Word: playwrights
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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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...
...Masks of the Devil. Author Henry James in parentheses, Playwright Eugene O'Neill in asides, made their characters utter their real thoughts during conventional dialog, a device awkward in fiction or on the stage but natural and effective in the many pictures which have contained hints of it. Used here to great extent, the trick adds interest to Jacob Wassermann's short story about the Baron (John Gilbert) who has the face of an archangel, the soul of a devil, and a lust for the fiancee (Eva Von Berne) of his friend. In an effort to live...
...appointment to the Shanghai branch. On the day before the appointment is to be announced he resigns his position, feeling that he is not to get the coveted appointment. Next day he tells his wife, is still explaining away when in bursts an old flame. At this point Playwright Strong trephines the husband's skull, lays open the human brain. Centers of nerve control are represented by figures at sets of levers much like those in a railroad switching tower. One normal voice speaks the words that the husband has spoken aloud during the first scene of the play...
Peggy Wood (whose fame so transcends that of her own husband, John VanAlstyn Weaver, that he has been facetiously called Mister Peggy Wood) makes a good wife; Katherine Wilson is real as the seductress who "makes" a good husband; Playwright Strong has made a good play...
...stars can write their own plays, though Noel Coward in This Year of Grace, Mae West in Diamond Lit and George M. Cohan, in past years, have been able to do so. Jane Cowl remains a better actress than a playwright. The Jealous Moon is so sweet that it excites a mental toothache...