sue
cessfully to transcribe these days the
lives of genius. Both plays and films
with a biographical flavor have fallen
far short of the successes envisaged
for them.
THERE was "St. Helena" for in
- stance It dealt with Napoleon
In exile 1t opened here. was casually
received, went to New York, was
casually received and closed. Next
came "Plumes in the Dust" which
sought to bring Poe back to poignant
life. 1t, too, opened in Washington
and died quickly in New York. Pre-
lude to Exile" with Wagner as its
subject, is another biographical drama.
1t did not open in washington, but
1t seems destined to meet the fate
Of its predecessors of the same type.
All the geniuses-military literary
and musical-had the common quality
Of living in deep spiritual agony.
Where they might have made good
drama a few years ago, the public
now turns its back on their tragic
affairs.
The same thing applies to one Of
che finest of the current films, REM
brandt" It had everything but laugh
ter-and that was the one thing
It needed.
So, apparently, does every success
ful stage or screen play Of the moment.
"The Fool"
(NuANNTNG pOIJnCK'C religious