The Theatre: New Play in Manhattan: Mar. 18, 1940

The Weak Link (by Allen Wood: produced by Chester Erskin in association with Philip Adler) is a farce-melodrama as lighthearted as Tiny Tim, and as lame. It concerns a young man who can spot the weak link in every crime. Offering his services to a “Bankers’ Protective Association” to help prevent robberies, he finds himself among crooks, is forced to help commit them.

The idea, though old, is amusing, and the play has scattered good moments. But it is neither fast nor funny enough. What it needed was George Abbott’s slam-bang direction; but it’s no cinch, on Broadway, to shake an Abbott out of any old hat.