New Play in Manhattan

Portrait In Black (by Ivan Goff & Ben Roberts; produced by David Lowe & Edgar F. Luckenbach) quickly lets the audience know that the San Francisco shipping magnate, Matt Talbot, didn't die the natural death people supposed he did: he was done in by his wife and her lover (Claire Luce* and Donald Cook). Then it quickly lets the murderers know, by means of a taunting anonymous letter, that they aren't quite getting away with it: someone is hep to their deed.

In their agitation, the guilty lovers decide it is the dead man's lawyer (Sidney Blackmer), and waste no time polishing him off too. Then up jumps a second taunting anonymous letter congratulating them on their second successful murder--"and all's to do again." The game of doping out this uncomfortable handwriting-on-the-wall goes on, for murderers and audience alike, to a pretty unexpected finale.

Portrait in Black is a well-diagrammed job, with snatches of excitement and stretches of suspense. By all the rules, it should be more of a thrill than it is. One trouble lies in its unmagnetic atmosphere: the play is cold without being clammy, its people are stiff and unhuman without being sinister.

Probably the main trouble is that Portrait in Black literally talks itself out of being exciting enough. All the characters are so frightfully conversational that they eventually slow down the pace and thin out the action.

Returning to Broadway (where she was last seen in Of Mice and Men) after almost ten years in England. Not to be confused with Playwright-Former Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.