The Wisdom Tooth

Wisdom Tooth, The (1926), a comedy by Marc Connelly. [Little Theatre, 160 perf.] Charley Bemis (Thomas Mitchell) is an industrious, frugal senior clerk at the office in which he works, but he is so readily and so often browbeaten by his associates that he comes to look on himself as a mere carbon copy of a man. After Sally Field (Mary Philips), who also lives at Charley's boarding house, berates him for his timidity, Charley falls asleep and recalls his youth, including a circus in which none other than Barnum and Bailey had praised him. The dream gives him the strength to be the man he long has wanted to be. True, his standing up to his boss costs him his job, but then he may do more with an admiring Sally than play cribbage. This John Golden mounting was Connelly's first solo effort following his split with George S. Kaufman, and the play's comedy delighted critics even if its loose construction did not. After a slow start, it caught on, thanks in no small part to Mitchell's excellent performance.