Evening star., 1953-10-06

Hull 10 supply The prOJeCC q
lovely glow, the best that can
be said for the ambitious fairy
tale is that it is merely near
myth.
1t has been given everything
possible, including some anus
ing lines and situations, but
the enormity of labor involved
resembles the very thing that
was supposed to have disap-
peared with the Democrats.
Producer Max Gordon in an
indulgent mood has given Mr..
Kaufman, also the comedy's
director, carte blanche. He has
let him use Fred Aliens say
tiric voice as narrator of this
Cinderella paraphrase. He has
had movies made to simulate
television broadcastS, reproduced
newspaper front pages in fac
simile. and even injected a
Dusty bathing suit model.
Virtually nothing is missing
except play enough to sustain
the sardonic joke with which
"The Solid Gold Cadillac" begins.
Il x X X
The Teichmann-Kaufman jest
starts with a promising set of
characters. The most delightful
of these, a dropping elderly
sparrow of a woman who puts
the fear of whatever it fears
into a giant corporation, is the
one played by Miss Hull.
A few strides to her rear
comes, of all humans, cabinet
member. More, a special cabi-
net member, this one former
chairman of the General Prod
ucts Corp. At first, he is the
one that apparently is being
set up for the kill, but not at
all really. This is Prince
Charming who is ultimately to
rescue Miss Hull from the vul-
lures who have succeeded to the
princes old corporate power.
X X x X
In writing, "The Solid Gold
Cadillac" the Messrs. Teichman
and Kaufman have taken their
fun where they could find it.
Their approach to the theme of
Cinderella in big business and
big politics is nonpartisan, pos
sibly on the theory that no one
political party can make COM
edy profitable.
From time to time, in putting
q surface currency, or timeliness
on their jest, they make it quite
funny. Never, however, to the
point of concealing that it is
basically about the minority
stockholder whose mousey, per-
sistent curiosity can bring cor
porationS to their knees.
The one solid gold asset Of
Mr. Gordon's latest production
is Miss Hull. AS the dominant
figure in most of the skits which
have been arbitrarily shaped
into two acts, she's the merriest
Cinderella in years. The small.
silvery voice and the matchingly
mild manners with which she
bludgeons tycoons into submis-
siveness have seldom been used
more comically.
It is within the easy range of
her archness that she can get a
roar with the line: In my days
when a girl said she was in
trouble, she was in trouble"
And when she starts finging
the weight of her 10 shares of
stock around a corporation
richer than most countries. she
is an inspiration to revolution.
Bloodless, naturally.
Loring Smith, as the tycoon
who came to Washington to
efface all trace of inefficiency, is
less blessed as Miss Hull's
redeeming prince. He represents
a type with whom comedy
writer's are much less at home
and whose official respectability
makes them uneasy. The result
is that Smiths man turns into
the conventional big business
man who, in his soft moments,
can admit he wanted to be an
actor and who still is willing to
marry an elderly ex-actress. And
who, in his tough moments, bias
phemously belts the United
States Senate.
Directing these and the others
in THE Solid Gold Cadillac"
Mr.. Kaufman has used every
trick in the bag. and a few new
ones, to conceal the structural
flaws of the play. He has got a
series of skits that he must make
resemble a play-the Marquis of
Queensbury rules, you know
and he undertakes to do this
with pace.
A solid gold Cadillac could not
whisk Cinderella around faster
than Mr.. Kaufman does, but not
fast enough to mask the thin
ness of the roadbed.
\ y
Some subsidiary big business
types. none of them very origi-
nal, are competently sketched in
the play. One of these is Geoff-
rey Lumb's tycoon who likes per-
sonally to check the models, live
and female. used in the CORPORA