The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-04-20


 9t Is billed as a comedy, but it is C ehe catalogue thrown in to keep u ef you are in the right frame of n
 Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein Of Hollywood are the brothers who
 dramatized the year-old book of
 Rosemary Taylor in which she cap-
 tnred the flavor of family life of
 about 30 years ago as experienced
 an her own home in Tucson, Ariz
 Father was & business man who
 took chances and frequently was
 down to his case dollar. Mother Q cautious soul even when things were going well, always managed
 to have Q few paying guests in the 6I1st for . backlog.
 { In the play the whole affair has , been hoked up to the hairline and the 0ction covers only 8 few days. The plot concerns fathers desper- ate straits despite his being head of the stTeetcar company, 1aun- dry owner and Q bank ofacial, his efforts to keep his wife from know ing that he has mortgaged the house She loves 50 much and the Eum@nce of the elder daughter. Father 9s saved when the winning suitoe turns out to be a well-heeled young man.
 The stage IS filtered with strange l people who are boarders in the home Some of them are interest Ing, even funny, but there are a couple who are a complete waste of time and I do not know why they are present. And still another scharacter bursts onto the scene, gives promise of being good fun and then suddenly disappears along in act two never to return again. No explanation, no nothing. Oh, well, sou can't have everything.
 Mary Philips returns after too 7. long an absence to do a beautiful
 JOb playing the mother role. Rhys
 Williams IS equally as good as the father. Others include Ann Thomas. Hugh Thomas, Roy Fant, Jean Gillespie, Katherine Squire. Fleming Ward, Frank M. Thomas, David Mckay and Hope Emerson. Lester Vail directed and kept things at . hreakneck pace except for the first half of the second act. Edward 0rcss ls the producer.
 There are no two acting talents more opposite than those of Billie Burke and Frank Craven. But they 90 well together as shown by Mrs.
 JaS1uayy and Mfr. Ex'' and this is m extremely fortunate thing for the play, 6 minor effort by Zoe Akins.
 The 6uttery, chattery. fragile Miss Burke is delightful as Mrs. January, nuch-married society heir ess, and Stolid, monoSyllabic Craven . equally enjoyable as Luther Cooper. 8 mythical former Repub- hcan president of the United States whose comfortable retirement in his New England homeland is shattered ny the arrival of Mrs. January to tenant one of his houses. She doesn't know who he is and rattles on A snile . minute about how she and her three children,-each by a diff
 gent 1ather-are settling down to
 e ample life to prepare for the
 0e when the Communists will take e@ef the country. She regards her. eeIf as 6 fellow traveller.
 This situation rapidly develops fn- S0 middle age romance that draws the wrath of Mrs. January's tycoon brother who controls the family Fortune and cuts her off the payroll. Cooper. who has been on the poli. ktcaI sidelineS, almost inadvertently makes a somewhat liberal speech and Is bounced upon by his party As . Presidential candidate. Miss Aking wisely stops short of giving ea1e election yeSult.
 There are some sparkling lines m the script-Some of them made to seem brighter than they are by Miss Burke'e effervescent delivery but there are not enough of them % raise the script to any sustained esvel of interest. Others in the cast 1ncsude Barbara Bel Geddes. Nicho- 4as Joy. Bobby Perez and Henry Barnard. Richard Myers produced and Elliott Nugent and Arthur Sir eom divided the staginb chore.
 sYUBIDC RELATIONS" by Dale 8anson is one of those trifles em- pIOytng good people that is not really bad so far as construction is concerned but which just leaves you with the feeling "so what" The plot concerns the getting back together of HDlIywoods most famous glamor couple of the old days after years apart tn which they have found other mates. Players like Philip Megtvale and Ann Andrews are wasted in the leading roles. Betty Blythe, the former screen siren. re- turns to the stage in this. Robert HIake ts the producer. Edward Ghilds Cagpenteg the director.