The Noose (play)

When H. H. Van Loan was a reporter for the Buffalo Courier Express,[4] he witnessed an execution for which the condemned man had refused to speak in his own defense until the last moment.[5] Just before execution, he admitted the killing legally, but justified it by saying the murdered man was no good.[5] The event inspired Van Loan to write a short story for a magazine,[6] which he and Willard Mack then turned into this play.[4] According to Mack on opening night, he wrote the play "something more than a year ago"; Broadway was then a month old.[7]

Mrs. Henry B. (Renee) Harris was a Titanic survivor; her showman husband had gone down with the ship.[8] She owned the Hudson Theatre,[9] and was involved with the casting and play doctoring of The Noose.[10] Mack's original play had the Governor's daughter as a character, who begs for Nickie Elkins' body in the third act. Harris persuaded Mack to replace this role with an unrelated society girl as Nickie's mutual love interest, while the pathos of the third act would come from a lowly chorus girl, with whom he was just friends.[11]

The first tryout occurred in Buffalo, New York on October 4, 1926 at the Shubert-Teck Theatre.[16] The producers Renee Harris and Martin Sampler were present as were the story author H. H. Van Loan and the playwright-director Willard Mack.[16] The reviews were enthusiastic and uncritical.[16][17] One singled out actress Helen Flint[fn 1] for the third act emotional climax, when she begs the Governor for Elkins' body.[17] Another mentioned both Barbara Stanwyck and Helen Flint favorably without attributing specific actions to either.[16]

After a week in Buffalo, the production moved to the Shubert Pitt Theatre in Pittsburgh, opening on October 11, 1926.[18] One reviewer took issue with the play's use of "cuss words" in the second act night club setting, but was also highly impressed with the acting of Rex Cherryman.[15] This same reviewer again ascribed the final scene of pleading for the body to Helen Flint, playing the society girl.[15]

The Broadway premiere occurred on October 20, 1926 at the Hudson Theatre.[1] Arthur Pollock of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle was scathing in his assessment of the writing: "It was written by Willard Mack, that quixotic and valient veteran who is too busy to learn by experience. Long ago he drowned his gifts in sentimentality...".[19] Pollock complimented actor Lester Lonergan for playing the Governor "without once seeming to laugh up his sleeve".[19] He mentioned Mack giving a little speech from the stage after the second act: "He intimated, too, that the night club scene was not a borrowing from Broadway. The two are not a bit alike. Mr. Mack is a good fellow, possessed of gifts with which better plays than this are made. Unfortunately he has mislaid them".[19]

The reviewer for the Brooklyn Times Union was more generous, acknowledging the play as "old-fashioned melodrama" and "the plot is downright hackneyed" but insisting Mack's talent as dramatist ensured it was still good entertainment.[1] They did have one caveat: "It was all very well to kid the Governor about that phone call but he might have let the audience in on it."[1] The Brooklyn Citizen reviewer said the play was entertaining with the exception of "two long outbursts against capital punishment and prohibition".[20] The reviewer for the Standard Union praised the acting of Rex Cherryman, George Nash, and Lester Lonergan, and added "Dorothy Stanwyck is good in the leading feminine role".[fn 2][21]

Burns Mantle in the New York Daily News admitted the play's events "may not be creditable" but thought the entertainment value outweighed their weakness.[6] He praised the acting of Rex Cherryman, Lester Lonergan, Ann Shoemaker, Ralph Locke, and "a nice bit by Barbara Stanwyck".[6] The New York Times critic was generally positive about the play, despite "Mr. Mack taking not a little license with judicial procedure. Mr. Mack, however, was never one to worry too much about plausibilty if he got his effects".[7] Like the Standard Union, the Times reviewer when praising her performance referred to "Dorothy Stanwyck", while also mentioning Rex Cherryman, George Nash, and Lester Lonergan for acting honors.[7]

The Noose closed at the Hudson Theatre on April 9, 1927,[22] after 202 performances.[fn 3][23] The production company then went to Chicago where it opened on April 17, 1927 at the Selwyn Theater.[24]