Basil Rathbone: The Barretts of Wimpole Street

A play by Rudolf Besier, arranged in two parts and twenty-three scenes by Katharine Cornell. Opened at the Empire Theatre, New York City, February 9, 1931. Following the 370 performance run, Katherine Cornell took the show on a seven-month U.S. tour. Produced by Katherine Cornell, staged by Guthrie McClintic. Basil Rathbone was not part of the Broadway production, but joined the cast for the tour, which began in October, 1933. Below is the cast for the tour. Harriet Ingersoll was replaced by Pamela Simpson sometime after San Francisco.

Doctor Chambers	David Glassford
Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett	Katherine Cornell
Wilson	Brenda Forbes
Henrietta Moulton-Barrett	Helen Walpole
Anabel Moulton-Barrett	Harriet Ingersoll/ Pamela Simpson
Octavius Moulton-Barrett	Orson Welles
Septimus Moulton-Barrett	Irving Morrow
Alfred Moulton-Barrett	Charles Brokaw
Charles Moulton-Barrett	Lathrop Mitchell
Henry Moulton-Barrett	Reynolds Evans
George Moulton-Barrett	George Macready
Edward Moulton-Barrett	Charles Waldron
Bella Hedley	Margot Stevenson
Henry Bevan	John Hoysradt
Robert Browning	Basil Rathbone
Doctor Ford-Waterlow	A. P. Kaye
Captain Cook	Francis Moran

The play takes place in the Barrett home on Wimpole Street, London. It is the story of the epic love of Elizabeth and Robert Browning. Elizabeth is the oldest of eight children, all living in the home of their father, a thin-lipped Puritan. He is a man who is soured on life and who rules his family with domineering and tyrannical harshness. Because of marital difficulties and because he had suffered from love, the elder Barrett attempts to discourage any love-affairs into which his children might enter. Elizabeth has never seen Robert Browning, but has fallen in love with his poetry and correspondence. Robert calls on Elizabeth and warmly returns her affection in most delicately poetic love scenes. Under Robert's love Elizabeth blossoms and from invalidism is restored to health. In the face of her father's anger, Elizabeth elopes, leaving for Italy with her poet.

photos courtesy of The New York Public Library Digital Collections; photos by Vandamm Studio.

In this play Rudolph Besier tells of the romance of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, two of England's great poets.

In this play written by Rudolph Besier is told one of the most famous love stories in history. The romance of Robert Browning, played by BR, and Elizabeth Barrett, is presented against a background of parental tyranny. In all essentials Besier has followed authentic accounts of this courtship and wedding, much of this material being taken from the letters that passed between these two poets.

This unusual drama, its strange courtship, ending in the sudden elopement of the fragile Elizabeth with the sturdy Robert Browning, has taken its place in history with the great love stories.

The historic love story of England's great poets, Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, as told against the background of Elizabeth's sitting room in Wimpole Street, London.

The courtship of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett, the great English poets, is one of the famous love stories of history. because of Miss Barrett's illness and the jealous guardianship of her father, she had few visitors.

Browning's impulsive letter of appreciation of Elizabeth's piety began a correspondence which ended in their meeting. It was necessary that secrecy attach itself to Robert's visits, since the elder Barrett dominated his household and secluded his children insofar as he could from relationships outside the family circle.

"Basil Rathbone does a fine piece of work as the vigorous, magnetic poet, who will not permit Elizabeth to believe her illness incurable." The Capital Times (Madison, WI), Dec. 12, 1933

"Basil Rathbone is the impulsive, sharply intelligent, generous Browning who comes into Elizabeth's room like a gust of fresh, sun-lit air. He plays the part with remarkable aplomb, and a sincerity that is not marred by his hyperbolic speech and gesture." John K. Sherman, The Minneapolis Star, Dec. 14, 1933

"Basil Rathbone is energetic, vital, sensitive and thoroughly engaging as an impetuous suitor who will merit no such trifles as paternal objections, the ill health of the object of his suit or other hazard to divert him from his main purpose. There are very few love scenes more effectively acted than the first meeting of Miss Barrett and Browning in this play." Merle Potter, The Minneapolis Journal, Dec. 14, 1933

