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Show DRAMATIC KEVIEW OF A 1941 INCOME TAX BLANK "You Can't Take It With You" or "Tax Blank for 1941" has had its presentation before the American public, and, while it met with a mixed response, your reviewer would describe it as adequate. It is a straight, direct, merciless, tight-ly tight-ly written affair which, despite muddling mud-dling passages here and there, gets its message across. That, after all, is its purpose. e "Tax Blank for 1941" is in a sense a revival. It follows the pattern of other years but has been extensively extensive-ly rewritten, with many new lines and some startling effects, particularly particu-larly that part of the narrative where it is discovered that Jonathan Jona-than Q. Doe, our hero, supposing he gets the same exemption as in the past for being a married man, finds the exemption has been cut from $2,500 to $2,000. This is an obvious slap at matrimony, and, since it is a widely cherished institution, we do not think the authors have done a service to society by belittling it in this way. e A moment of high drama comes in a bleak scene laid in the Upper 1S1 Brackets country. Here we have the same heavy mood of resentment, of anger, pain and despair so characteristic char-acteristic In previous pre-vious years. Seldom Sel-dom has there been a more moving scene than when T. Dudley Softtouch and Luther Lu-ther Gettahead come face to face with Paragraph 6, Item 7, Page 4 and find that on the same income as they had last year they must now pay a supertax of almost twice as much. Here is action belonging to the sternest school of realism. Perhaps the peak of emotion comes in a little scene where Soft-touch, Soft-touch, almost a mental wreck after having finally figured up what he owes the government (with the help of six lawyers), is about to make out a check when he suddenly discovers dis-covers that congress has placed a separate defense tax of 10 per cent on top of all! For a moment this reviewer Ihought the performance had all the elements of a fusion of "Hellzapoppin" and "Macbeth." Screams penetrated the rafters and seldom have such lines as "They can't do that to me," "This is an outrage" and "It's that feller in the White House" been delivered with such power and feeling. There is both drama and comedy in the later chapter when millions of Americans in the lower income group, who have been laughing at the upper groupers all these years, discover that at last they must come across too. All in all (and that's the way they take it now), the production is sure to have the usual appeal, coupled cou-pled with the additional response always occasioned by the surprise note. Your reviewer must say in all candor that "Tax Blank for 1941" lacks laughs. There is hardly an amusing line anywhere if you exclude ex-clude the old gag, "Were you damaged dam-aged by fire or storm during the last fiscal year?" But it is set for a run lasting through to next December Decem-ber 15. Nothing can stop it Bill Pfriender says that Mr. Roosevelt's broadcasts these days might be billed as "Firearms Chats." Wendell Willkie has now gone over to the administration side so completely com-pletely that some people are even speaking of him as Wenlin Wiloo-velt Wiloo-velt New York city will have a population popula-tion of eight to nine million people ultimately, an expert says. It is hard to imagine that many people running around asking questions on how to reach destinations In New York city. The annual National Automobile show has been abandoned for this year. The public will have to find some other good excuse for going to the big city for a two or three-day three-day spree. The Jackson day dinner by the Democrats will be a unity banquet This will require special arrangements arrange-ments to see that nobody gets hurt . I trust Wendell Willkie doesn't get into a bombing raid in London and send Roosevelt a card "Having awful aw-ful time; wish you were here!" The only difference between our aid to England in the last war and in this one will be that this time our aid will have a zipper on it |