Evening star., 1942-01-20

rOgulSh military leader who would
like to take the place over on his
way to the presidency. There are
a great many other characters romp-
ing about rather inexcusably. dab
bling in the lf-hearted struggle,
to their own confusion, that of the
principal protagonists, and, most of
all, to the customers.
One suspects that after Mr.. Con-
nelly really got to work on the comic
treatment Of the theme Of human
liberty, he discovered there Is little
humor tn it. What he could not
ind in situation, however, he tried
valiantly to make up In character,
with the result that his play is peo-
pied with . great many sketchy,
standard humans who add up to q
considerable nuisance value instead
OF a dramatic one.
There Is, for example. the feather
Drained woman novelist wed to q
handsome inbecile who speaks In
monosyllables when he is not sun
bathing In the nude, the crafty
butler whose avocation is conniving
with the scoundrelly general, the
clubwoman wife Of the tired and dis
illusioned businessman and q slew
Of others whom Mr.. Connolly, prob
ably wisely, saw no reason to define.
II "The Flowers Of Virtue" was not
written In nearly record time its
action Is dated December, 1S41-it
was something Mr.. Connolly decided
to edit and bring up to date without
reference to recent political events.
There Is . constant intimation in
the action Of its villain that Mexico
Is winking somewhat good ma
turedly at his totalitarian antics
and that there still hourishes q CEN
tral organization which exploits out
lying districts through such crafty
human insects.
It doesn't seem to fit with what
you've been reading In the papers
which, incidentally, are . lot more
dramatic than THE Flowers OF Vir-
tue"
Mr.. Connally's play, presented by
Cherry Crawford, is made none the
more effective by an Interpretation
which indicates that the cast and
author have no particular under
standing Of each other. Nor do sew
eral individual characters seem
clear as to the precise reason why
some of the others are present.
The result is a waste Of consider
able talent, most notably that Of
Mr.. Craven, who makes a manful
effort to breathe life into q tired
businessman who must be the
tiredest business man in dramatic
history. Miss Elsom Is doing what
one supposes to be the best possible
with the brainless novelist, Kathryn
Givney, with the businessman's wife,
and Vladimir Sokolof with the
Scoundrelly general. 8. Thomas
Gomez as the gentle Mexican who
believes in human progress is the
only one, however, who really comes
of.
Donald Oenschlager's Mexican
garden setting could stand q much
better play.
Entertainment elsewhere: Gus
toners with convictions that the
way to enliven vaudeville Is to keep
1t fast and cut it short will find all
sorts of support for their point of
view in the Earle's 32-minute show
this week. The bill, headed by Larry
Blake, impressionist, and Carol King,
pretty, skillful ballerina, takes up
80 minutes of their time and yours
and seems even shorter, which is
a rare thing for stage program to
seem.
Blake's impressions, which con-
stitute q brief course in the art Of
impressionism, include such varied
subjects as Lionel and John Barry
more, Edward G. Robinson and
Wallace Beery, all his co-workers
in Hollywood. He even looks like
them when he Is talking that way
or their ways.
The Roxyettes and q nicely bal
anced male octet furnish the sup
port for an altogether well-paced
revue