From "Broadway to Date" by Benjamin DeCasseres (Arts & Decoration magazine, April 1931, page 46):

Edward Moulton-Barrett, the father of Elizabeth Barrett. He rules his nine children--one conceived in love and eight in fear--like an incestuous Old Testament patriarch. He is mid-Victorian puritanism, hypocrisy and parental brutality done with astounding vividness by Rudolf Besier and certainly portrayed most vividly by Charles Waldron. The centre of this cowed family is the poetess, Elizabeth, who is gradually being slaughtered by the brutal rule of the father. Played by Katharine Cornell, it is a memorable vision of radiant despair and submissive fatality--until that day marked in her life among all days when Robert Browning, like an incarnation of Life Abounding and Will-to-Live out of his own poems, bursts in upon her, sweeps her off her feet by sweeping her on her feet from her invalid couch, marries her secretly, and with her dog Flush and her maid flies away with her to Italy, leaving the father stunned but erect--after he had made unmistakable advances to her in the greatest scene in the play and one of the greatest scenes in any modern play.

Elizabeth Barrett is the greatest role Miss Cornell has yet given us. The note is restraint, profound womanliness and the spiritualization of a mighty, beautiful love story. . . . The play itself sometimes wabbles very near to the line that divides the romantic from the ridiculous. Thanks to the superb direction of Guthrie McClintic, the acting of all concerned and the designs by Jo Mielziner, The Barretts of Wimpole Street remains one of the finest comedy-dramas of many seasons."

Ray Henderson wanted KC to do the tour. Guthrie encouraged her to play Juliet. She had never played Juliet before.

In the late summer/early fall [find date] BR joined Cornell in Garmisch and they rehearsed Barretts.

40 itinerant players, 2 stage managers, 6 stagehands, 2 electricians, 2 carpenters, 2 wardrobe women, and 3 dogs. The dogs were Katharine Cornell's dachshund Sonia and cocker spaniel Flush (who appeared in the play), and Basil Rathbone's German Shepherd Moritz.

Four carloads of actors and productions. three baggage cars of scenery and equipment.

KC had a sentiment about opening in her hometown. Unfortunately, the rehearsals and opening night in Buffalo did not go well. "The sets wouldn't fit, the balcony was impossible, My costumes were wrong, the lighting went haywire." (p. 126)

Martha Graham was directing the dances. Since KC's dress wasn't right for the balcony scene, Martha bought some soft, white material and made a beautiful, flowing robe for KC to wear, and KC thought it was perfect.

KC wrote that after the performances in Buffalo and Milwaukee, it was apparent that the audiences preferred Barretts to Romeo and Juliet. She was not surprised. "I wasn't good at all. I can look back on the Buffalao opening now and see how bad I was. ... It took me a whole winter and all the next summer to feel that I could even touch Juliet. ... Basil was excellent as Romeo." (p. 127)

The average take for a performance of Barretts was $3000, $240 for a performance of Candida, and $1650 for a performance of Romeo and Juliet.

"Saturday morning we left [Duluth] for Seattle so that we could play there Christmas night. ... Between Duluth and Seattle there had been a washout—slower, slower, slower we crept along—rain, rain, rain came down." They celebrated Christmas Eve on the train. "Christmas Day—we were due at eight in the morning—then we thought it would be four or five in the afternoon—then eight that night—by the time we reached Spokane we didn't think we'd make it at all. The train crawled—stopped—crawled. Several miles of track had been washed away. They had built up a trestle—laid tracks over it. An emergency crew—Chinese, Japanese, Negroes, Italians, Americans with the rain sluicing over their bare heads, stood below us, looking up. ...

We had decided that if we got in at eight we would try to get the show on, but when eight came and we were still miles from Seattle, we gave up. We were disappointed and blue. It was to have been a great occasion. Seattle is Guthrie's home town; I had never played there before, and he had come on from New York especially for it. It was 11:15 when we arrived. It was about 11:17 when the manager finally convinced us that the audience was still waiting. We didn't believe him at first. Then we tore. The crew for the baggage car, we for the theatre. I had the bright idea of pulling up the curtain and letting the audience watch them set up. Guthrie and the stage manager described everything. ... The stagehands broke every speed record. At one o'clock the curtain went down and the house lights were dimmed to dark. At five minutes after one it went up again, and the play began. The final curtain went down at four. I don't think we ever gave a better performance or played to a more divine audience. They cheered and cheered; gave us curtain call after curtain call." (pp. 131-133)

At the beginning of the U.S. tour of Romeo and Juliet (October 1933), Rathbone developed a throat infection that persisted for several months. In June 1934 Rathbone had his tonsils removed.

