Paths of Glory (adapted by Sidney Howard; Arthur Hopkins, producer) may not prevent any more enlistments in the next World War than If This Be Treason. But most people agree that it is a better show.
Adapted from Humphrey Cobb's recent best-selling novel (TIME, June 3) about a reputedly authentic incident on the French front in 1915, it looks at war from a more intimate and shocking angle than Dr. Holmes's dreamy drama. The tale has to do with a gallant regiment of the line which is called upon by a sadistic, medal-hungry general to take a heavily fortified German hill, "The Pimple " after two previous attacks have failed'. The regiment is cut to pieces before it gets through its own wire. The general goes into a psychopathic rage, demands that the survivors be shot for cowardice as examples to the rest of the Army. He finally compromises on one man chosen from each of three companies of the assault battalion.
The horror of Paths of Glory eloquently communicated in the novel and just as ably conveyed from the stage by Adapter Howard and Producer Hopkins surpasses that found in most realistic War literature. In addition to the wasteful slaughter between sides, Paths of Glory reveals a cannibalistic phase of war in which men on the same side want to take each other's lives.
If the dramatic effect of Paths of Glory seems somehow to miss the full impact of What Price Glory? or Journey's End, it is probably due to a slight flaw in the matter of illusion. It is a little distracting to hear men dressed as French soldiers yearn for Paris and their native villages in honest New Yorkese. As the two most prominent of the condemned men, however, a pair of extremely credible performances are turned in by young Actor Myron McCormick, late of the Princeton Triangle Show, and oldtime Actor William Harrigan, commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 307th Infantry, 77th Division A. E. F.
If This Be Treason (by Rev. John Haynes Holmes & Reginald Lawrence; Theatre Guild, producer). On the evening of the inauguration of U. S. President John Gordon, internationally celebrated pacifist, the Japanese Fleet captures Manila. With malice toward none, President Gordon attributes the onslaught to an insulting ultimatum his bellicose predecessor, President Brainard, has sent Japan in the closing hours of his Administration. To the amazement of his Cabinet, to the disgust of a Congress which has apparently been bribed to a man by munitions interests, President Gordon orders every U. S. warship in the Pacific hot-footing home, invites the Japanese Ambassador to lunch next day.
The luncheon never occurs. Congress loses no time declaring war against Japan. Like peace-loving President Grover Cleveland before him. President Gordon thereupon reminds Congress that as Commander-in-Chief of the Army & Navy he alone can order the nation's forces into battle. This he does not propose to do. Instead, he takes ship for Japan for a conference with jingo Premier Yato. In Tokyo, threatened with impeachment, imprisonment, assassination, President Gordon, with the help of a rising tide of Japanese peace sentiment, comes through in great style. The war is called off. He hopes he has established a potent precedent.