A Passenger to Bali (by Ellis St. Joseph) is a symbolical melodrama. It concerns a scoundrelly demagogue, "a dictator in search of a country" (Walter Huston), who gets on a tramp steamer and then can't be got off, since not even the scurviest hellholes of Asia will let him land. He gets the crew rum-soaked and rebellious, but the captain, though driven desperate, is too law-abiding to toss his vicious passenger overboard. Finally, as the ship starts sinking, the captain shoots him.
As melodrama, the play has exciting moments. As symbolism, it makes its point well enough: Fascism and lawlessness cannot be...
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