Oct, 27, 1933. Basil Rathbone and Katharine Cornell returned from abroad on the Europa.

It took them to cities such as Milwaukee, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, San Antonio, New Orleans, Houston, Savannah, and back up the east coast to New England. Because movies had so completely taken over from live theater, there were major areas of the country closed off to the tour. Many of the smaller cities hadn't seen live theater since the First World War, or ever. Nonetheless, box office records were set in most cities and towns. "Variety" reported that the tour gave 225 performances and played to 500,000 people.

K. Cornell and company arrived in Buffalo three days before the opening of R & J and began rehearsals. Buffalo was Cornell's home town.

Buffalo, Erlanger theatre, 4 days beginning Wed, Nov. 29, 1933 (Romeo: Wed, Thurs, Fri nights and Sat matinee; Barretts: Sat night only, Dec. 2)

Seattle, Metropolitan Theatre, one week beg. Dec. 25, 1933 (Barretts: Mon, Wed, Thurs, and Fri nights, and Wed. matinee. Romeo: Tues night and Sat. matinee. Candida: Sat night only)

"Miss Cornell, looking her loveliest, tenderly, yet compellingly took her audience across the threshold of the forbidding mansion in Wimpole Street, up the wining stairs, and by the magic of her matchless voice and her slender hands, into the very heart and soul of the invalid daughter, Elizabeth. ... The supporting players to the dignified and sleepy Flush, gave flawless performances. Basil Rathbone was a slightly different Browning than his predecessor, Brian Aherne, but he was as winning a one, surely. To the Aherne vigor and dash he added a deeper note that bespoke sincerity."

"Miss Cornell's production of Candida yesterday afternoon proved worthy in every respect to stand with her Romeo and Juliet and her Barretts. The star's own performance was flawless, that of Rathbone finely conceived, and Orson Welles, playing the young poet Marchbanks, drew an interesting characterization that had an uncomfortable quality of truth."

Kansas City, MO -- Shubert Theatre, one week, beginning March 5, 1934
Romeo and Juliet, March 5, 9, 10
Barretts, March 7
Candida, March 6, 8, 10

Indianapolis (29-31) English Theatre, 3 perfs on Thurs and Friday, March 29 and 30. looks like a sell-out.

New Haven, CT, Shubert Th., May 24, 1934 (3 perfs of Barretts, one perf of Candida)

Boston, Boston Opera House, 3 nights beg. June 7, 1934 (Three night engagement of Barretts)

Brooklyn, NY, Academy of Music, June 18, 19, 20 (Three night engagement of Barretts)

Cleveland, OH, Hanna Th., One week beginning Dec. 10, 1934 (Romeo perfs only, no Barretts or Candida)

Pittsburgh, Nixon Theatre, 3 days in December (reported in Variety, Dec. 17, 1934)

January 9, 1934: "Barretts" did great biz at Playhouse Portland, Oregon, for 5 days.

February 12, 1934: "Smallness of the stage of the Civic Theatre will prevent Katharine Cornell from including Syracuse in her itinerary, it is announced. Star wanted to do The Barretts of Wimpole St. here."

March 27, 1934: Week of March 12: Lincoln (12), Omaha (13-14), Sioux City (15), Sioux Falls (16)

Indianapolis, English Theatre, 3 perfs on Thurs and Friday, March 29 and 30. looks like a sell-out.

