The Firebird

Initial suspense is well managed in this mystery drama dealing with the murder of a Viennese bounder, Cortez, a self-adoring mime actor whose avocation is the seduction of a succession of ladies. The plot unfolds through the medium of the family in the flat above the actor's own: diplomat Atwill, wife Teasdale, and daughter Louise. Their perceptions of their downstairs neighbor are conditioned in part by his frequent renditions of the same music, selections from Stravinsky's "The Firebird," long and loudly played. Teasdale's antipathy to the music, which she views as vulgar, suggests that perhaps she doth protest too much. Is she the current conquest of the cad, si...