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MAÜRlCt MOSCÜVIIXB
- . »
"Tie Rager"
My starr la the mainspring of "The
Ringer." "
And that eminent Continental actor,
Maurice Moscoritch, specialises In
plays with plots that leave the audi-
ence thrilled, and high-pitched until *
lew moments before - the tatt Ot we
curtain.
Edgar Wallace, the writer Of '"The
Ringer," had the advantage of having
a close relative ha* tip In the Scot-
ian a Tard service. He also toad the
supreme key to the inner working ol
that wonderful institution In that th«
said relative officer allowed bim ia od
many a. case would otherwise b*
a close-aealed book »both to the aver-
age journalist and novelist.
In th« casé ot "Tn* Ringer" the
vivid UsatrfhsUon of its author was
dot drawn opon so milch aa many
might think, the real «tory being
pieced together ffoto various incidente
to the Ii£e of o»e ot finglaild'* most
deeperaie crooke and dbe'whose repu-
tation waa eihietwly made on thc Con-
tinent long before be arrived in Lon-
don. He was a. Russian Pole of a gang
whose work was known to the FrencH.
German. Belgian, Poliah, and Russian
pc lice aa international and far-reach-
ing, one of his confrere« being; shat
dead in Chicago, another being elec-
trocuted in New York, while a third
jumped overboard from a rum-boat he
, had . been trying to piraté off Boston
dropping In the englub room a bomb
that fortunately dlidded.
In the play of "The Hinger" Maurlee
Moscovitch . has got right inside the.
character of a master-crook, whose
personality, criminal as are ita motiv-d
and outlook on life, has yet a com
pelling attraction and a charm that,
while it does not cast a halo around
robbery, scheming, and subtle assas-
sina, lion, draws our. occasional hope
that the victim of inherited vice and
iistortfcä loyalty to members of his
gang may live to retrieve himself. The
ètory of "The Ringer" ls so intensely_
dramatic mo human and so arrestingly
real that a hint dropped in cold type
would spoil an illusion that must have:
taken the author many troubled mid-
night hours to evolve, many days of.
.uudotts study and hard Work to.com
Hete; in stage form. The lead fe. pf
course, sustained by Maurice Mosco-
vitch, be being known to the audience
as Meister, 'a London solicitor, and
remeadotts is tho strain laid upon him
to keep the character up to the dra-
matic level demanded by the exigen-
cies of the play. Prominent in thld
puzzle play is Nat Madison, who, 9»
Samuel Hackett, ab ex-convict, dis-
plays deep histrioaic .Ability and a ca
pacify for repression that is rarely
found in a young* artist, he being
a son of Man-ice Moscovitch. High-
ly necessary to this mystery play fa
[ Central Detective-Inspector Biles
played by Ashton Jarry. bi« role being
arduous and exacting, this also.being
;he case with Divisional Detective-'
inspector Wembcry. Ii S.O., played by
Reginald Newson. Hal Percy, aa Cou
tel Walford, CB, Assistant Commis-
sioner of Police, baa a role that ia
mott other banda could have bees
made dull and stereotyped, but Mr.
Percy invests it with all the power
ctjled for. Guy Hastings, as Dr. Lo-
mond, Divisional Surgeon; Georg«
Blunt, as Station-Sergeant Carter:
"Jchard Webster, Herbert Leigh. Rich-
ard Fair, and Owen Trappes (Benny}
Roger Barry < Len! ey) and Castle
Stuart (Jones), in the minor parta, al!
.tait-good aid to a fine performance
-nd were each ? awarded meeds Ol
braise by a discriminating audience.
Maurice Moscovitrh ie exceedlhglj
ortunate in having a leading lady «1
he calibro of Mary MacGregor, bel
sumption of theJk-ote of Cora Milton
Whfie containlng-nflabes of stage genius
vrpved i what a capable actress maj
~: core by banking her temperameCta
1res until they ar* needed for a highly
dramatic -sensation. Bertha Ricardo
as Mary Lanley P»aye<3 a role that hai
? «Red for comment, good and other
-vise, in n.ost of the leading journal
<n the Commonwealth. But in tb<
rpinlon of this paper not one action
one gesture, one alcoholic huskiness o
"titburst 1B overdone, the oharacte
ailing for the supreme power of por
» raying a dissolute victim of drinl
combined with a quarrelsome kin!
that leads often to a painful clash a
emotions. -.'.Miss Ricardo was tens
end troublous, but natural, aa wehav
mown the character.
One of the reasons ot the success o
The Ringer^ litó in tte fact that it 1
brodùcèd "by_, that .'wnir-eht dramari
artist afiff producer. Gregan M'Mahoi
his handling of histrionic talent, hi
stage resources, and the author's boo
being up to his beet standard. Al
who remember him in Perth as th
first Parker, in **A Message from Mars
will recall him as a brilliant stage at
list and a deep student of the motil
of playwrights. .
.The Ringer'' wai be played nut
Friday, the next night, Saturday, Di
cember 22 seeing the initial staging <
The Terror."
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