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CYRIL MAUDE
Eminent Englishman at West's
Even though West's had to break one
of its hard-and-fast policies, and se
cure 'Grumpy' for its Adelaide pre
miere almost at a minute's notice,
Saturday's audiences should have been
more than enough to compensate the
management for any sacrifices it made.
Thirteen years ago Maude played the
same role in Australia, and th«- srrpfn
'Grumpy' has all of the vivid and
lovable personality that was so capti
vating on the stage. Pew people who
saw the picture on Saturday failed to
come under the spell of the irascible
old criminal lawyer, who tempered the
milk of human kindness with the
prussic acid of bis invectives. Behind
all his grouches, his groans and his
grumbles, however, there flashed and
twinkled the bright facets of a bril
liant wit and a rare sense of humor,
for Maude is an actor, and, what is
more, an artist, to his finger-tips.
Indeed, after the first burst of vitu
peration has dissolved, one comes to
understand this choleric old man, with
his eternal complaining and his big
heart, and long before the picture is
through he has won a whole-hearted
respect and regard from most. There
is something so human about his
characterisation that it is no wonder
the audiences were unanimous in their
Praise, for 'Grumpy** became more
than a mere screen character when he
turned truardlan and msiehmalwr tn a
young mining engineer and his sweet
heart. Hiding his love and his clever
ness under a perpetual bad temper,
?his role has a strong strain of comedy
that breaks out in queer and unex
pected places at times. Phillips Holmes
is the engineer who is robbed of a
valuable diamond he was holding in
trust for his firm, and Frances Dade,
a comparative newcomer to the screen,
is 'Grumpy's' beautiful and under
standing- ward. The old man, with
his criminal lawyer experience and his
bad eyesight, sets out to recover the
gem from an international crook. There
is nothing of a cheap detective story
in the way he traps the criminal with
a pmk camellia and a human hair and
the battle of wits that centres round
tnese two everyday objects, has some
- ? j -i.iiio^iin^ **om}uc& ui numor.
Luckily, the cast has been carefully
chosen, and the dialogue is typicallv
and delightfully English from beginning
* -S'^ 'Grumpy's' season of a week
a*, west's is sure to be a crowded one.
?This 'Thing Called Love,' which was
also recently seen on the stage here, is
more sophisticated than ever on the
screen. Horace Sheldon and the
Beauty Ballet are always sure of a
good reception.
$