Week of April 9: Louisville (9), Evansville (10), Nashville (11-12), Memphis (13-14)

Week of April 16: New Orleans (16-17), Montgomery (18), Birmingham (19), Atlanta (20-21)

Week ending April 28: Auditorium, Savannah (23) , Academy of Music, Charleston (24), Carolina, Spartanburg (25), Plaza, Asheville (26), Carolina, Charlotte (27), State, Raleigh (28)

Cornell appeared in Denver in three plays. 'Barretts of Wimpole Street' packed the Auditorium for a matinee and night, the gross at the night performance, over $5,000, breaking her record anywhere on the road.

The Barretts of Wimpole Street. Miss Cornell announced yesterday that BR, who was to have played Robert Browning, had been recalled to Hollywood. Being a person of spirit, Miss Cornell thereupon prevailed upon Brian Aherne, who is the Mercutio of Romeo and Juliet, to stick around and revive his old part. He said he would.

Romeo and Juliet / Barretts (with Katherine Cornell) According to playbills seen on eBay, performances occurred at these dates and places:

March 19th, 1934 St Louis, MO, American Theatre The one-week St. Louis engagement included three performances of William Shakespeare's "ROMEO and JULIET", three performances of the RUDOLF BESIER play "THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET" and two performances of GEORGE BERNARD SHAW's classic "CANDIDA". The company included KATHARINE CORNELL, BASIL RATHBONE, REYNOLDS EVANS, GEORGE MACREADY, A. P. KAYE, DAVID GLASSFORD, ARTHUR CHATTERTON, CHARLES BROKAW, FRANCIS MORAN, CHARLES WALDRON, LATHROP MITCHELL, IRVING MORROW, WILLIAM J. TANNEN, JOHN HOYSRADT, R. BIRRELL RAWLS, ROBERT CHAMPLAIN, JULIAN EDWARDS, BRENDA FORBES, MERLE MADDERN, ALICE JOHN, HELEN WALPOLE, HARRIET INGERSOLL, MARGOT STEVENSON, FLUSH and ORSON WELLES ..... CREDITS: Sets and Costumes designed by WOODMAN THOMPSON and JO MIELZINER; Choreographed by MARTHA GRAHAM; Directed by GUTHRIE McCLINTIC; Produced by KATHARINE CORNELL ....

Cornell Katharine - Actress Married Guthrie McClintic (Sept. 8 1921) He died Oct. 1961 Deceased 6-10-74

The three-night engagement of the KATHARINE CORNELL production of the RUDOLF BESIER play "THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET" at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York, June 18th to 20th, 1934.

January 8th, 1934 broadside (single page program) from the two-week engagement of the legendary KATHARINE CORNELL 1933-34 tour at the Columbia Theatre in San Francisco, California. The production starred KATHARINE CORNELL as "Juliet" and BASIL RATHBONE as "Romeo" with GUTHRIE McCLINTIC directing. It was the first time either Cornell or McClintic had participated in any Shakespeare production. The play opened November 29th, 1933 at the Erlanger Theatre in Buffalo and was incorporated into a seven-month country-wide tour that would rotate three plays, "Romeo and Juliet", "The Barretts of Wimpole Street", and "Candida". Planned during the height of the Great Depression, many theater experts and actors advised against such an ambitious tour. In fact, this was the first time anyone had tried to take a legitimate Broadway show on an all-country tour, let alone three plays. It took them to cities such as Milwaukee, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, San Antonio, New Orleans, Houston, Savannah, and back up the east coast to New England. Because movies had so completely taken over from live theater, there were major areas of the country closed off to the tour. Many of the smaller cities hadn't seen live theater since the First World War, or ever. Nonetheless, box office records were set in most cities and towns. "Variety" reported that the tour gave 225 performances and played to 500,000 people. (Reprinted in part from Wikipedia.) ..... The San Francisco engagement included six performances of William Shakespeare's "ROMEO and JULIET", four performances of the RUDOLF BESIER play "THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET" and six performances of GEORGE BERNARD SHAW's classic "CANDIDA". The company included KATHARINE CORNELL, BASIL RATHBONE, REYNOLDS EVANS, GEORGE MACREADY, A. P. KAYE, DAVID GLASSFORD, ARTHUR CHATTERTON, CHARLES BROKAW, FRANCIS MORAN, CHARLES WALDRON, LATHROP MITCHELL, IRVING MORROW, WILLIAM J. TANNEN, JOHN HOYSRADT, R. BIRRELL RAWLS, ROBERT CHAMPLAIN, JULIAN EDWARDS, BRENDA FORBES, MERLE MADDERN, ALICE JOHN, HELEN WALPOLE, HARRIET INGERSOLL, MARGOT STEVENSON, FLUSH and ORSON WELLES ..... CREDITS: Sets and Costumes designed by WOODMAN THOMPSON and JO MIELZINER; Choreographed by MARTHA GRAHAM; Directed by GUTHRIE McCLINTIC; Produced by KATHARINE CORNELL ...

