Motion Picture Magazine (Aug 1928-Jan 1929)

w hen Is A Story Stolen? This Question Has Caused Every Picture Company to Have More Suits Than the Prince of Wales By Dorothy Calhoun "4LL right, sue me!" is the /\ catchword with which / \ members of the scenario department at the Lasky studio greet each other nowadays ! Plagiarism suits have become such an expense item on movie budget books that many companies send back all original manuscripts unopened. After a picture is released the producers are flooded with letters, typewritten on business stationery, scrawled with a pencil on cheap lined pad paper, penned in violet ink and scented with Night of Love perfume, but one and all declaring "You've stolen my plot !" Each case that is taken to court costs the studio about fifteen hundred dollars in lawyers' fees arid wastes several weeks of valuable time, though the complaining authors seldom win their cases. The damages asked, vary. A shoe clerk who has sent in a story about young love and has afterward seen a picture of young love on the screen may demand five thousand dollars, but he is usually willing to settle for a couple of hundred out of court. Anne Nichols, on the other hand, is suing Universal for three million, claiming that the plot for their picture, "The Cohens and the Kellys" was stolen from her stage play, "Abie's Irish Rose." It is rumored that if she wins a verdict she intends to sue all companies using Irish-Jewish themes. Metro-Goldwyn's "Kosher Kitty Kelly" may come next. "She's got a patent on the Irish and the Jews and their troubles," Edward Montaigne, head of Universal Scenario Department, smiles. "At the trial our lawyers will point out that 'Romeo and Juliet' was' written quite a while ago. They might even be able to establish that it was written before Abie.' And it has practically the same plot, two young people from rival families who fall in love. Shakespeare, though, has good ground for plagiarism suits against the best novelists and dramatists of today. We'r^ making a picture right now, called 'Grease Paint,' Freulich Although the studios are eager for new ideas, Edward J. Montaigne, above, editor-in-chief of Universal, says that the many plagiarism suits are destroying the market for amateur scenario writers. Left, a scene from "Abie s Irish Rose" that is simply 'Othello' up to date. But it's the treatment that counts. All the original plots have been used. There are only a limited number of possible combinations of characters and circumstances, anyway, and people have been writing stories for several thousand years." As scenario editor, Montaigne has handled tons of scripts submitted by amateur writers, each of whom claims to have a new idea. He is a marked man. Everyone who meets him wants to tell him a plot. His dentist, holding him helpless under the drill, relates a scenario to him. His little girl's piano teacher brings scripts out of her music bag. His cook brings in a scenario with the breakfast bacon. Sometimes, he admits, astonishing ideas are presented to him. There is the spiritualist lady who is in constant communication with Rudolph Valentino. In the spirit world, she writes, Rudie has met Edith Cavell, who insists that he must make one more picture on earth. For a consideration she will sell Valentino's services to Universal to write and direct a movie. Then there is the man who writes that he has dreams that would make wonderful scenarios. The latest was a dream of being transported to another planet where he was met by Christ and escorted about the place. "The amazing thing to me is that everyone thinks he can write without any training." Montaigne sighs a heartfelt sigh. "The studio carpenters come to me and say, 'Mr. Montaigne, I'm being laid off for a few weeks because the work's too slack and I thought I might fill in (Continued on page 113) 55