'AT THE HANNA-

'Best Man' Is Exciting Drama of Politics

well he despises but realizes him as the stronger candidate.

Sufficient that "The Best Man" is nominated.

By HARLOWE R. HOYT but finds him vacillating. Cant"The Best Man" opened the season at the Hanna theater last night and an auspicious Before Hockstader can give evening it was. This play of either his official blessing, he practical politics proves that dies. playwright Gore Vidal not only knows what goes on behind the scenes when public personages gather in smokefilled rooms but that he can present it as firstclass theater.

"The Best Man" concerns the barter and battle for ballots

HARLOWE R. HOYT

on the last two days of a national convention in the Philadelphia hotel headquarters of two candidates seeking the presidential nomination. No holds are barred as they struggle under the critical appraisal of an ex-president, patriarch of the clan.

Of the six principals who created the roles in New York, only Lee Tracy is missing James Westerfield supplants him as ex-President Art Hock-

Westerfield plays the old boy with a twinkle in his eye, a cornfed philosophy, a thirst in his throat, cursing enemies with one word, using it also for his friends. A hidden pathos beneath it rises from time to time and his final scene with Miss Dana, brief though it is, grips the heartstrings.

Douglas Outstanding

Douglas stands out as the politician whose conscience embarrasses his political freedom while his pursuit of the fair.

sex embarrasses himself. His

superstitious three-step, his unwillingness to throw mud, his innate honesty, make him a sympathetic figure. Miss Dana supplies a gentle touch as the wife who forgives in the end.

interesting political schemer, a Lovejoy makes Cantwell an

man unafraid of the truth be-

stader. Melvyn Douglas plays cause he doesn't know what it former Secretary of State Wilis; self-justified in all that he liam Russell, and is opposed by Frank Lovejoy as Sen. Cantwell. Leora Dana and Kathleen Maguire are their respective wives and Ruth McDevitt continues as a national chairwom-

an.

Saints and Sinners

makes him see himself as the does by some self-hypnosis that acme of propriety doing his duty, which is sufficient for all ends.

Miss Maguire contributes a splendid study of the slightly addlepated wife, who likes a drink, loves fine clothes and Russell, a politician with her husband besides. Ruth Mcideals, is a woman chaser in Devitt goes to town as the private life but his wife sticks committee woman who knows by him to aid his candidacy. what she wants and manages Cantwell is thoroughly to finagle it. John Scanlan scrupulous politically, using wins a well-deserved hand as rumor and innuendo, lies and the boy who peaches on Cantpromises to gain his ends. But well and Gordon B. Clarke offers a studied bit as Sen. in private life he is above reCurlin. proach while his wife, a potential dipsomaniac, hits the bottle but loves him truly.

un-

Former President Hockstader is a combination of Jim Garner and Harry Truman. He is outspoken, with a dry humor, a (surprising understanding of 'character, and a determination to win at any cost. If the other fellow uses a knife, get a bowie for yourself. But don't let him walk over you.

As the convention blares and blasts, the rivals clinch in a political death grapple. Cantwell discloses that his opponent once had a mental breakdown and is unfit for the White House. Russell learns that his. holier-than-thou detractor is smeared with homosexual suspicion from his war days. Hockstader favors Russell