May 10th, 1934 program (playbill) from the one-night engagement of the KATHARINE CORNELL production of the RUDOLF BESIER play "THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET" at the Strand Theatre in Ithaca, New York.

February 11th, 1935 playbill from the Broadway revival of William Shakespeare's "ROMEO and JULIET" at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York City. (The production opened December 20th, 1934 and ran for a limited engagement of 77 performances.) ..... The production starred KATHARINE CORNELL as "Juliet" and BASIL RATHBONE as "Romeo" and featured nineteen year-old ORSON WELLES as "Tybalt" in his Broadway debut. Others in the cast included BLANCHE YURKA, BRIAN AHERNE, CHARLES WALDRON, REYNOLDS EVANS, GEORGE MacREADY, JOHN MILTERN, MORONI OLSEN, ARTHUR CHATTERTON, JOHN EMERY, JOSEPH HOLLAND, FRANKLIN GRAY, DAVID VIVIAN, ROBERT CHAMPLAIN, IRVING MORROW, BRENDA FORBES, IRBY MARSHAL and EDITH ALLAIRE ..... CREDITS: Book by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE; Sets and Costumes designed by JO MIELZINER; Choreographed by MARTHA GRAHAM; Directed by GUTHRIE McCLINTIC; Produced by KATHARINE CORNELL

May 5th, 1934 program (playbill) from the one-night engagement of the KATHARINE CORNELL production of the RUDOLF BESIER play "THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET" at the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey.

December 25th, 1933 program (playbill) from the one-week engagement of the KATHARINE CORNELL COMPANY at the Metropolitan Theatre in Seattle, Washington. On this particular night, the company presented the RUDOLF BESIER play "THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE ST"

November 29th to December 2nd, 1933 program (playbill) from the first stop of the legendary KATHARINE CORNELL 1933-34 tour at the Erlanger Theatre in Buffalo, New York.

May 24th, 1934 program (playbill) from the three-night engagement of the KATHARINE CORNELL production of the RUDOLF BESIER play "THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET" performed in repertory with the GEORGE BERNARD SHAW play "CANDIDA" at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.

Planned during the height of the Great Depression, many theater experts and actors advised against such an ambitious tour. In fact, this was the first time anyone had tried to take a legitimate Broadway show on an all-country tour, let alone three plays. It took them to cities such as Milwaukee, Seattle, Portland (Oregon), San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, Cheyenne, San Antonio, New Orleans, Houston, Savannah, and back up the east coast to New England. Because movies had so completely taken over from live theater, there were major areas of the country closed off to the tour. Many of the smaller cities hadn't seen live theater since the First World War, if ever. Nonetheless, box office records were set in most cities and towns. "Variety" reported that the tour gave 225 performances and played to 500,000 people. (Reprinted in part from Wikipedia.) ..... The three performances of "THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET" starred KATHARINE CORNELL and featured BASIL RATHBONE, ORSON WELLES, DAVID GLASSFORD, BRENDA FORBES, HELEN WALPOLE, PAMELA SIMPSON, IRVING MORROW, CHARLES BROKAW, LATHROP MITCHELL, REYNOLDS EVANS, GEORGE MACREADY, CHARLES WALDRON, MARGOT STEVENSON, JOHN HOYSRADT, A. P. KAYE, FRANCIS MORAN and FLUSH ..... CREDITS: Book by RUDOLF BESIER; Sets and Costumes designed by JO MIELZINER; Directed by GUTHRIE McCLINTIC; Produced by KATHARINE CORNELL ..... The one performance of "CANDIDA" starred KATHARINE CORNELL and featured BASIL RATHBONE, BRENDA FORBES, JOHN HOYSRADT, A. P. KAYE and ORSON WELLES ..... CREDITS: Book by GEORGE BERNARD SHAW; Sets and Costumes designed by WOODMAN THOMPSON; Directed by GUTHRIE McCLINTIC; Produced by KATHARINE CORNELL ...

