A love-crazed man seeking revenge on his successful rival and the woman who refused him is the theme of "It is the Law" at the Wilbur this week. Adapted to the stage by Elmer L. Rice from Hayden Talbot's story. This melodrama thrills and surprises for the first two acts and then tapers off rather weakly in the remaining two. The play should not be confused with "Within the Law", acted at the St. James last year; it is not as good. It appeals, like all melodrama of its type, primarily in the same manner as the oldtime whooping Indian movie. The play is full of situations. They come as fast as a redskin dodging from tree to tree. And towards the end these rapid shifts grow banal.

But then no one has claimed that "It Is the Law" can approach "The Bat" or "The Thirteenth Chair" in cleverness and finesse. "Bulldog Drummond" is more in its line. Albert Woodruff, as the villain fills us with the same sort of creepy horror that the tomb-like doctor does in the last-named play. Everyone shudders at a man who can make his pulse stop beating at will or who goes into a murderous fit at the sight of a pair of fire-tongs or can conceive and carry out such a devilish scheme of vengeance as this neo-maniac in "It is the Law". Mr. Hohi fills the part well; it is he who makes the play go.

The best part of the production is the second act. Here is the high point in setting, plot, and acting. We know that something is going to happen and that "Sniffler Evans", Woodruff's double, is to take a major role--just how we can only guess. The murderer's plan, well-concealed from the audience, is not fully revealed until the last moment. Then the ingenuity and awfulness of his nature as already expressed in his utterances stand out in the actual deed.

The last two acts are naturally a come-down from the great climax of excitement reached in the first half of the play. The acting of Mr. Hohl becomes less convincing; the scene at Sing Sing over-gushes with weepy love and nobleness the conclusion is a surprise which detracts rather than adds. Be- fore the start of the third act many in the audience have unfortunately already divined the manner in which the criminal is finally to be apprehended. This owing partly to a lack of subtlety in the plot and partly to a tell-tale picture which the management displays among others at the entrance of the theatre.

It must not be thought that the play is all plotting and shooting and stabbing. There are some most enjoyable comedy touches in the scene in the third act between the newly-weds, Ruth, played by Alma Tell, and Bill Elliott, played by A. H. Van Buren. Among other amusing line comes Bill's observation that "The way girls talk nowadays modest men ought to wear a veil".

Beneath the surface of the play lies a threat against inelastic law. It is the law which allows a man to be sentenced to life-imprisonment for a murder he never committed and lets the same men go entirely free when he actually does shoot down a person in cold blood. Hence the title of the play.

In spite of many faults "it is the Law" will provide an evening of entertainment to anyone who likes to steal away now and then and read a trashy, but hair-raising, murder story