The art of sound pictures (1930)

YOUR STORY 93 was indeed his friend. The pictures ends with the execution of the valiant brother. Here, the suspense is built around the heroism, in concealing his identity, of the leading character, and the various situations in which he is placed where this quality is tested. The motive for the murder is never revealed, and thus the total plot situation is entirely changed and made far more difficult for successful solution. First of all, the situation is so set at the beginning that it is entirely realistic for the hero to be able to conceal his identity in all the situations in which he is placed. His mother is too old and too ill to travel. His sister was a little girl when he disappeared; she is now a young woman. When she recalls to him scenes of their childhood together, it is possible for him to assert the main characteristic around which the story is built — his valiant heroism in refusing to identify himself and in being stoic enough to spare his family the humiliation and anguish of seeing its only son go to the electric chair. FAKE TWISTS IN PLOTTING As we read manuscripts sent in from young writers, we are painfully impressed by their use of complications and climaxes which cannot endure the scrutiny of realistic analysis. Striving to produce the thrills of good melodrama, they invent situations which never could happen. Hoping to create a superb heroine, they make the damsel do things which no flesh and blood ever did. How easy it would be for us to wax moral and advise every reader of this book to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in his stories! And yet how wrong!