Cornell et al. found audiences on the tour more enthusiastic than New York playgoers. "At Romeo and Juliet, for instance, they would applaud after every scene, without even waiting for the intermission. It was as if they were saying, 'We want you to know, right know, that we like it.' . . . If New York audiences seem less demonstrative than some of those I've played to this season, it's not from any lack of appreciation. It's just that the theatre is a more usual thing with them. Then, too, they know the cast won't come out and bow until the end of the play, and that rather discourages applause. On the road people are not so familiar with this custom." (New York Herald Tribune, June 17, 1934)

Cornell grew up in Buffalo, NY. She spent her summers (in the 1930s) in the Bavarian alps.

Flush, the spaniel in the play, was Katherine Cornell's dog. There's a photo of him in The Family Circle. I'll scan it.

Rudolph Besier is more fortunate than most playwrights. Not every playwright can have a Katherine Cornell stand godmother to his brainchild and ssume its sins. Nor can every playwright have a Katherine Cornell turn mother-confessor and with the acme of exquisite acting absolve the brainchild of its sins.

Katherine Cornell has come into her own. The "Dishonored Lady" and the "Tiger Oat" have gone by the board and Katherine has emerged as the frail and lovely Elizabeth Barrett, the poet.

The play is laid in the Barrett home on Wimpole Street, London, in 1845. Jo Mielziner surpassed himself in creating the setting in perfect period.

It is the story of the epic love of Elizabeth and Robert Browning. Elizabeth is the oldest of eight children, all living in the home of their father, a thin-lipped Puritan. He is a man who is soured on life and who rules his family with domineering and tyrannical harshness. This character is most creditably acted by Charles waldron. Because of marital difficulties and because he had suffered from love, by every conceivable mean the elder Barretts attempts to discourage any love affairs into which his children might enter. Elizabeth has never seen Robert Browning, but has fallen in love with his poetry and correspondence. Robert calls on Elizabeth and warmly returns her affection in most delicately poetic love scenes.

Let me toss a word of well-earned praise to the gorgeous Henrietta barrett as portrayed by Margaret Barker. Henrietta is suffering from her father's fanaticism, since she too is being denied her love. As the sympathetic younger sister of Elizabeth and the fiery titian standing in defiance fo the parental edicts, she is splendid.

Dorothy Matthews as the affected, insipid blonde cousin, Bella, does her work quite creditably.

Elizabeth under the ardent Robert's love, blossoms, and from invalidsm is restored to health.

There is one actor in the play, Flush, the dog, played by himself, who deserves canine Thespian laurels. Were some of his human brethren in the art to take pattern by his naturalness, the theatre would most certainly be improved.

In the face of her father's violent anger, Elizabeth elopes, leaving for Italy with her poet.

As a result, using this as an archetype, the remaining brothers and sisters rise in revolt.

Katherine Cornell as well as carrying the vehicle, produced it. We knew before this play that she stood in the foremost rank of American actresses, but her performance in "Barretts of Wimpole Street" proves her to be the foremost, at least in my opinion.

From a series of compilations published by Gollancz, beginning in 1929 with Famous Plays of Today, then continuing more or less annually until 1938-39 (and, anomalously, 1954).

1. The Barretts of Wimpole Street, by Rudolf Besier. The scene is the same throughout: as the author archly remarks in the headnote, this comedy took place in Elizabeth Barrett's room in 1845. It portrays her long-postponed meeting and romance with an irresistibly buoyant Robert Browning, the recovery of her health and spirits, and finally her escape from the repellent emotional blackmail of her ultra-disciplinarian father, an almost-insane Victorian paterfamilias whose relationship with her late mother, it's eventually revealed, had declined into long-term marital rape (Mr Barrett is the decendant of characters such as Soames Forsyte in The Man of Property (1906), and the Reverend Gregorius in Hjalmar Söderberg's Doktor Glas (1905)). This was Besier's only hit. Film adaptation in 1934. (Above, Basil Rathbone as Browning, in the 1933-34 tour of Katherine Cornell's US version, which converted Besier's five-act structure into a more convenient three acts.)

