There is an agreeable atmosphere about the R.K.O. Keith theatre that lends itself to the enjoyment of the films projected; Leo Weber plays enthusiastically upon the organ, the latest news events and well-selected short subjects are regular features of the program. This week Mae Clark, the appealing blonde who plunged backward out a window away from brutal newshawks, in "The Front Page," and Lewis Ayres, the sensitive and rather bewildered German boy of "All Quiet on the Western Front," play in "Impatient Maiden." But whether the fundamental cause be economic, or merely a reflection of a drabness peculiar to mass production, the story of "Impatient Maiden." But whether the fundamental cause be economic, or merely a reflection of a drabness peculiar to mass production, the story of "Impatient Maiden" make entertainment an almost impossible ambition.

Leading sociologists declare that the relations between man and woman in present civilization are undergoing a volte-face. We find this lesson enacted in "Impatient Maiden." The cynical and rather beautiful divorce-lawyer's secretary is asked in holy matrimony by a young hospital interne. She refuses to indulge in more than an extralegal mesalliance because her employer's many unhappy clients have embued her with a fear of marriage. Producers saw the novelty coincident to reversing the plot of the deserted girl. Abandoned by the honest young man, our maiden decides to play an age--old game with the none too platonic lawyer. She soon moves into an apartment of a magnificence which only movie "prop" mon can know. She fails to develop her side of the relationship, however, and presently appears in scenes of tragic squajor. An acute apondectomy is the event that brings her to the young doctor's hospital where he is the one who must operate. It is his first operation and with bated breath we watch him snip the offending organs with shiny instruments. As soon as the ether wears off, love is suitably rekindled.

It is a regrettable experience to watch the unfolding of such a ridiculous and pointless story, under direction that indicates a total lack of dramatic perception on the part of James Whale. Better luck next week.