The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from Brooklyn, New York • Page 27

mmm, jjjf a) OR! 4 wm I I 1 ishaw a success 'jpr 1 SHAW A SUCCESS Screenings By i i Bv 1 LOUIS SHEAFFER Bernard Shaw, a canny man with a dollar or the pound sterling among other talents ia currently enjoying the biggest financial aucces of his career. Ail because he took a pay, meaning a royalty, I cut. Breaking a closely held e-I cret, the weekly Variety dis-: closes that Shaw for the past JANE CORBY Films Hav Fashion Cycles; Several Are in Evidence Now I HE films have their own fashion cycles, which run their course in three or four practically aiinuluneuus pictures and then submerge. At this writing, the pro several years has accepted a ten percent, instead of his usual 15 percent, royalty and thus enabled his rrVivals to have longer runs. For the re-rent fortnight during which "The Devil's Disciple" grossed more than $7830 at the City Center and "Caesar and Cleopatra" $56,800 at the National, Hhaws commissions amounted to about $13,500, making him the world's highest-paid dramatist.

His new percentage began with the Gertrude Lawrence-Raymond Massey "Pygmalion' and Maurice Evans' production of "Man and Superman," after Mr. Evans told him his old rate was too high in view of today's high production costs. "COME BACK, LITTLE SHEBA," ith Shirley Booth, Jean Lorring and Sidney Black-mer as principals in the William Inge drama, will open Wednesday at the Booth Theater as the Theater Guild's fourth, perhaps final, presentation of the season. First Nights WEDNESDAY "COME BACK, LITTLE A Serious Shirley Booth in 'Little Sheba' SHEBA," at the Booth Theater. the first professional during en-Presented bvthe Theater Guild, gagement of the play, Misswith Snirlev Booth Si(lney uuui.il iiau mis iu say ui iilt roe.

Blackmer and Joan Lorring as "Every actor or. actress lsi'principals in the William Inge includes luckv enough sometimes to drama. Cast also Lonny Chapman, John Ran dolph, Daniel Reed, Olga Fabian, Robert Cunningham, find a play and a part which they feel is the one he or she has been waiting for all their lives. 'Come Back, Little Sheba' Wilson Brooks, Paul Krauss is that particular play for me. and Arnold Schulman.

Directed by Daniel Mann. Scenery and lighting by Howard Bay. Costumes by Lucille Little. Pro When Shirley Booth was with the Proctor Players in Albany! many years ago, reviewers threw caution to the wmds and wrote: "Miss Booth proved to be the Caruso and Melba of the organization." This in a frivolity with tunes called "Pitter Patter." Enough to turn a young girl's head, wasn't it? But Shirley Booth's head didn't reel even under this encomium. Twenty-eight years have elapsed since she excited such rhapsodic comment from the up-State aisle-sitters, and all those who will see her as the desperately lonely Lola opposite Sidney Blackmer in "Come Back, Little Sheba," which The Theatre Guild presents at the Booth Theater this Wedneslay night, will attest that she has hewed to the dramatic line, and all the obstacles that preceded my being in it (previous committments and so forth that were eventually overcome) make me believe in destinv.

they must turn back to "Mother Carey's Chickens," a bucolic exercise she invaded at tne tender age of 12. It was a Hartford stock company which gave her this juvenile push, and she has been in and about tne theater ever since. After "Three Men on a Horse," she found employment in such mildly enduring items as "Laff That Off," "High Gear," "Coastwise" and "The Mask and the Face." Remember her as the forlorn and frustrated Mrs. Laschavio in Victor Wolf-son's "Excursion?" Her uncommon skill as a comedienne has been demonstrated through her sardonic magazine writer in "The Philadelphia Story," her Ruth in "My Sister Eileen," most recently her acidulous, mildly boared secretary in "Goodbye My Fancy." Still another facet of her duction supervised by Lawrence Langner and Theresa Helburn. Here's a little storv which: irst night curtain at 8.

