FINALLY MADE IT

Compulsion' Gets Broadway Opening

By HARLOWE R. HØYT

At long last, in the face of producer-author wrangling and 'cast illness, "Compulsion,” a dramatization of Meyer Levin's novel about the Loch-Leopold murder trial, opened Thurs day night in the Ambassador Theater. New York's first nighters were treated to a loose, sprawling recital of many scenes and diffuse incidents of the cold-

tim by chance as he came court room. To speed the acbefore the opening scheduled home from school, invited him tion, a clever scenic arrangefor Monday. The play was into a rented automobile. ment has been devised with postponed until Thursday hopLoeb beat his head with a cold · several stages from a prison, ing that he might recover but chisel, forced hydrochloric acid to a telephone booth, to a physician's orders were obdown his throat and left him speakeasy, and several rooms. served and his understudy, in the car while the boys Lighting plays an important Michael Constantine, stepped stopped for lunch at a wayside part in these transitions. into the part. His portrayal received high praise. Howard Da Silva, formerly of the Play House, has a comfortable supporting role.

stand. On the outskirts of The playwright has kept the Chicago, they forced the body homosexual relationship under in an open culvert, stripping wraps though it is emphasized it naked, and rode away, seek when the dramatic action, deing ransom. mands it. The pair are shown as victims of personal fears and emotion a'l inadequacies that control their actions. Be cause. of this, they fondly imagine that they are super-| men when they are only ineffectual degenerates with a sadistic urge to kill.

The body was found, the ransom not paid and yet they would have been successful had not, Leopold dropped his glasses while lugging the body to its resting place. So the two by Dick Loeb KOYT supermen were tracked down, and Nathan Leopold in Chiput on trial for murder, and cago in 1924.

blooded murder

of Bobby Frank.

HARLOWE R.

This sadistic orgy by two homosexualists if in film form would be listed as a documentary, Being repressed to the necessities of the dramatic stage, the result is a long string of incidents that main

tain a certain amount of interest but in the end peter out when the culprits are put on trial.

Based on Novel

Levin, whose novel forms the the basis of the 'play, was a Chicago reporter who covered the murder trial. Loeb was 18, Leopold was 19, and their victim, Bobby," a relative of Loeb's, was 14 when they did him in.

T:

Both boys were brilliant students, members of the wealthy Gold Coast families, with unlimited bank accounts, petted, spoiled and allowed their own way. They were homosexuals and followers of the mad theory of Nietzsche, that they were supermen, above the confines of moral conduct, possessed of superior brains that excelled all others.

They put it to the test. They decided upon kidnapping and murder. They picked their vic-

escaped hanging only througli. the masterly defense of Clar, ence Darrow,

The play, begins dle aged writer

Roddy McDowell plays Loeb and Dean Stockwell is Leopold, Each is credited with an ex-

Levin) visiting "ith a midcellent performance with the|

might be decision going to McDowell, Leopold of largely because Loeb becomes the predominating character he was in real life, lording, it over the subversive Leopold.

today in prison, seeking some explanation for the murder, after all these years, for the impetus that urged them on to one of the cruelest murders of all time. The scenes flashback in movie fashion, starting with the disposal of the victim's body and continuing to the final denouement in the

As the play is a documentary, the least interesting portion of it is the trial. The  ́principals, then become onlookers. Frank Conroy was to have played Clarence Darrow, but a mild heart attack laid him out

Since this report has developed into a semi-news story, there are some things to be considered in its continuation, which will follow soon.