CRIMSON PLAYGOER

In a play that starts out as a critical analysis of the part played in love by physical attraction and that ends as a rather clever comedy, the Boston Stock Company presented "The Misleading Lady" at the St. James Theatre last night. The play runs the gamut of everything common to all comedies from cave-man philosophy to a lunatic. The acting is decidedly spotty, but the good points in both the play and the east come out on top in the end.

Strangely enough, it is to the lunatic, that long-suffering character of recent plays, that the laurels of last night's performance must go. Mr. Remley attempts to portray a good-hearted but weak-minded old man and an impressive imperial Napoleon at the same time. In provoking the most spontaneous and genuine laughter of the evening, he is forced to change constantly from one character to the other. How he does it, we do not know. We are certain however, that when he appeared in the old lodge waving his sword and blasphem lng Wellington in stentorian tones and later when he misdirected the villain into a ten-mile hike in the woods looking for the girl who was not his wife, he provided the high spots of the evening.

The play gives one the impression of having been written in sections. Such a system could hardly fall to produce some good scenes. Fortunately both Miss Hitz, as the siren heroine who robs the hero of his heart in the very first line, and Mr. Nedell, as the big strong man who uses cave-man methods as a last and successful resort, found the parts suited to them and the result was distinctly good.

Especially in the second act, when the actors showed the first signs of being interested themselves, the play was interesting to the audience. She proved an apt pupil of the Cave Man School of Courting and used the telephone to good advantage on his head. The plot reached its rather delayed climax, with Boney providing even more than his share of the entertainment. His removal to the asylum was the real ending of the play.

Mr. Elkins is perhaps a little too convincing as the bad Mr. Tracey, but the fault is more than made up by the gentlemanly Mr. Nedell, who runs true to form and contrary to nature in his conduct when alone in a shooting lodge with a "seductive siren." Mr. Collier, as Keen Fitzpatrick, was even more like a reporter than most butlers are like butlers.