End of Summer

End of Summer (1936), a comedy by S. N. Behrman. [Guild Theatre, 152 perf.] Leonie Frothingham ( Ina Claire) is a rich woman of old stock, as her mother, Mrs. Wyler ( Mildred Natwick), is only too happy to point out. However, Leonie's concern is not her mother but her daughter Paula ( Doris Dudley), who is courted by two men. The older of the suitors is Dr. Kenneth Rice ( Osgood Perkins), who is obviously something of a fortune hunter but promises to maintain Paula in her comfortable world. The other suitor is Will Dexter ( Shepperd Strudwick), a young radical who promises only revolution and a new social order. When Paula decides in Will's favor, Leonie acquiesces, accepting the likelihood that the brilliant summer of her own life is about to fade. She even agrees to back a radical magazine that Will's friend, Dennis McCarthy ( Van Heflin), hopes to publish. Although Brooks Atkinson suggested that Behrman's play was “one of those tolerant, witty, gently probing essays in modern thinking,” he concluded, “you scarcely know which side he is taking.” Yet the Theatre Guild production, perhaps more clearly than any other Behrman comedy, suggested that the playwright was all in favor of a more open, even‐handed society, provided it subscribed to some of the elegances and graces of the old order.