BR plays the man and makes a handsome job of it. The drama’s scant allotment of humor is largely in his hands and the various quick points are deftly made. Altogether Mr. R. is immensely an asset, for he enlivens the pace, give vigor tot eh somewhat still and sultry mood of the piece and contributes, through his poet, the health that it so sorely needs.

Mr. R plays Browning with the dash of youth and the vigor of a man enamoured. He matches the delicacy of Miss Cornell’s romantic touch with an ardor which, though given proper restraints, implies a fine and straight forward impetuousness.

As for the role of “Robert Browning,” it was played as Browning himself perhaps would have played it. It had all the characteristics of the poet—“singularly expressive eyes, a sensitive, mobile mouth, a musical voice and an alertness of manner so that he was like a quivering high-bred animal.” BR, the distinguished English actor, play the part with an exuberant vitality and was in almost every sense the poet biographers have described.

No less gratifying is the performance of BR as Browning. He is energetic, vital, sensitive and thoroughly engaging as an impetuous suitor who will permit no such trifles as paternal objections, ill health of the object of his suit or other hazard to divert him from his main purpose. There are very few love scenes more effectively acted than the first meeting of Miss Barrett and Browning in this play.

BR is the impulsive, sharply intelligent, generous Browning who comes into Elizabeth’s room like a gust of fresh, sun-lit air. He plays the part with remarkable aplomb, and a sincerity that is not marred by his hyperbolic speech and gesture.

BR as Robert Browning is exuberant and buoyant, yet poised and plausible. I like his performance infinitely better than that of Brian Aherne who was with Miss Cornell in NY. Mr. Aherne’s interpretation seemed to me too conventionalized. Mr. R’s is as warm and likeable as it should be.

Miss Cornell has surrounded herself with a splendidly capable and shrewdly chosen supporting cast. BR, who, as Robert Browning, shares with Miss C the vibrant and beautiful love story of Wimpolie street, naturally shares the major interest of the audience.

He accomplishes with apparently buoyant ease the difficult assignment of portraying genius on the stage and making it convincing. It is his task to make the audience believe that there before their eyes is Robert Brownign, bring to Eliz Barrett the potent love that lifts her existence from oppression and drab invalidism into the full joy of life, and this Mr. R does.

BR gives a flawless portrayal second only to the great Cornell. His diction, delivery and gestures leave nothing to be desired. It is a fine compliment to the immortal poet.

THREE CLIPPINGS FROM SAN FRANCISCO PAPERS (no article titles or dates. Names of papers unknown0

Rathbone’s Browning is a fine impersonation, better in many respects than the original of Brian Aherne. Browning was 34 at the time of his romance and marriage, a person of enormous vitality and full of the joy of living. Elizx Barret was 40, an invalid and despondent over life due to her illness and family conditions.

The Aherne Browning was a youth, since Aherne is a youth, and as such it was a fine portrayal, vivacious, interesting and decorative. The Rathbone Browning has these qualifications, too, but it possesses in addition a maturity of will and a more manly and dominant outlook on life. Thus Rathbone’s performance became less a picturesque show and more a sincere portrayal of character.

The two interpretation are worthy of more study tan this review permits, but whether or not Rathbone has the color that Aheerne lacked few will quarrel with the statement that his is more a well rounded performance, dramatic invigorating and carefully attuned to Miss Cornell’s Eliz. They made not only a graceful team last evening but an interesting one.

Mr. R is a different Browning from his predecessor; a more polished poet without losing anything of the fire that makes him alive and tremendous in his power of will. He wears the dress of the fifties gallantly and is a delight to ear, eye and intellect. He and Miss C are glorious foils for each other.

BR stepped compellingly into the role of Browning, a part in which we formerly saw Brian Aherne. Rathbone’s Browning had all the vigor and exuberance of Aherne’s, plus a gratifyingly deeper note of sincerity. He gave his browning all the external swank and flash recorded by the biographers and at the same time revealed the inner man, the sensitive and reflective soul who could write “Grow Old Along with Me.”