Hepburn in 'As You Like It' Carries On an Enjoyable Trend AS far as Shakespeare and I are concerned, I've been lucky, I. guess, thanks chiefly to a certain Mr. Brad-mury in Louisville (Ky.) Male High, some 20 years ago. A fine English '-lit" instructor as well as a good baseball coach, a man with a dry, quietly needling sense of humor, he genuinely enjoyed some of the "must" authors and he could communicate his enthusiasms without gush. As a result, this erstwhile student of his has never been allergic to Shakespeare.

Before playgoing became my beat, 1 never went to see Mister revivals because I felt compelled to do so by a sense of cultural duty. One "should" go that sort of thing. 1 went for pleasure, hoping to see some kind of justice done on the stage to the finest plays in our language. Fortunately, for all who feel as I do, the same viewpoint flourishes today in the Broadway theater, has flourished for about the past decade and a half Shakespeare can be fun. Xot, of course, that this Is a spanking brand-new phenomenon.

Veteran playgoers can remember enjoyable revivals going further back, into the Twenties, with John Barrymore's "Hamlet" as one instance, Jane Cowl's Juliet as another. But these were isolated examples. The current viewpoint I'm talking about began somewhere in the mid-Thirties. You might date its birth to the romping circus the Lunts made of "Taming of the Shrew" in 1935 or Guthrie McClintic's vital production the same year of "Romeo and Juliet," in which Katharine Cornell gave her finest, performance, but I'm inclined to think it began a February night in 1937 when Maurice Evans opened in "Richard II," under Margaret Webster's direction. It was the young Englishwoman's first professional Shakespearean production either in her country or our own, and Broadway liked the vigorous though friendly way she approached his writings.

So Broadway was treated to other examples of the triple play from Shakespeare to Webster to Evans, including an uncut "Hamlet," "Henry IV," "Macbeth" and "Twelfth Night," in which Mr. Evans shared honors with Helen Hayes. The Webster-Evans team, in other words, followed through and set a pattern of lively revivals that combined great poetry with exciting theater. Now, also from England, comes a young fellow named Michael Benthall, who likewise feels that Shakespeare should be fun to watch, as well as great stuff to listen to. That is the manner in which he has staged the Theater Guild's presentation of "As You Like It," lively, full of bounce, with refreshing lightness.

Not as a classic that demands our respect but as a good, colorful piece of theater. Granted that it's Katharine Hepburn's name on the marquee that is drawing capacity audiences to the Cort, it is still Mr. Benthall's conception and treatment of the play that makes it something more than a handsomely upholstered vehicle for a star. Though young in years, around 30, Mr. Benthall has made a notable record for himself in the English theater, having directed a number of the Bard's works for the Strut-ford-on-Avon Memorial Theater, as well as for the Old Vic, and has staged Ibsen and Sheridan for the commercial theaters around Piccadilly.

Probably the most significant item in his record, in regards to "As You Like It," is the fact that he also created a ballet, a story-ballet called "Miracle at Gorbals," for the Sadler's Wells troupe. His production at the Cort has a ballet quality to it, an easy, active feeling that captures the sunny, flowing spirits that Shakespeare poured into this tale of young love and forest pleasures. Without making it a "busy" performance, he has kept it on the move, which is as it should be since "As You Like It" is among the poet's weaker comedies. Under Mr. Benthall's nimble, athletically paced direction a large cast headed by Katharine Hepburn has re-ponded with the right sort of youthful dash.

Miss Hepburn, it'i true, lacks the rich, well-orchestrated voice to aerve the poetry the vay it deserves, but on all other counts he gives a winning, delightful performance, especially in her humorous moment, enlivening the role with playful intelligence. Physically, too, she cuts a most attractive figure, whether dressed in sumptuous gowns or masquerading as a boy. "As You Like It," however, was not conceived by the director as a fancy setting for a star. lie has suited all the roles with thought and care, gaining fresh, appealing performances from youngsters like William Prince, who playg Orlando; Cloris Leachman as Celia, Judy Parrish, Robert Silvius, Pat Englund, and some solid, assured playing from seasoned hands such as Ernest Thesiger as the nthusiastically melancholy Jacques, Aubrey Mather and Whitford Kane. Mr.

