New Play in Manhattan

Murder Without Crime (by J. Lee Thompson; produced by Del Bondio, Windust & Weatherly) starts off nicely when a young lady is stabbed with a dagger. But it winds up sadly, strangled by its own wordiness.

An English psychological thriller, Murder Without Crime shows the stabber hardly able to hide the body of his victim before his ferret of a landlord pokes his head in the door and his nose into everything.

Sadist as well as sleuth, the landlord suavely tortures his tenant for two and a half acts, until finally each gets the drop on the other.

The landlord (silkily played by Cinemactor Henry Daniell) is the life of the piece, and Playwright Thompson handles him with a certain sophistication. But by the same token, he mishandles him. Putting Mayfair ahead of murder, he turns the landlord into a sort of Noel-Cowardish fancy talker, and the fancy talk sinks the play. It becomes tiresome in itself, lowers the tension, and worst of all, gives the audience time to spot what is coming next.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.