THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 74, 22 November 1940, Page 50

THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE

( Universal)

LTHOUGH the film publicity boys have said not a word about it, the basis for this extravagant musical-comedy-revue is a play called

"The Comedy of Errors,’ written some timé ago by a well-known playwright by the name of William Shakespeare. Having had the inestimable benefit of sécondary education I twigged it immediately I saw that the name of one of the characters was Dromio. " Dromio?" I thought, "Dromio? Wherefore art thou Dromio? Ah, Shakespeare!" "The Boys from Syracuse," I am in a position to be able to inform you, was a George Abbott musical comedy with music by Dick Rodgers and lyrics by

Larry Hart, and featured, in the part of Dromio of Ephesus, Larry Hart’s diminutive brother Teddy, who was seen on the screen here in " Three Men on a Horse." The Harts, apparently, were not at all awed by the fact that they were playing Shakespeare. Said Teddy Hart in an article in " Stage’: " Shakespeare’s all right. He’s O.K. He’s swiped a lot of stuff from vaudeville, but he’s O.K. I read ‘The Comedy of Errors’ this summer, and at first the language mixed me up. All the free verse they’ve got in there. But once you understand it you can see how hokey this Shakespeare is, Good, but hokey. I used a lot of the gags 15 years ago in vaudeville." The film, which is pure farce, has Allan Jones, Rosemary Lane, Joe Penner, Martha Raye, Eric Blore, Alan Mowbray, and Charles Butterworth-a pretty lively cast for a musical comedy. Few liberties have been taken with the basic plot of "The Comedy of Errors"; but, if the plot remains intact, Will Shakespeare would certainly be perplexed by the trappings. These include Allan Jones singing love songs to Rosemary Lane, " hot numbers " by Martha Raye, a: chorus of beautiful young things in abbreviated Grecian cos.tumes, taxi-meters on chariots; a sign, " Office hours 12.0-12.5" on the state apartment of the Duke of -Solinus, Nubian boys on roller) skates; a. tablet newspaper with the headline "Ephesus .Blitzkreigs Syracuse,’ and Zeus alone _knows what else. The plot, which concerns two séts of ‘twins, is too complicated to outline in any detail, and if you’re interested I suggest you read "The Comedy of Errors." -What matters in the film, "as I’ve in‘dicated, are the trappings. ; If you have a long enough memory you may recall that Eddie Cantor used some‘what similar gags in " Roman Scandals" ‘and "Ali Baba Goes to Town." And the ‘business of twins playing about with reflections in a mirror has been used in vaudeville since Salome did her headline (Continued on next page)

FILM REVIEWS (Continued from previous page) act for Herod; but for the most part it’s fresh and original. Being in the mood for farce the night I saw it, I enjoyed myself, though a couple of elderly gentlemen in front of me (classicists to the backbone) apparently Were Not Amused.