MRS. HULETT

Eve -- and some Adams -- in a glossy tale of feminine skullduggery. Sam Thomas, producing a new play on Broadway, gives an assist to his leading lady, Lily, when she refuses to face the wife of John Hulett, whom she had known, but not seduced, in Europe, and is bewitched and bewildered by Emily -- her chic, her brains and her acting, which is better than Lily's. It takes him the hard way to learn that she is a woman of her husband's affairs, that her roots, from a world of plenty to the have- not era of the depression, have forced her into an intense demand for security, that there is no pie, political, personal, or theatrical, that her little fingers will not stay out of, and that, although his mistress and promised wife, she cannot and will not give up being a pivot. New York, Bermuda, Reno- these complement their affair, with Emily always yielding but never succumbing to the future of which Sam dreams; the careers of her husband, of Captain de Cassincourt, for which she throws over her Reno divorce, continually conflict with Sam's intention for a serene and happy life; Emily's self-will eventually defeats Sam's dreamed-of happy ending. The gimmick of a husband who never appears, the high polish and quick flash of social, and bed, interchange, the sharp twists of female strategy will give this a smart start.