Word: benning
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...things Nordic. A great-grandniece of Benjamin Franklin, she is not far from the stream of American literary tradition. Her sense of plot is extraordinary. This journalistic ability is especially evident in Black Oxen, although I'm not sure that I consider that indubitably readable book exactly in Ben Franklin's line...
...that mother's money will be left practically intact to the heir hoping, Mother, with the usual idiosyncracy of a dying person, leaves the money to the least appreciated of the poor relations. But with the money Jane, the heir, also inherits the mother's wish that she reform Ben, the youngest son, and marry him so that he may have some of the capital. Ben, it seems, burned a barn in his early youth and has not been seen until the hour of mother's death. These are the basic entanglements. Then Jane plays the Samaritan. She keeps Ben...
Mark Kent, Jill Middleton, and Joseph Leo do the best acting of the evening. Walter Gilbert, as Ben, is rather too polished. He is not at his best as a man from the wide open spaces, who shows his virility by wearing a rather good suit, the trousers of which he has tucked into shiny new overshoes...
...Oklahoma: "Oklahoma was born a Prohibition state and is standing true to the faith of its forefathers." Representative Hill of Alabama: "Great as is the victory the course is not yet finished." Senator Sheppard of Texas: "Prohibition in the United States is both a permanency and a success." Dr. Ben Spence of Toronto: "Canada is bounded on the south by the Volstead Act, but it's somewhat leaky." Senator Willis of Ohio: "If any one comes to Cleveland with a wet plank and produces it, we'll use it as a skid to send him into Lake Erie...
...whole, the acting is better than in the ordinary mystery play. Ben Johnson as the millionaire Stockbridge is excellent, and we regret that his early demise prevented his appearance in the second and third acts. A hard, uncompromising, relentless capitalist, he nevertheless excites the sympathy of the audience, especially when he is sitting around waiting to be murdered. At this juncture the stupidity of the detectives reaches its climax; ordinary common-sense would have saved Stockbridge as eventually it saved the daughter. The daughter, by the way, is well done by Kay Laurell although she is a trifle too cold...