CAGE ME A PEACOCK

Blend Thorne Smith, gone somewhat mild, with John Erskine, humor slightly fagged, and the satire of a play of several years back, The Road to Rome. The theme is the ""Rape of Lucrece"" -- and what a tale is made of it. Nothing of the restrained and modest female, victim of the male was here -- but a version that goes Ovid several better -- in a style that is somewhat decadent modern. A shocker that isn't worth it -- public libraries and conservative bookshops pass up. Frankly, I thought it somewhat boring.