Word: melodrama
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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There are two solutions. The simplest is to shift the responsibility to the collective imagination of the audience. Drape the stage with silk curtains, put two chairs in front, twin beds in the rear, and page Mr. Avery Hopwood. Or (as in Dagmar, the sophisticated melodrama with Nazi mova), put three beach chairs on a yellow stage with a blue backdrop and call it the seashore. In Mary the 3rd, Rachel Crothers' humorous tragedy of incompatibility, the first two scenes are mounted only with draperies, a modicum of furniture, and off-stage music...
Ectoplasm has appeared before on the theatrical bill of fare, but the dish now being served at the Wilbur,--ectoplasm taken with a pinch of salt, stirred up with a dash of satire, and blending judiciously with melodrama,--will tempt the most play-weary palate...
...instructor of a passing knowledge of the subject, but also of a serious intensity of purpose every minute to get this knowledge out. It is to be feared that the general effect of the films will be about as convincing as the acting of the lions in a melodrama, after the first few minutes of play. The action will be there but somehow there will be missing the spontaneous sincerity which holds the audience breathless in its seats...
Hollis.--"Bull-Dog Drummond", with H. B. Warner. A slap-dash mystery melodrama, which the audience swallows eagerly on the mutual agreement of "No Questions Asked...
...melodrama it was well suited to the St. James company. As a study in psychology it was well suited; to this was due, perhaps, that indefinable regret for lost opportunities...