Benthall, with his brisk staging o( "As You Like It," carries on a happy policy. Shakespeaie, after all. didn't write for the library or classroom or dusty pedants. He wrote to entertain an audience. The Cort is doing exactly' that with a parlay of Shakespeare, Benthall and Hepburn.

ducers of film comedies have discovered, all at that there is something intrinsically humorous in the idea of woman lawyer. The smarter she is, the higher her pro-: fessional standing, the funnier. The latest side-splittingly funny lady lawyer is currently cavorting in "Key to the City," at Loew's State, In this comedy Loretta Young is not only a lawyer, she la also the mayor of an obscure Maine town and a serious-minded girl who is always thinking of the taxpayers' good. It is comparatively easy for Clark Gable, her co-star, to get laughs merely by being frivolous about Miss efforts to be a capable mayor. Clark is himself a mayor of a West Coast town in this picture.

The two meet at a mayors' convention and amid whoopla of various kinds fall in love. But two other comic lady lawyers have preceded Mis on the screens around town before "Key to the City." They are Katharine Hepburn in "Adam a Rib" and Rosalind Russell in "Tell It to the Judge," both still touring the neighborhoods. The funny thing about Miss Hepburn's situation in "Adam's Rib" is that she's married to a lawyer herself, a district attorney, played by Spencer Tracy. When Miss Hepburn takes on the defense of a woman who is on trial for shooting her husband, with Tracy as district attorney prosecuting the woman, the hilarity reaches stratospheric heights. Rosalind Russell is another topnotcher of a lawyer In "Tell It to the Judge." The big laugh in her case is her ambition to become a Federal judge, and what her ex-husband does to interfere with that ambition is a Robert Cummings, the ex-husband, is a lawyer, too.

Another striking film trend of the times is the new custom of making mystery films with foreign backgrounds, real ones, obtained by filming the stories on their actual location. Two standouts are now on Broadway screens, "The Third Man" at the Victoria Theater and "The Man on -the Eiffel Tower" at the Criterion. "The Third Man" is located in postwar Vienna, where the war-torn look of the city contributes its own quota of confusion to Joseph Cotten's problem, which is to unravel a mystery surrounding the death of a 'friend, Orson Welles. Gotten is an American writer of pot-boiler Western stories, and when he looks up his old friend in Vienna he finds he has just been killed in the street by a tiuck. Valli, the dead friend's girl, adds to the confusion by getting into difficulties with the Russian sector of the four-power domination of the city.

A chase through the Vienna sewers puts a spectacular finish to the proceedings. Paris is the background and billed as one of the stars of "The Man on the Eiffel Tower." Of all recent films this one uses to the full extent the possibilities of a famous city as a film set, so that this picture is worth seeing from this standpoint alone, regardless of the story. The story Is noteworthy, however, and startling in its method of getting itself told. Charles Laughton as an inspector of French police Is concerned with running down the murderer of a rich old lady and finally docs catch tip with him on the Eiffel Tower. Franchot Tone and Burgess Meredith are Laughton's co-stars in this unusual thriller.

One of the strangest trends is to be seen in the recent action films. Stars are taking beatings now, where formerly they could knock a half dozen men, their own size or better, into the next county. There's Errol Flynn in "Montana," story of cattle versus sheep raising in the days when the State was only a territory. In Technicolor, Flynn takes a' terrific walloping from four or five cattle ranch hands, who resent his intention of starting a sheep fanch on what they consider their cattle range. There's no mistake about Flynn being licked.

He is picked up off tha ground repeatedly and held up while first one and then bnocks him cold again. Alexis Smith stars with Flynn in this epic and Flynn comes out all right with his sheep raising plans In the end and wins Miss Smith. In "Ambush." another new high-poweied Western, Robert Taylor takes a knockout punch from John Hodiak and the film makes it plain that he is beaten and knows it. In this story of trouble with the Indians of the Southwest in the 18S()s Taylor gets Arlene Dahl, Hodiak's girl, by default when Hodiak is killed by the Apaches. Both Flynn and Taylor give a fine account of themselves in other rough encounters in their respective films, so the beatings they take are not intended to prove any-thing except that they're human.

Producers probably figure theygain audience sympathy by these defeats. Fashion cycles in films, like styles in clothes, come and go. But the turnover in film trends is much faster than even in the styles in women's clothes. Women lawyers as comedy figures may have already run their course. might help to indicate the sort of play it is.

