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SOUND EFFECTS
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gives it a kind of objective reality, and removes it from the realm of private speculation. The human figure which flits noiselessly through the scenes of an old-style movie is a bit of a ghost. Let him open his mouth, and he becomes flesh and blood.
The effect of this transformation is incredible. You must actually experience it in order to feel its depth. As William De Mille has put it;
It is interesting, and frequently appalling, to realize how much screen personality may be changed by the addition of voice; the actor’s very appearance seems different. In very few cases does the voice of a screen idol satisfy fans who, for years, have been imagining it. On the other hand, those players who have beauty of voice find a new world opened to them. No longer is it necessary to make personality 100 per cent visual. Actors who for years have been almost unnoticed may arrest attention vocally and convey to the public a charm of personality which they have been unable to do through the eye alone. It is Judgment Day, and many will be raised up while others are cast down.
The sound pictures are the first art which can even begin to approximate reality. And it is their almost uncannily realistic effect which makes the understanding of sound effects of vital importance to every story writer. If you wish to study a picture which, from this point of view, is one of the most intelligently directed of recent talkies, go to see Alibi. This excellent melodrama makes the most of every possible scene in which sound is effective. In the very first reel, for example, see how the sound of prisoners marching in lockstep sets the tone for the whole story. Note how the element of suspense, following the murder of Patrolman O’Brien, is intensified by the sound of policemen’s clubs striking against resounding steel and stone as, one after another, the patrol