The Theater: New Plays in Manhattan, Mar. 5, 1951

The King of Friday's Men (by Michael Molloy; produced by Michael Grace) is about as Irish as plays come—even out of Dublin's famous Abbey Theatre. It is a gaudily romantic period piece about a homely 18th Century shillelagh fighter who turns up in the west of Ireland just as a great landlord is about to seize a pretty young peasant girl for his pleasure. When the girl (Maggie McNamara) pretends love for the brawny shillelagh-swinging Dowd (Walter Macken), he cheerfully whips the landlord's entire press gang. But though Dowd eventually wins the girl's...