CRIMSON PLAYGOER

In the film rendition of "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch," now being shown at the Metropolitan Theatre, the whimsical flavor of the Alice Hegan Rice classic has been brought to the screen intact. It is a story of life in a small Ohio town during the later buggy and moustache cup period, only a few decades removed in time, but centuries away in spirit. The peg-top trousers and bombazine gowns, the town drunkard and the cruel banker, even the glorious extravaganza at the local "opera house" all bespeak that happy epoch before the pestilence known as Radio had standardized our American scene.

The Wiggs family, waiting patiently for Father Wiggs to return gold-laden from the Klondike, occupies a mean little hovel in the cabbage patch. Mrs. Wiggs takes in washing, Billy Wiggs sells wood, and with the other little Wiggs, they receive each buffet of fate with cheerful fortitude. When such blessings as a decrepit, sway-backed horse, or perhaps a Thanksgiving basket from the beautiful benefactress on the hill, happen to come along, the Wiggs star has ascended to heights unknown. But despite the kindness of a newspaper editor (Kent Taylor) and his sweetheart (Evelyn Venable) the cough of little Jimmy Wiggs becomes worse, and at last brings tragedy. Finally, Mr. Wiggs does wander home, but not from the Klondike, not with a pot of gold, but with exactly enough to pay the 25-dollar mortgage. And with his appearance the domestic felicity of Mrs. Wiggs, her serenity yet undisturbed by emotions of a radical or communistic nature, becomes complete.

As the motherly, soft-spoken Mrs. Wiggs, Pauline Lord makes a promising debut into talking pictures, and she will no doubt fit well into the Marie Dressler type of role. The Wiggs children speak with similar accents, do not look at the camera, and are quite charming. True love is wholesomely portrayed by the winsome Evelyn Venable and Kent Taylor, who appeared together in David Harum. The affection of the pompous Mr. Stubbins (W. C. Fields) for Miss Bazy (Zazu Pitts) may be placed on a somewhat lower level, for Mr. Stubbins has to be lured toward the altar by the combined agencies of a matrimonial society and the succulent cooking of Mrs. Wiggs. In a picture of this type, plot means little, atmosphere and sincere portrayal of character mean everything, and in these latter respects "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" may lay claim to excellence.

The stage review this week is called "Round Boston Town," with Sid Gary, radio baritone. As usual it is capable routine stuff, but one gets the feeling that vaudeville as such is creeping towards the last stages of moribundity.