New Play in Manhattan

The Big Two (by L. Bush-Fekete & Mary Helen Fay; produced by Elliott Nugent & Robert Montgomery) has a well-intentioned topical slant, but is really old folderol under new flags. It is one more tale of a man and girl divided by everything but their love for each other; only here, instead of being Guelph & Ghibelline, or Roundhead & Cavalier, they are a Soviet officer and an American newspaper correspondent (Philip Dorn & Claire Trevor). They meet in Russian-occupied Austria--the girl is there on her own, looking for an American who did treasonable broadcasts for the Nazis; the Russian is on furlough. While fighting over ideologies, they fall in love; between kisses the girl confides that she is looking for the traitor, and the lover snaps back into the officer. But after some random melodrama, there is both a personal and an ideological get-together.

It will take a better play to better U.S.Soviet relations through the theater. This one badly flops, less because it is built on a formula than because it is built so badly. What is finally thrown together is a hack job of comedy, corn, melodrama and sex that provides a few bright moments by way of some minor characters.

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