There was no question. Mr. R was a grand Browning. Without any detraction from Brian Aherne’s performance, which will always remain a highlight to those who saw it, I think Mr. R’s performance was marked with greater depth than that of his predecessor. Mr. Aherne’s playing was romance in the highest degree. His love fairly swirled about his lady. Mr R is no whit less romantic, but his love swept around the poetess like a deep and mighty current.

Katherine Cornell Superb in “Barretts of Wimpole St.” [undated, paper unknown]

Aside from Miss Cornell’s performance, attention was centered upon the portrait of Robert browning offered by BR, who succeeded Brian A in the role, to be accorded an ovation that was second only to that given the star.

BR invests Browning with a vehement, masterful and intensely human quality that dominates the academic in his love-making. He was heavily applauded after his principal scenes for a portrayal of sincerity and power.

As written by Besier, the role of the English poetess combines characteristics and moods for s distinctive theatrical type. She is maiden and woman, blue stocking and a nursery child, invalid and heroine. A lesser-known Robert Browning is introduced as her lover. He is not the bearded attic poet of The Golden Treasury, but an overwhelmingly vital handsome beau of his youth. He takes the gloomy Barrett prison by storm. His comical forthrightness and assurance overcome the handicaps of “Ba’s” illness, the tangle of her Victorian scruples, and even the villainous opposition of her father. In this role the hitherto placid Mr. R came to life. Romeo does not suit him and he has called Shaw, after Joe Penner, “a nawsty man.” But his Browning was a portrayal con amore. It was vigorous enough for all heroics, handsome enough for all romantics, fervent enough for the candid biological blueprint of the story. Mr. R’s dash and eloquence were the life of the proceedings and endeared the actor at last to his public.

And no less splendid was BR as Robert Browning. It had been my privilege to see Mr. R before, in “The Command to Love,” in which he played the diplomat. It was all the more reason to appreciate his magnificent performance as the rather bombastic, overwhelming, impetuous writer of verse. If Miss C is the mistress of the situation, then Mr. R is the master. His every move, his every gesture is perfection. There isn’t a motion of the head, hand or foot that doesn’t mean something to Rathbone. He deftly paints his character was would an artist with paint and brush. Give full credit to Mr. R for his assistance in making Miss C’s appearance a triumph behind the footlights.

BR, star of the London Stage, and later star of American movies, plays the male lead as you would expect him to play it, but so strong are several of the characters that one or two come near overshadowing him. He has a Barrymore profile and lost no opportunity to keep you mindful of the fact. No performer could be more forceful physically or in oratorical persuasion, but the real merit of the man is proved by his restraint when it would have been so easy at times for him to overpose or bluster.

Mr. R is superb. He invests the part of Robert Browning with a sparkling flow of vitality which literally crackles across the footlights. A finished artist, he is sure and competent in an effortless fashion that bespeaks his London technique.

I avoided the Barretts the last time it was in Buffalo because I didn’t want a cherished recollection of Brian Ahern’s Browning diluted or unfocused by BR, the excessively respiring Romeo. What was my surprise and confusion to discover then, last evening, that Mr. R has in his equipment a poet just as strapping, vociferous and unquenchable as Aherne, a poet, moreover, who is a darned sight more poetic.

R has not, like one young mommer in the Barretts’ cast, exactly copied the impersonation of a predecessor. He gives the shining knight whose lances of confidence and helath and love pierce one by one the goblins of Elizabeths’ fear, misgiving, fragility and subjugation to her awful parent, an air of some calculation and calm not apparent in the boisterous Aherne performance.

I believe he gets going sooner and I think Miss C has never played love scenes with any actor in any play that were quite as right and affecting as these.

[About Flush getting laughs]: So drowsy and lackadaisical was he throughout that when the poetess said: “Take him away, he becomes so excited when there are many visitors,” the audience, having all evening observed his complete indifference to the whole proceedings, giggled a bit and then roared.

[The play opened in Buffalo November 29, so that must be the reference to “the last time it was in Buffalo.”]