"Over Twenty-One"

That Ruth Gordon has brought little originality into her first comedy is not disturbing; dialogue and mechanics modelled after Kaufman and Hart are bound to be good. And while a season in New York should have smoothed out some of the tedious bits in the book, the basic situation of "Over Twenty-One" is still timely and Miss Gordon's acting is still appealing.

People generally like to know why a play, or a novel or a poem or a painting, is called whatever it's called. There's no mystery in this connection about "Over Twenty-One." It's about a 39-year old newspaper editor in a Florida Army training camp, and a recurring theme, or plaint, is built around the fiotsam that a man "can't absorb anything after he's passed 21."

What makes "Over Twenty-One" interesting, and it is interesting, is that the newspaper editor is modelled closely after Raiph Ingorsoll, editor of PM who is now, to complete the pattern, in the Army. His boss is a take-off on Marshall Field, and it is a matter of record that Field was put out about Ingersoll's getting into the Army instead of carrying on with PM.

Miss Gordon's part is based on Dorothy Thompson, who's supposed to be married to Ingersoll--the lampoon breaks down a bit here. From the facts pointed out above, it should be clear that the chitchat in "Over Twenty-One" is of the sort associated with the ante-rooms of the New Yorker.

The tedious parts of "Over Twenty-One" stem from two basic facets of the plot: PM is a very earnest, liberal, crusading paper, and getting that idea across, without mentioning names, involves throwing around a lot of loose (and slow) talk about what we're fighting for. In addition, there's the problem of showing how technical and complicated are the tasks faced by over-aged destroyers. All this leads to tedium, though it's certainly kept down to a minimum--nothing like "Decision" or "The Searching Wind."

Lightened by slap-stick, by shrewd characterizations in the vitriol of Sinclair Lewis, and by its background lampoon, "Over Twenty-One" is familiar war-time humor. It trips gaily and successfully along on the assumption that there's something to be laughed at anywhere, even--or especially--in a jumble of newspapers, Hollywood plays, Army manuals, bugle calls, and very confused people. jgt