New Play in Manhattan

Time Limit! (by Henry Denker and Ralph Berkey) is an effective thriller with a head in its tail. For most of the evening a flashback melodrama about a U.S. Army officer who went over to the Communists in a Korean prison camp, it winds up in what Balzac called "the trenches of the intellect," with a barrage of moral and mental queries.

Examining the evidence for court-martialing Major Harry Cargill (Richard Kiley) for treason-he had given Communist lectures and broadcasts, had averred that the U.S. used germ warfare-a thoughtful judge advocate (Arthur Kennedy) is made suspicious by the very conclusiveness of the case. There is not only shattering testimony against Cargill; there is his admission of guilt, and refusal to explain his actions. Time Limit! being a thriller, it would be unfair to reveal more than that Cargill had turned traitor from decent motives; had been, indeed, on the horns of a lacerating dilemma.

What Cargill's behavior ultimately inspires is a debate on how such behavior should be judged. The U.S. general in charge of the case admits Cargill's difficulties; but, somewhat like Captain Vere in Melville's Billy Budd, he sets law. however tyrannic, above lawbreaking, however understandable. In general, the debate stresses how agonizing are the alternatives for the transgressor, how dangerous are all absolutes for his judges. It asks at what point cracking up might be forgivable, and how far a moment of capitulation must cancel out a lifetime of loyalty. And in particular, Time Limit! inquires how far Communist brainwashing might call for revised standards of judgment.

Whatever the answers, says the judge advocate on the eve of the court-martial, "they'll know we asked the questions"; and in asking them, and simultaneously asking the audience to do some thinking, Time Limit! contrives a nice, new twist for a thriller. With the help of a good cast and production, it also provides much that is vibrant and tense. If the play has its shortcomings, the chief reason is the old have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too one. Time Limit! tries to be exciting and significant by turns, rather than the one by means of the other. A serious theme must often defer to a lurid plot: instead of an intensity that makes truth itself thrilling, there is an ingenuity that makes not just thrills but even truths theatrical. But in its alternating-current way, Time Limit! has considerable voltage.

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