A SOPHISTICATED DRAMA

Evening Star, Issue 21750, 19 June 1934, Page 6

A SOPHISTICATED DRAMA

‘ SHOULD LADIES BEHAVE ? ’ FOR EMPIRE Place a much-divorced woman, a young, impressionable girl looking for “ experience,” a silly, simpering, giddy wife, a suave Continental philanderer, and a suspicious husband together under one roof for a hectic week-end and you should have an idea of tho hilarious and sophisticated situations which make up the plot of ‘ Should Ladies Behave? which will begin at the Empire Theatre on Friday. It is the latest of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s successful comedies. Everyone loves the wrong person in this scintillating plot. Young William Jannoy loves the equally juvenile Mary Carlisle. But Mary is fascinated by a man of the world, Conway .Tearie, who is loved in turn and dominated by the catty Katharine Alexander. Alice Bradv is Barrymore’s wife and Mary s mother, a romantic, love-starved woman who thinks Tearle wants to marry her. The whole melange is set down in Barrymore’s country home to work out its destiny. It does in ways that are howlingly funny, sometimes tightly dramatic, and occasionally tinged with emotional climaxes. Barrymore, as the crabby, vitriolic father interested only in his daughter’s happiness, and absolutely convinced that all the rest are idiots, gives another of his sharp, penetrating portrayals. As for Miss Brady, with her well-intentioned blunders, outlandish gestures, and gushing superlatives, it is no longer necessary to report that she is one of the most entertaining comediennes of the screen.