Word: wislack
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After adjusting to the pleasant shock of being ushered to a seat practically in the stage set living room of Mrs. Wislack, played by Louise Licklider, the acting of our hostess is a disappointment. Amateurish and typed seems a fair description also of the efforts of William Siebert as a Duke. The best acting in the play was done by Edward Sostek who did a fine portrayal of a henpecked hunted man. Norman Ashton's direction is also effective...
...story : the impoverished and wolfish Duke of Bristol (Clive Brook), his impoverished and meek friend Richard (Ro land Culver), a statuesque American pickle heiress (Googie Withers) enamored of the Duke, and a heartless, sporty widow named Mrs. Wislack (Beatrice Lillie) abandon London's high life for the widow's island shooting lodge in Scotland. Mrs. Wislack's shocking intention is to take cringing Richard for a month "on approval" before she decides whether to make an honest and rich...
...Brook handles his stick and gloves, or invites himself downstairs for a drink with his former butler, or ribs "daring" pictures in a male bathtub scene which is the nakedest thing outside a travelogue in years. It is the tone in which Roland Culver murmurs "Many congratulations" after Mrs. Wislack's announcement that her income is ?25,000 a year. It is in Miss Withers' rejection of the Duke-the prettiest, quietest kidding of British drawing-room drama on record. There has probably never been a richer, funnier anthology of late-Victorian mannerisms...
...Approval. Frederick Lonsdale's genius for smart repartee dialogue finds many a brilliant opportunity in a play with only four characters. Mrs. Wislack (Violet Kemble Cooper), widow, will experiment for one month with the temperament of mild Richard Halton (Wallace Eddinger) before risking another matrimonial venture. The Duke of Bristol (Hugh Wakefield) is more of an opportunist. He sets his suave cap for immediate acquisition of Helen Hayle (Kathlene MacDonell), heiress and best friend of the canny widow. After a skirmish of wits, with no insults barred, provided only that they be smooth-edged as befits Mrs. Wislack...
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