I Know My Love: Sam S. Shubert Theatre, November 2, 1949

New York Times, November 3, 1949

Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne Return in S. N. Behrman's `I Know My Love.'

By BROOKS ATKINSON

Although the Lunts are dazzling actors, it is difficult not to look at what they are playing. It is "I Know My Love," which S. N. Behrman has adapted from Marcell Achard's "Auprès de Ma Blonde" and which the Theatre Guild and John C. Wilson brought into the Sam S. Shubert Theatre last evening.

This is the comedy in which the Lunts appear as fabulously old people in the first act, and then begin life over at a tender age in the second act and age by easy stages for the rest of the evening. "Tour de force" is the cultured phrase generally applied to such stage antic.

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On the twenty-fifth anniversary of their first appearance as a team in "The Guardsman," the Lunts are superb actors. When Mr. Behrman gives them any stuff to work with, they irradiate it with their special genius, which has enslaved about every theatregoer in the United States. When the play presents them as a doddering old couple on the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary, a kind of witty electricity passes between them, which is vastly entertaining, and a fiftieth wedding anniversary looks like one of the most enviable occasions in life. This first act is warm and sentimental. Wrinkled, whitened, bent and shaky, the Lunts play it like thoroughbreds. The first act of "I Know My Love" is a gay invitation to the familiar delights of drawing-room comedy acted with style.

But let's face the facts even on the silver anniversary of the Lunts' first appearance as a team. "I Know My Love" abuses the privilege of being light. It has nothing to say and very little to contribute to entertainment. It is the life story of two persons who love each other devotedly but accumulate the usual burdens of family, the unusual burden of economic success and the familiar irritations. Since it is written by men it gallantly presents the little lady as the one who understands everything and everyone through intuition and saves the marriage in its thirtieth year by cunning manipulation.

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Anything is a good enough subject for drawing-room comedy. But this comedy is untidy in construction, cluttered with clichés and nonentities and deficient in wit. There are a number of scenes in which the Lunts do not appear. That makes for heavy going. As they are volatile and skillful performers, "I Know My Love" recovers remarkably when they return. Mr. Lunt struts and Miss Fontanne looks slyly wise—a situation that is gay and shining in the incomparable Lunt tradition. They have a fond, quizzical scene at the close in their most immaculate style. But to one astonished theatregoer, the gleams of witty acting after the first act do not sufficiently compensate for an increasingly muddled play. Although "O, Mistress Mine" was trivial, it had stuff in it that could be acted. As usual, the production is handsome, with a bright and spacious setting and vivacious costumes by Stewart Chaney. The cast includes a number of agreeable actors in roles that are about as minor as they can be. In sum, "I Know My Love" has all the visual glitter of a vehicle for the Lunts.

But they are the most accomplished actors in our theatre, able to play fine plays as well as amusing antics. They have played Shakespeare, Shaw and Sherwood. Twenty-five years ago last month they lighted up the town with a matchless comedy by Molnar. Against that illustrious background it is difficult to overlook the inadequacy of "I Know My Love," which is not of their quality.

I Know My Love: Sam S. Shubert Theatre, November 2, 1949