The Bioscope (May-Jun 1915)

THE Bioscore, JUNE 24, 1915. “Miss E.”” received an offer for two scenarios which she accepted, and, after waiting three months for payment, sent a polite reminder. The firm replied by returning the scripts with a very insulting letter. I’m afraid " Miss E" can only avoid this firm in the future. Producers who treat their contributors in this way will find out their mistake, sooner or later. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS Edith L. (Ilkley).—It certainly is possible to make a living by scenario writing. I do it, so I know. But it means hard work. “THE BATTLE OF INNOCENCE.” “AN INTERESTING PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDY. I 329 W.W.W. (Munster).—There is litle or no call for costume plays at present. Tibbie (Leeds).—When the camera is moved while a picture is being taken, or when the camera is placed on a moving vehicle, the technical term is Panorama —thus: “Scene 17—Panorama of Park from interior of Car.”’ S.L. (Nutfield).—Yes, I do, my time being valuable. See my advertisement on last page. pecan with Thanks.—“ Sussie,” T.W., M.E., ic. Replied to by post.—J.W., “Mac.,”? R.B., F.C.C. Dramatic picture art is making quite a speciality nowadays of what might be called sub-conscious crime, and “‘ The Battle of Innocence,” shown to a large audience in the Shaftesbury Pavilion on Tuesday, by the Apex Films, Limited, is a very interesting and original variation of this theme. Produced by the Life Photo Corporation of America, it introduces also the idea of a dual personality, which R. I,. Stevenson turned to such good account in that great moral allegory, ‘‘ Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” Mention of Stevenson’s classic work suggests the further point that there is no. need to decry an element of improbability in stories founded on sucha basis. ‘The dramatic interest or purpose of the story is the thing, and just as we may not be able to give credence to the idea that Dr. Jekyll was able by chemical means to project in bodily shape the bodily image of his lower self, so we may not be able to accept the idea that Judge Legarde, the principal figure in ‘‘ The Battle of Innocence,”’ should, under the influence of a shock, lead the life of a judge by day and of a leader of a band of thieves by night, and not know anything in either capacity of his doings in the other state of his existence. We rather prefer Stevenson’s idea of collusion between the dual personalities, but the author has obtained quite an interesting and sensational story by his method. There is a clever novelty in the introduction of the film. This is a prologue showing the hard-headed judge, who scoffs at the idea of crime being committed unconsciously by a person not certifiably insane, condemning to a term of imprisonment a woman who has committed a crime under the influence of kleptomania. We now proceed to the main story whose theme is that the judge himself comes under the influence of a mental state whose possibility he disbelieves. Judges in America are younger than they are in this country; we should probably call Judge Legarde a stipendiary magistrate. He is engaged to be married to a es lady, Agnes Caverly, Google whose maid is wrongfully accused of committing a theft and is sentenced by the Judge. He meets with an accident which produces brain disorder and during the playing of a piece of music a violent mental change overcomes him. That night a burglar visits the house; the Judge sees him, and, burglary being the last act impressed on his mind he is seized by the desire to commit some lawless act. Irom this time onward the Judge is no longer “‘ the master of his soul,”’ at nights he meets a band of thieves and becomes a prince of criminals ; by day, heisa judge, knowing nothing of his other life, any more than, when a burglar, he is aware that he isa member of judiciary. It falls out that Judge Legarde, in his burglarious capacity, plans a robbery upon his own house and carries it out himself. One of his robber associates is accused of the crime and confronted with the Judge, as prosecutor. The thief recognises the Judge as his own leader in crime and reminds him that he himself stole the property. The Judge is, naturally, enraged at the effrontery of the man, but, fortunately, the psychologist who tried to convince the Judge in the trial described in the prologue, is at hand to give his reasons for believing that the Judge’s own case is one of the development of a dual personality. ‘The Judge is, therefore, convinced by his own experience of the truth of the theory he denied. The problem of reducing the Judge to normality is not too much for the mental specialist. He discovers that the change in the mental state coincided with the plaving of a certain piece of music. Under the influence of the memories. awakened by the same strains the Judge recovers his former possession of his faculties. The story introduces some grim and exciting incidents of life in the New York underworld ; it is very cleverly produced and admirably acted, and, as we have said, once the central theory is accepted, it makes an absorbing and sensational film.