Evening star., 1938-12-04
Naziisnn Hard
ToHandle on
The Stage
'Iorelei' Is Latest
Attempt, and
The Best
By Ira W0lterf.
O"O"
NEW YORK.

IN town Is to, write a good play
about the Nazis and their ism.
Jacques Deval's "Lorelei" is the
fourth of the seasons plays to at
tempt it and comes off best of the
lot. The best, in this case, is not
quite good enough. It's interesting
without being exciting.
M. Deval is civilized Frenchman
with a graceful mind. He lacks a
reputation for profundity, and that
has been no handicap to the pleas
ant comedies he has been writing.
But in "Lorelei' he has set himself
the profound task of making a
cross-section of the civilized Ger
mans reaction to this thing which
is now his government and his way
of life.
M. Devals general conclusion is
that Germans and NaZis are crea-
lures apart. The civilized German,
he intimates, is horse pulling a
wagon, with a driver who cracks q
cutting whip and now and then
klolss a roweled boot into the flank.
The horse doesn't care for the
wagon, but he feels helpless about
1t and does think the metal inlay
on the harness is rather pretty
There are hordes of people riding
in the wagon behind the driver, and
the horse thinks they actually be-
long under his hoofs, but he doesn't
know how to get them there. And,
In the meantime, he spanks right
along, thinking about the pretty
harness and trying to be kind,
decent horse, but succeeding only in
being a good horse-good to his
driver. No doubt the conclusion Is
true. in part.
The "Lorelei' concerned is, of
course, Germany, and she lures
distinguished Aryan exile to his de-
struction. This world-famous biol
ogist has been shocked out of his
university by the Nazis and their
ism, and has taken his stand in a
small French hotel just across the
border, where he devotes himself to
mourning a dead Germany and try
ing to return it to life with PAM
phlets and leaflets. Germany has
become to him what color must be
to the blind or song to the deaf
a paralyzing obsession. making the
rest of life tasteless if not impos-
sible.
At the beginning of the play he
Is toying with the idea of spectacular
suicide, of walking across the border
and submitting to torture and death
as a more effective way than pam
phlets scattered from airplaneS of
teaching the Germans the leprous-
ness Of the government that is now
theirs. A strange love affair with
an old pupil of his woos him from
his notion by giving him pleasure
in existence. But in the end she
has to leave him to save from death
q boy taken by the Nazis as hostage
for her good behavior.
And then he walks across the
border. A scowling frontier guard
demands to know what he has
brought with him. French clothes" !"
he replies, "for German nakedness.
American shoes for hard German
roads. But inside-everything is
German" Meaning, he adds, poetry,
thought, a feeling for freedom and
love for beauty. Hold him for
the gestapo," the frontier guard
says. II don't like the way he talks"
On the way, M. Deval touches
lightly on number of fruitful sub
jects. German youth, he indicates,
Is proud of the muscles Naziism
has bulged in Germany and neglect
full of the brain it has withered
and the heart it has corroded. It
has sense of participation in large
events and, youthfully enough, no
sense Of the meaning of the events.
1t thrills to destruction-like Ameri-
cans at football rally-and exults
in sheer, smashing power. The rest
OF Germany has the feeling that it
has been turned upsidedown, but its
resentment is a sad, tired thing
complicated by love of country and
spride in how it has grown, distaste
for alien criticism and respect and
affection for some or the things
Adolf Hitler has done.
THESE are very fruitful subjects
indeed. In fact they are a peach.
But M. Deval hasn't taken a bite
out of them. His play Is just fuzz
on the peach.
The acting doesn't help at all.
Philip Merivale walks through his
part with the subdued fretfulness
Of a man on his way to bed and
sure he is going to have insomnia.
Doris Nolan goes through hers with
the eagerness of a girl trying on
q new coat.
Rocket to the Moon" has Clifford
Odets, still the most promising of
our young playwrights, absorbed in
/ a study of love-love as career for
youth. an exalted joyride for middle
age and a lifesaver for old age.
Mr.. Odets seems to have discov-
cred the subject in the course of
: quarreling and reconciling with his
wife, Luise Rainer. I don't believe
I'm revealing secret. The quarrel
happened all over the Nations front
pages and the last fond, molten
(See WOLFERT. Page F-3l