Word: barbara
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...previous altar junkets he got: the boss's daughter (No. i was Flor de Oro Trujillo, golden flower of the Dominican dictator), glamour and oodles of connections (No. 2 was French Cinemactress Danielle Darrieux), and the good life (No. 3 and No. 4: Heiresses Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton). No. s-to-be can give him none of these things, but moonstruck Rubirosa, aching to marry her "probably within one month," husked that his fiancee, fast-rising Paris Actress Odile (Fabien) Rodin, 19,* is "pretty, intelligent, gracious and good...
...belongs. The argument itself, partly because of Shaw's extraordinary ability to show both points of view, is as complicated as the plot around which it revolves is simple. Undershaft, a millionaire arms manufacturer, whose religion consists of the belief that poverty is the only sin, converts his daughter Barbara, a major in the Salvation Army, to his position by simply showing her that the Army can be bought. He is also looking for a successor to his position as head of the munitions firm, and he ultimately finds the man he wants in Barbara's fiance, a professor...
...religion and capitalism are discussed at length, the real issue resolves itself into a battle of realism vs. idealism. Undershaft holds, with Shaw, that a man may achieve any sort of moral stature only by grappling with the facts of his existence, such as poverty. He shows up Barbara's religion as a false kind of idealism, a romantic if pleasant evasion of the facts of life...
...movement or color or the suspense of a tight plot. Laughton handles his role most satisfactorily. Sometimes relaxed into an engaging slouch, he yet rouses himself to an oratorical fervor of Churchillian stature that all but sweeps away his opponents, including the audience. Glynis Johns' characterization of Major Barbara is much less successful. She possesses an interesting voice--a sort of throaty croak--but the playwright's subtle speech rhythms prove too difficult for her to handle, and her performance often collapses into singsong. Burgess, the professor, seems capable enough though, in view of his large experience...
Despite the difficulty it gives some of the actors, this static way of staging Major Barbara is admirable. It is admirable because Laughton was willing to accept the play for what it is, at once a sermon and exhilirating theater. The director permitted Shaw to speak, enabling the old man to vindicate himself as a comedian--because the play is often very funny--and to prove it possible to make a play out of ideas. Perhaps the highest praise this production can get is that Shaw would have approved...