Katherine Cornell's latest production has a patent leather slickness which covers a completely insubstantial play. The author, Kate O'Brien, has dipped into 16th century Spanish history for a very unintriguing story of court intrigue. She has scooped up material which is sentimental at best and sometimes downright boring. The shallowness of the characters severely limits the actors to the technical perfection of their declamatory and gushing speeches. For this the actors are well-equipped: they all have rich voices and good diction.

A patch-eyed Miss Cornell plays mistress to Spain's Phillip II and to two of his court members. Jealousy moves the king to imprison his ex-mistress and her third lover; but a third act scene, which is the play's most interesting, reunites the two lovers. By this time, they are much older: he is senescent and maimed; she is dying. The few minutes they spend together before he escapes from the country are touching.

Miss Cornell's stylized acting is not very imaginative and lacks deep conviction. But her technique and voice are still basically excellent. Joseph Wiseman, as the court Peeping Tom who spreads scandal, talks inexorably and monotonously--like a passing freight train. At times he varies his performance with a pseudo-emotional crescendo, usually preceded by a strained gasp. Henry Daniell, as the king, is the most polished of the performers; he has an impressive bearing and a versatile voice. But the virtues of the acting do not compensate for the essential sterility of the play.