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104 A HISTORY OF THE MOVIES
peans, free from the infringement suits of Edison and the restraints of a trust, made broader experiments than were tried in America, and the length of pictures in Italy, France, England, and to some extent in Germany increased to from five to ten reels while the two-reeler was a standard in the United States. Italy was the leader in European development and Italian producers made some elaborate pictures, with great settings, huge mob scenes, and spectacular effects; from about 1909 to 1914, Italians seemed to possess a greater flair for the camera than any other manufacturers in Europe.
The themes of these productions were usually classical, or "highbrow," as befitted the custom of the houses in which they were shown; or else spectacular and melodramatic on a grand scale, as, for example, "Quo Vadis," in which the nude girl on the bull's back in the arena scene caused audiences of all classes to gasp in astonishment, or "Cabiria," in which a seductive young lady attended by a leopard introduced a foretaste of sex appeal. Melodramatic thrills were supplied by such devices as mobs of men engaged in battle, and the destruction of ships by a fire started by a sun-glass.
George Kleine, keeping himself constantly advised of all foreign picture-making, greatly desired to import some of these elaborate films to the United States, and labored with the patents company to bring about modifications of the trust's distribution system so that long pictures could be handled. His efforts were in vain, but nevertheless Kleine yielded to temptation and imported one film, "The Life of Moses," in five reels, which General Film agreed to distribute on its program at the rate of one reel a week. Needless to say, the life of the Hebrew law-giver was not a success when thus presented, and Kleine's ardor for the trust was proportionately cooled.
As the independent movement grew in strength, pictures of four reels or more occasionally found their way to America, and were exhibited by theater-owners daring enough to find out if audiences could live through a photoplay an hour or an hour and a quarter in length. They learned that film spectators could