The Theatre: New Plays in Manhattan: Nov. 6, 1933

(2 of 3)

Eight Bells (by Percy G. Mandley; A. C. Blumenthal, producer) takes place on a crack British sailing ship, becalmed when news of the 1914 declaration of War is signaled by a passing liner. A drag-out fight has already flared between the ranting bully of a captain (Colin Clive) and his admirable first mate (John Buckler). Criminally stupid or incredibly irresponsible, the cause of the fight is the captain's wife, the owner's daughter (Rose Hobart), whom the mate once hoped to marry. The two biggest racial groups in the crew are British and German, next biggest Scandinavians and "greasers." Audiences were ready to expect anything at the first act curtain. They saw the captain and mate patch up their quarrel. The German delegation defies all probabilities by asking the captain to go 500 mi. off his course to land them in neutral territory. The captain naturally refuses. He takes no precautions and is naturally rewarded with mutiny. When the mutineers try to make the captain holystone the deck, he kills the sober ringleader and is killed himself. Like all revolutions, the mutiny swings rapidly Left and toward the captain's beautiful widow. At the end of its swing it meets the mate who has gotten a pistol. Ac companied by thunder, lightning, howls and pistol shots, he gets control of ship and sweetheart.

Fumbling melodramatically, Eight Bells as written fails in not being far more melodramatic.

Divine Drudge (by Vicki Baum & John Golden; John Golden, producer). Based on a Baum novel (And Life Goes On) serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine this play has none of the swift movement, the arresting reality which made Grand Hotel a smash hit and a pattern for imitators. It unfolds a devious tale about a smalltown German doctor (Walter Abel) and his wife (Mady Christians). For seven years she has assisted him in perfecting what he believes to be a momentous medical discovery. Suddenly she runs away from her drudgery with a banker who has had a motor wreck outside their home. The friend whom the discovery should have cured dies. A Berlin physician tells the doctor that his work has been wasted. When the wife returns to bid her husband good-bye she chooses, like Candida, to remain with the man who needs her most. slips on her laboratory apron again. Actor Abel and Actress Christians, a German importation, perform with intelligence and force but their lines do not convince. Spring in Autumn (by G. Martinez

Sierra; Arthur J. Beckhard, producer). A volcanic opera diva returns to Andalusia from Madrid at the request of her abandoned husband, who wants to tone up their daughter's wedding by the appearance of both the bride's parents. The diva arrives with a lot of theatrical riffraff, the daughter cools to her fiance, but the parents are happily reunited as the curtain falls. The diva is impersonated by Blanche Yurka, a seasoned actress who has of late years specialized in Ibsen. Greek tragedy and was one of the Narrators in Lucrece. The playwright is the author of The Cradle Song and The Kingdom of God. Astute Producer Beckhard presented last season's hilarious Goodbye Again. None of these can expect much credit from such an inconsequential production as Spring in Autumn. Astonishing scene: Actress Yurka standing on her head as she sings a few bars from Tosca.