New Plays in Manhattan

The World Waits (by George F. Hummel; Frank Merlin, producer) is a depiction of life in the murky base cabin of the Hartley Antarctic expedition, toward the end of a two-year stay. It resembles Journey's End in having an all-male cast and a rigid youth (Philip Truex, son of Actor Ernest Truex) whose gibberings point up the venomous fortitude of the others. To forestall suspicion which might have occurred to auditors who knew that Correspondent Russell Owen of the Byrd Expedition had helped with the script and setting, the producers warned in the program that The World Waits is based on fact "in no sense other than purely creative." Commander Hartley (Blaine Cordner), an affable, scout-masterish publicity hound, is in such a glow over U. S. annexation of Antarctica that he is not aware his men call him a tinplate hero behind his back, or that his pompous planting of flags and food caches has consumed precious time which might prevent the relief ship from getting through the fast-knitting ice. When radio messages from the ship abruptly cease, he takes to futile bawling and sulking in his private cubbyhole. His shillyshallying in the face of a near mutiny results in the loss of an aviator and plane; another aviator, named Brice (Reed Brown Jr.), takes charge of the camp, sets grimly about digging in for another winter on a six-week food supply. But Hartley's life-long luck comes out of temporary hiding, and Brice, after forcing promises from all hands that none of the "messy" incidents shall be disclosed, cynically gives back the reins to his chastened superior in time for Broadway's anointment of ticker tape.

Three and One (adapted from the French of Denys Amiel by Lewis Galan tiere and John Houseman; William Harris Jr., producer). The fact that most young women have a practical, an intellectual and a physical side to their nature is the basis for this uncertain parable which was apparently meant to be a bedroom farce but emerged as a mystery play. A matronly ballerina named Lois Valois has had three sons by assorted fathers. Arthur is a banker, all he thinks about is money; Paul is a composer, all he thinks about is music; Charles is an athlete, all he thinks about is sex. A personable young woman named Yvonne Dallier is introduced into this menage, and after an unconscionable amount of bickering and posturing, it is the goatlike Charles who succeeds in piercing her resistance.

Lilian Bond, a pneumatic British beauty newly recruited from the cinema, stretches and slinks through the part of Yvonne, and hard-working Brian Donlevy has been baking himself under sun-ray lamps for weeks to make his performance as the rutting Charles more effective. The audience left with two mysteries still unsolved: why normally acute William Harris Jr. should have found the script worthy of production; what the mysterious blonde who appeared briefly during the first act and was never mentioned by the cast, had to do with it all.

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.

Her Master's Voice (by Clare Kummer; Max Gordon, producer). Except for such rare fumbles as last month's Amourette, Playwright Kummer usually exhibits flash and speed if not power and drive. Having absolutely nothing to say, she nevertheless manages to say it pleasantly, and her latest piece, dealing with the young Farrars of Homewood, N. J., is additionally brightened by the return from Hollywood of droll Roland Young and crack-brained Laura Hope Crews. Ned Farrar (Mr. Young) is an irresponsible husband who "makes just enough not to get along on," loses his job, accepts a position as handyman in the home of his wife's rich aunt (Miss Crews). This lady, unaware of his identity, takes a strong fancy to her new employe. The situation is considerably complicated when Farrar's wife goes to visit her aunt. Playwright Kummer has provided a suitably moonstruck conclusion for her ingratiating trifle.

Give Us This Day (by Howard Koch; Francis I. Curtis & Richard Myers, producers) is a rather forlorn case of author's indigestion. The good idea which Author Koch has bitten off and cannot chew is that of a family waiting for an old lady to die and leave them her $200,000. They wait 15 years while the old ogress, who never appears on the stage, clings to life in her room upstairs, taps signals on a steam pipe to summon the heirs & heiresses for obsequious ministrations, keeps them on tenterhooks by changing her will every so often. The grandson (Paul Guilfoyle) and his fiancee (Linda Watkins) are frustrated when the matriarch will not let him go to medical school; the granddaughter, prevented from marrying her garageman, sneaks off for weekends with him, contracts a baby.

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