"After first tryout performance in Wilmington there was some discussion of work to be done, and the small part players were told that they could leave. An hour or so later, I came out through the lobby and there they were, clustered around an incubator which contained several dozen eggs and three newly hatched chicks. Two of the three were NEW 'KATE' STARS AFTER 1st OF JUNE "Kiss Me, Kate," hit musical at the Century Theater, will have a pair of new stars come June 1, when both Patricia Morrison and Alfred Drake will withdraw from the cast. Miss Morrison is expected to resume her Hollywood career, while Mr. oblivious of the ecstatic praise stage behavior was revealed showered upon her "operatic" her understanding school teacher in "Tomorrow the World." She has regaled the Drake and his wife plan a three- month European holiday.

The "Kate" national company, performance. The versatile Miss Booth was allied with Humphrey Bogart and George Spelvin when she faced her first New York jury in "Hell's Bells." ten years later rejoicing in the long-run delights of "Three Men on a Horse." Just before this hit Miss now playing an extended run in vast unseen audiences through; all right; the third, who had daft and biting performances In been hatched on the outside of such aerial programs asjthe shelf, was half off and "Duffy's Tavern" and "The: half on and was struggling with Fred Allen Show," and knows; all his little strength to climb her way about television's! up to safety, screens. We couldn't leave, any of us, Chicago, is also seeking a male lead to replace Keith Andes who is leaving the show on June 1 In "Come Back. Little until he finally made it, which There's a possibility that Anne Jeffreys, the Chicago "Kate," Booth might have been found! she plays the role which she he did, and it struck me that playing various Dorothy Parker last Summer at the. he typified the people in our will replace Miss Morrison.

Lisa Kirk, incidentally, returns as Bianca to the New York cast tomorrow evening, after a two-week Vacation. characters in sketches grouped under the title of "Sunday Nights at Nine." If the curious would know of Miss Booth's Westport Playhouse, a perform- play. They are not exceptional ance which met with consider- in any way just people trying able acclaim. (to scramble up to some sort of In a back-stage Interview security and peace." 'Lost9 Star Guides Visitor From the Australian Wilds Two Group Theater Alumni Represented by 'The Man' re- During a concert tour of Australia in Todd Dun of So forceful was the Group, he returned to New York Theater's impact pn the thea-j solved to make a career 'Stage, concert and opera fame, currently of "Lost in the ter of the Thirties that rever-; acting. He started with Broadway groups Wilde lie OC- fnex isrn i linlriinrxl berations from it have been felt on Broadway ever since, even though it expired some 10 years casionally directed.

It fUJl A lttl WJVI Mull QIIU tnere mat Kazan saw mm ai ne couion i ueueve wnai Harold was en- asn. offered him the job with "Gold- ThP biP.t revpvhpntirm iw i ne youngsters voice! rolled at a conservatory in heard. The I the supposedly, formally dead After 'his apprenticeship a timber quality and polfchlMclbourne. Through the three; tGroup Jheater can be found in 'eventually was promoted 1 neuecj tne iact mat oni years that Blair studied there. three months before he had Duncan kept informed of his 'The Man." Mel Dinelli's thrill- derstudv for John Garfield he been herding cattle the I grades, aptitudes and facility Australian "bush country," and for hard work.

er, which was successfully; played Increasingly important launched recently at the Fulton jroles in "The Gentle People." Theater. IU producer is "Time of Your Life," mit Bloomgarden business man-j Elmer Rice's "Two on an age-r of the Group for many! Island" and Maxwell Ander-years, who is also cn-producerjson's "Eve of St. Mark." The of "Death of a Salesman." Its war interrupted activities director. Martin Ritt, served hisjbut served to change his course apprenticeship with the Group.ifrom acting to direction when had never heard of Mozart or Uhen the singer returned to the three Bs of classical music. 'Australia for another concert Born on a reservation in'tour last Summer Harold Blair Queensland, Harold Blair, even had graduated with honors, the as a child, had a remarkably firsl Aborigine in Australia's sweet tenor.

