The Theater: New Play in Manhattan, Jan. 24, 1949

The Smile of the World (by Garson Kanin; produced by the Playwrights' Company) was, like Kanin's Born Yesterday, a plug for liberalism. Born Yesterday is still nourishing after three years; The Smile of the World lasted four nights.

It had Born Yesterday's liberalism without its laughter. It was the sour success story of a Supreme Court justice turned from flaming crusader into conforming stuffed shirt. As the justice, Otto Kruger seemed neither alive nor dead enough; while Ruth Gordon's mannered playing of the wife merely suggested that the justice had married an actress.

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