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In vaudeville the absurdity of Savo's silent comedy was heightened by the persistent squeaking of his shoes. Last week his shoes didn't squeak but what his admirers regretted most was that Mum's the Word closed after four showings. Savo's clowning evokes a world much more fey. much less relevant to the real world than Chaplin's, and Savo's few attempts at solemnity never approach Chaplin's. But to anyone who enjoys Savo's world, a whole evening of it isn't too long.
Delicate Story (by Ferenc Molnar. produced by Gilbert Miller & Vinton Freedley). The famous Hungarian playwright-refugee Ferenc Molnar (Liliom, The Swan, The Guardsman) apparently has not been too depressed by a world at war. Nowadays he spends much of his time in Manhattan's Plaza Hotel bar, and he has not lost his Continental knack of getting amusement out of the idea of cuckoldry. He is amused by it in Delicate Story. which is so delicate that it almost — but not quite — wastes away. The wife of a Swiss delicatessen-keeper takes a shine to a young man about to be called back to the army of his native land. Her husband eventually suspects the worst, but it really hasn't happened. The young man — to the distress of the wife — has been in love with someone else all the time.
Amorous waywardness is always trite enough in outline, but life usually fills in the outlines with subtle erotic shadings. So does Molnar. Edna Best is so plumply and seductively feminine as the wife that her unwanted virtue seems a shame. Jay Fassett, the heavy and harassed husband, is a fine figure of a man. But the show is nearly stolen by Harry Gribbon, a former Keystone cop, carrying on as a police officer. In the end Molnar the craftsman almost triumphs over Molnar the trifler's failings.