Photoplay plot encyclopedia; an analysis of the use in photoplays of the thirty-six dramatic situations and their subdivisions. Containing a list of all the fundamental dramatic material to be found in human experience, including the synopses of one hundred produced representative photoplays, with a detailed analysis of the situations used in each. Practical suggestions for combining situations, for testing the strength and novelty of plots, and for building plots; and an index referring to each producer, author, star, story and situation mentioned in the text (1922)

PHOTOPLAY PLOT ENCYCLOPEDIA "CAROLYN OF THE CORNERS." (Produced bj- Anderson-Brunton; released by Pathe; starring Bessie Love; stor>' by Ruth Belmore Endicott; continuitj' b}- Frank S. Beresford; directed by Robert Thornby.) Synopsis. Carolyn May Cameron, after her parents have been reported lost at sea, is sent ta live ziith her uncle, Joe Stagg, the storekeeper of a little village in Maine. Stagg is a bachelor, having quarreled years before with the woman he loved, Amanda Par- low. "Aunt Rose" is his housekeeper. Stagg doesn't understand the little girl who enters his life along with her big dog. Prince, but in time, guided by Auni Rose, he learns to love her and to find companionship in her. Carolyn enjoys the days in the little village and attends the little school with the other children. And it is mainly through her efforts that the ancient quarrel between Stagg and Amanda is smoothed over, at least in some small measure. When spring comes Amanda takes Carolyn into an old lumber camp, there to visit one of her friends who is bedridden with rheumatism. While they are there, a forest fire breaks out and Carolyn and the women are trapped in the flames. They take refuge in the spring and wait until Stagg arrives to the rescue. This element of danger proves the last straw which breaks doivn the reserve between Amanda and Stagg and past quarrels are forgotten. Aunt Rose suggests that the newly-married couple will not be wanting company any more, so Carolyn takes her last money and buys a ticket to New York, returning to the still vacant Harlem fiat of her parents. Amanda and Stagg follow, of course — having postponed their honeymoon to Niagara Falls. The next morning they find her crying her eyes out for her father and mother. And then, wonder of wonders, her parents enter. They had been saved ftom the sinking vessel and had taken refuge on a distant island and had only now reached civilization again. So Carolyn is once more happy. This story serves verj' well to illustrate tvi^o situations which we have already considered as rather difficult, XXXV and XXXVL ("The Recovery and the Loss of Loved Ones"). In Carolyn's loss of her parents, we have a very good example of the use of that situation as the beginning of a story. She then "falls prey to cruelty and misfortune" in a mild and somewhat amusing way. Situation XXVIII, ("Obstacles to Love"), is used in the relations between Stagg and Amanda. The danger that threatens Amanda and Carolyn in the fire is dependent upon an accident, and is very timeworn. But it gives rise to an effective dramatic situation in Stagg's rescue of them, which involves IX, ("Daring Enterprise"), and II, ("Deliverance"). Finally, Situation XXXV, brings the story to a pleasing and surprising, though some- what implausible, conclusion. The fact that ships were being torpedoed at the time the picture was produced partially justifies the use of this ending, and in its human appeal it has the effect of sending the audience home satisfied. Aside from the slight dependence upon accidents, this story is human and dramatic, and the characterizations are in excellent contrast. It might therefore be considered as an eighty per cent, photoplay. The characterization happened to be convincing enough to carry the weak links in the plot chain, and the skill of production helped to make the fortuitous happenings plausible. The author, however, might have made it a much stronger story by careful analysis and more thorough revision. "COMMON CLAY." (Produced by Astra; starring Fannie Ward; from the stage play by Cleves Kink- head; continuity by Ouida Bergere; directed by George Fitzmaurice.) Synopsis. Contrasting her surroundings of sordidness and poverty with the constant spec- tacle of affiuence she sees all around her, Ellen Neal, a department store worker, becomes dissatisfied. Jennie Peters, once a co-worker in the store and now a cabaret 65