The art of sound pictures (1930)

96 THE ART OF SOUND PICTURES Again, when Mary Dugan’s attorney, Mr. West, is cross-examining the police inspector, he asks the latter if he had inquired as to the occupants of the adjoining apartments in the building in which Rice was killed. The inspector says that he had made no such inquiry, as there seemed to be no reason for it. Thereupon Mr. West says, with an air of great triumph, “So you did not learn that I was occupying the adjoining apartment.” His apparent reason was to discomfit the police inspector, and, at the moment, this appears to be quite adequate. When the trial ends, however, we discover that West himself is the murderer. Furthermore, he is an extremely clever one. Why, then, would he have called attention to his place of residence? In reality, he would not have done so. But the author of the play had to get the fact in easily and quickly because this fact had to reach Jimmy, Mary Dugan’s brother, who took over the defense after West had refused to cross-examine Mrs. Rice, the widow. Furthermore, the fact had to be brought out in some vivid and dramatic fashion to produce the stage effect. It would have been rather dull to have introduced it casually. A far subtler form of fake appears at the climax. Jimmy’s one problem is to free his sister. No other issue is before the court. She is either guilty or innocent. And the judge quite properly charges the jury to this effect. Jimmy proves by cross-examining the fingerprint expert that it was Mary’s right hand which left its imprint upon the handle of the knife used in the murder. He next proves most ingeniously that the knife-blow which killed Rice could not have been delivered with the right hand. The position of the wound made this impossible. As a