Word: villains
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Under the Federal Theatre staging of Gerald Cornell, Frederic Hughes' "Life's a Villain" gets its first run anywhere at the Repertory Theatre this week. This play is one of these divided things which never quite decides what it is to be, social commentary or romantic comedy. The major theme of rich boy meets poor girl--or poor rich boy meets rich poor girl--has class overtones occasionally, but only every so often. Usually it is just the amusing and quite classless angle which is stressed, though sometimes the play seems to consider itself as a social...
...finished daughters." This of course is pretty sweeping; the Country Club set should feel thoroughly chagrined. But then the affair wanders back into comedy pure and romantic in fact these often charming and often rather bewildering oscillations between comedy and comment set the tone of "Life's a Villain." In the long run it's the plot that counts. The author in making the play probably began with the simple incident of a poor girl falling off a dock at the lakeside home of a wealthy banker, and let himself be carried from there. In the course of his journey...
...total effect of "Life's a Villain" is somewhat bewildering. The title, the first sight of the sophisticated crowd which serves as a background for the main story, the first blares of commonness from nouvelles-riches Mrs. Holt and Mrs. Turner; all lead one to expect social commentary rather than sentiment, for surely these people are not here just to be amusing. But then you do get the sentiment. And it's often quite nice. One only wishes that he did not get that disturbing feeling of something not quite said...
...Seven Sinners" is a murder mystery which is kept in active motion by the impact of three disastrous train wrecks. The lottery that selects the villain has returned once more to the detective. This selection might very well be guessed by anyone with his wits about him, for besides the American hero-slueth Edmund Lowe, there is a malignant-looking French detective, who could scarcely be put to any honest use. Movie blood-hounds hunt in mixed pairs, and the mediocre Mr. Lowe has by his side Miss Constance Cummings, who in spite of her early promise seems to have...
Merchant of Venice: ". . .The character of Shylock fascinates critics and has lured them into endless mazes of debate. One thing is clear, however: "The Merchant of Venice" is no anti-Semitic document; Shakespeare was not attacking the Jewish people when he gave Shylock the villain's role. If so, he was attaching the Moors in "Titus Andronicus", the Spaniards in "Much Ado", the Italians in "Cymbeline", the Viennese in "Measure for Measure", the Danes in "Hamlet", the Britons in "King Lear", the Scots in "Macbeth", and the English in "Richard the Third...