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Musings of * The Photoplay 'Philosopher
There is a difference between the classics, of literature plays, and this point cannot be better illustrated than by
modern giving
the titles of some of each. In recalling some of the classics, the following titles would probably be foremost in the average memory : Les Miserables ; Lorna Doone ; Cloister and the Hearth ; Vicar of Wakefield ; She Stoops to Conquer; The Rivals; Midsummer Night's Dream; Hamlet; Macbeth; Merchant of Venice; David Copperfield; Don Quixote; Vanity Fair, and so on. Now let us take a few titles of modern photoplays from a current trade publication : Batty Bill's Honeymoon; The Silent Death; The Fatal Clues; Pickles, Art and Sauerkraut; The Harper Mystery; Mystery of St. Martin's Bridge; Double Crossed; Babel's Bare Escape; The Society Detective; The Race for the Rubies ; Great Bank Robbery ; Marriage by Aeroplane ; The Trap ; The Governor's Ghost ; In the Python's Den ; The Whirl of Destiny ; The Vortex of Fate; Great Lure of Paris; Traffickers in Souls; The Bells of Death; Masked Mystery; Gee! But It's Great to Be Stung; The False Bride; Slim and the Dynamiters; Shadow of Crime; The Hand-Print Mystery; Lunatic's Child; Playing for a Fortune; The Silent Death; Wrecked in Midair; Shadow of Guilt, etc., etc. It must be conceded that these are fair samples of the titles of the plays now being put out by the leading manufacturers. Not that they offend decency, not that they are immoral, not that they are melodramatic (we must have melodrama and comedy as well as high-class drama), but that there are too few tasteful titles and too many sensational ones. When it is remembered that nearly everyone of the aforementioned plays is flaunted before the public, that they are illustrated in lurid colors on large and anything but artistic posters that are plastered all over the fronts of the Motion Picture theaters thruout the world, where passersby must see them, it is obvious that the enemies of the photoplay are naturally incensed to renew their attacks and that they are supplied with destructive ammunition. Not only are there altogether too many sensational melodramas produced, but their titles are entirely too undignified, inelegant and unrefined, to say nothing of the disgraceful posters. All these are the remnants of the old days of the showman's business, when every circus, sideshow, shooting-gallery and freak museum was decorated with flashy colors and tinsel, assisted by leather-lunged ' 'barkers." who stood in front yelling for patronage. While there are still some i people who are attracted by this sort of claptrap advertising, and Jl who will go nowhere unless ushered in by a brass band, the large V ilk majority, and undoubtedly the better element, are not only not ll J mf attracted, but are driven away by it. V .
|y The quality of the plays is steadily improving, and the standard jM|
W is being raised higher and higher, but we still have this lingering l&lfi pa mania for unrefined sensationalism. A play named simply "Ada JsiV $P Holmes" or "Paul Blackmore" would be just as attractive' to most S^T