New Plays in Manhattan

(3 of 3)

Last spring, he wrote Death of a Salesman in a six-week spurt; it had been stewing in his head for ten years. The script inspired such enthusiasm in its producers and Director Kazan that most of its 80 investors put up the backing without reading it. Some disliked the title and demanded a new one with box office lure, but Miller held out for his own.

Mistrusting Hollywood, he and the producers are considering doing an independent film version, directed by cinema-wise Elia Kazan (Gentleman's Agreement, Boomerang). Other Miller projects: two new plays, one a "pathetic comedy" about an Italian worker in Brooklyn's Red Hook section, and a novel set on the Brooklyn waterfront.

My Name Is Aquilon (adapted from the French of Jean Pierre Aumont by Philip Barry; produced by the Theatre Guild) tells of a cocky, penniless young Parisian (Jean Pierre Aumont) with a romantic need, and a remunerative knack, for telling lies. He lands a job with a high-toned black marketeer and in no time arouses love or lust in all the boss's womenfolk—wife (Arlene Francis), daughter (Lilli Palmer), secretary (Doe Avedon). He himself goes for the daughter and takes all evening at it.

Full of fine tall tales, Aquilon is itself a sadly skinny one. Playwright Aumont obviously wrote it as a gift for Actor Aumont. Adapter Barry did nothing to take it away. While Aumont is sloshing his emphatic charm all over the stage, the script is dousing everything with tedious chatter. Consoling but not countervailing is the quieter charm of Cinemactress Palmer.