Evening star., 1952-02-08

he traps those who pracGlce
and plays which fascinate and de
ago that Marquand is a man they
Point Of No Return" at the Alvin
Theater in West Fifty-second
street, is the combined work Of
Marquand, Paul Osborn. Henry
Fonda and many others and it Is
q joy not to be missed. !.
In fact, it is one Of the rarely
redeeming features Of drama
season that was spectacularly
Mstless until Point Of No Return"
showed up on Broadway.
Its presence and its popularity
now testify to the fact that the
theater not only has not lost its.
touch with life but is capable of
observing 1t sharply. warmly
humorously and with the charm
which the theater alone can gem
crate.
Whatever energy and ingenuity
are required to get tickets to the
Alvin viii be rewarded.
4 4 **
The uncommonly bright idea
centering in the character played
by Fonda is to reveal that bank
ing, Of all things, has its human
side. Marquand is completely per-
suasive about it in the story Of
a bright young man standing on
the threshold of q StuyvesantI
Bank vice presidency wonderingI
II he viii be invited in.
There are two conflicts raging
In the life of the captivating
hero Of Point of No Return" One
Of these is whether Candidate
Fonda can get the vacancy
against the competition Of the |
suave young apple-polisher who
sits at the next desk. The other.
and far more dramatic one, is
whether he really wants the
damned job. His doubt that he
really does want It provides the
play with its humor and its
humanity.
Osborn has done a highly pro-
fessional. job of remodeling the
novel into a play.
His first act introduces Fonda,
an affable, realistic suburban hus-
band and father in the confused
ritual of morning in the home.
His mind is a mess of major and
minor urgencies, to get the chill
dren through breakfast and OF TO
school and to handle the combined |,
problem of the vice presidency and
his wife's determination to force
him into it.
In the second, an act which
eonventionally advances the play,
Osborn dares to write a series
Of lightning scenes which take
Fonda's character back to the
place where his personality was
shaped. This was a small New ,
England city, where Fonda grew
up on the lower fringe of the
upper class. And where he fell in
love with the lovely patrician
daughter of the oldest. richest
family and where his nonEcon-
4ormist father made the proSpectl
OF such q union hopeless. PSI r
The third act returns the po-
tential vice president to his fash
ionable suburban home in Con-
necticut where. it; turns out, it is
less important that he get the
banks big opening than that he
shall get 1t on his own terms.
That reek of attractiveness
which is basic in Marquand
characters is assured by every
detail which Director H. c. Potter
and his cast injects into Point of
No Return" The characters are
all too human to be over-endowed
with either virtue of vice.
Fonda's man is something Of
o miracle of honesty. He is a
good husband and father but not
without the standard traces of
inadequacy and weakness in both
aspects of living. Like all men
possibly two-he suffers
the pangs of financial insecurity,
but. he is never certain that Sc
curity is not over-rated. If he
does not go along with sophistica-
ton, he is toughly realistic and
blunt, yet he can lapse into a
back-slapping, collegiate enthusi-1
asm on unreasonable occasion.
It is a role with a lot of breadth |