Word: olenska
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Dates: during 1928-1928
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...Innocence. Here is Edith Wharton's story of the Countess Olenska, eloquently transferred to the stage by Margaret Ayer Barnes. The Countess Olenska returned to Manhattan, leaving her horrible Count in Europe. In Manhattan she met Newland Archer; they fell in love, but Newland married a girl to whom he was engaged. Newland Archer and the Countess nearly ran away together when the horrible Count crossed the ocean to retrieve her; but Newland's wife was too feeble for the Countess, who was sick of cruelties, to injure; so Countess Olenska returned to her Count and Newland Archer...
Audiences have now become accustomed to copulation in the theatre and they may wonder how it is that a brief kiss almost causes Newland Archer to leave Mrs. Newland Archer for the Countess Olenska. Today, a playwright would not have used the kiss; but by substituting more ardent gestures he would not have made the situation more compelling. The time of the piece is "the seventies." The troubles of the characters in it are not rendered artificial by the artificialities of its expression, and the graces of a graceful era are retained. Watching the passion and despair of these costumed...
Katharine Cornell is Countess Olenska; swinging her skirts and thrusting her neck forward, she interprets the part according to the grand manner. The most sad, true and unusual scene in the play is made by Arnold Korff. As Julius Beaufort, he launches into a declaration of love for the Countess Olenska, couched in German accents and florid with metaphor, which is the more tragic because it is so nearly ridiculous...