PARISIAN BEDROOM FARCE

Evening Star, Issue 21147, 6 July 1932, Page 4

PARISIAN BEDROOM FARCE

BUSTER KEATON’S LATEST COMEDY

If any man can truly he said to have had his fortune in his face it is Buster Keaton, star of ‘ The Passionate Plumber,’ which is due at the St. James on Friday. There is no need for action, and little need for the quips and gags by means of which other comedians get their laughs; they are there, of course, but the spice of the. humour is in the wooden countenance of the star. Come hurtling # crockery and pieces of plaster statues in one of the brightest “ free-for-all ” fights that has been seen for a long tune, the vacuous expression of sublime idiocy persists. There arc strong screen lovers and, sentimental lovers, but from an audience’s point of view none has the wooing capacities of Buster; the by-play of the plumber is traditional, but when Keaton begins to leave his tools behind and turns passionate, then it is that one gets a different angle on ( that indefinable quality—“ it.” ‘ The Passionate Plumber ’ has boon described as a riotous Parisian bedroom farce, and that description is very apt. Buster is Elmer, a bungling plumber, who comes to a lady’s apartment to remedy a leaky pipe and stays to repair her broken heart; when he contracts to protect her from the advances of an impetuous lover he is precipitated into a series of scrapes that arc productive of the wildest comedy, and he finds himself one of the principals in what should have been a very grim duel, but which was decidedly not. Although Keaton would be quite capable of providing all the humour himself, he is not asked to, but is supported by one of the finest comedy teams ever featured in the one cast. Polly Moran is the maid of the hero ine, and, if anything, she improves on her other performances. Here, again, the face has a lot to do with the success of the player, but Polly Moran has undoubtedly the ability of the horn eomediennoe. Jimmy “ Schnozzle Durante, the man with the nose in ‘ Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford,’ makes up the trio that is responsible for the main laughs, but a delightful heroine with real humour in her make-up is found in Irene Purcell, who scored opposite Robert Montgomery in ihe Man in Possession.’ She is the subject of the affections of Elmer, but that is not the only romance, for Polly Moran becomes intrigued ✓ with M’Cracken (Durante), the man-ot-all-work in her mistress’s house.