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Type:
Dialogue.
"The Common Standard."
In "The Common Standard" Nance O'Neil has not a vehicle worthy of her dramatic power, for it lacks the two most essential punches to a successful short drama - a climax and a finish. It looks like a homespun script, dealing with the sadly overdone triangular affair, although Miss O'Neil has twisted the theme in a somewhat different fashion. The scene is the interior of a studio or den in the home of a sculptor or artist. Enters a woman who had previously promised to call. A short love scene, in which the man promises much. Then comes the woman's husband. The woman hides, but overhears a conversation, in which the husband threatens the artist unless he ceases his attentions to Carmencita, with whom, it appears, both are in love. The artist defies the husband, and they enters the wife, who denounces both. The husband tries to "kid" his wife out of her "fit," but she goes through a dramatic scene, and finally walks off, leaving both men flat. That's all. No kick whatever to the sketch, the redeeming feature being Miss O'Neil's work. The lines are well written and better read, but they lack proper connection to an interesting theme. The support includes a Jap valet, who has but a few speeches. Alfred Hickman and Dodson Mitchell make up the "company," the man playing the husband running a trifle short on dramatic ability; but the contrast between he and Miss O'Neil may account for this impression. The artist role was capably handled. Miss O'Neil, one of the few genuinely good dramatic women left to vaudeville, should get a vehicle capable to match her ability. This one doesn't.
Source:
Variety, 53:10 (01/31/1919)