His musical fac-jhjslorv ever to receive a music ulty was unusual, and he sang diploma. He sang for Duncan in a mission choir, as well as and acain maestro" UKe Mia Kazan, who gave him he was given the opportunity to playing the mouth organ and was impressed. He decided impressed. lie oeciaeuj York joi as as-'djrect the "Winged Victory" jhis first jsistant 4age manager for 'cast of which he was onein im aana- that the boy should accompany mm to this country to ne personally tutored here with him. As it turned out Todd Dun I I can nan to cut nis Australian tour short to hurry back to jNew York for the lead role in the Broadway hit, "Lost in the Stars," an adaptation of Alan jPaton's prize-winning novel.

I "Cry the Beloved Country." I Blair followed close behind with Mrs. Duncan and William "Golden Boy," Ritt started asa performance of "Yellow Jack" actor and later switched to which was given considerable jdirecting. attention on Broadway. His career may be traced, in-; Folowing the war, he re-directly, to the fact that he, turned to New York and was engaged in athletics at Elon Col-taken under the wing of Au-lege in North Carolina. The Wood of the Liehling-Wood small reputation he made at office, agents for playwrights that obscure seat of learning and actors.

When Miss Wood netted him a Summer job aslsold a play called "Mr. Peebles, iathletic instructor at a Newiand Mr. Hooker" she persuaded 'York mountain resort. When; the producer that Ritt was the! the social staff put on a pro-; man to direct it. duction of "Porgy and The American Repertory! and found themselves short decided to revive! actor who could portray Crown "Yellow Jack" and sent for Ritt.1 they turned in desneration to The Theater Guild engaged him! the athletic director.

to stage "Set My People Ritt's, performance" amazed And now "The Man" is his cur-no one more than himself and, rent effort. Allen. Todd accompanist, ar-l riving here last Fall. About the only thing Australian that till clings to him is his very correct, very British accent and his Australian -hirts (they pull over the head instead of buttoning up the front i. When Todd or one of his friends kids him about his accent, he comes right hack with exaggerated New Yorkese or a deep Southern drawl, Though he averages more Uday Shankar at Academy Tuesday Marking the seventh event The program will be the Major Concert Series, spon-M1''" from the cream of Shan- Aft l'- than 40 hours a week on his music, studying languages and 'inn isored by the Brooklyn Institute KK'n emenV jof Arts and Sciences, Udayj The Institute announces that Shankar, India's or os tjShankar's appearance at this dancer, and his Hindu Ballet! time replaces the one originally will perform this Tuesday eve- scheduled for March 14.

Among ning at 8:30 at the Academy of the new works in his repertory Music. Featured with Shankar re "Bharat Natyam," the most Todd Duncan witn uuncan. tiiair has become a regular member tion Army band. When the men 'of the Grace Congregational who became his sponsors ap-jChurch in Harlem and has proached him and as' ed if under his wing a dozen wanted to "sing in the citv." he 'or so youngsters as his "own is his wife, Amala. ancient magnification to Shiva, 'accepted their offer simply be- winning their mend w- The other dancers comprising, the god of dance; "Pung Cha-jcause "the city" was a place he ship by telling stories of Aus his group are: Dipti, Priti, Go-jlan," the Manipur drum dance pal, Gita and Smriti.

Also par-, that aroused enthusiasm in ticipating in the performance, Shankar's film. "Kalpana," ex- had never seen. Singing there, tralia. taking them on field he thought, simply entailed and teaching them to peating the songs he had heard throw the boomerang. IN "THE HAPPY TIMES," most touching scene at the be an orchestra of nativeihibited here last year.

"the wireless." "I really learn more from; Plymouth Theater, Claude Douphin explains the adult por-l Todd Duncan agreed with the them than they no from meon; cf ov. to hi confud on Johnnv Stewart nuscians, who will present so Bride," regional a hill warrior and "Rajput traits of UDAY SHANKAR and his Hindu Ballet will perform this Tuesday night at the Academy of Music, under the auspices of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. his talpnt save "hut rtn wih thpv'd los and other specialties in ad- hi.c.,hny uponsorj on ifuture and, upon dilion to supporting the rianc-i bride. his reeom-'stop saying cheerio." BROOKLYN EAGLE, SUN FEB. 12, 1950 27.