Photoplay Studies (1935-1937)

Stage Door 7 to what extent does the screen picture present us with something that is in itself good? It may be that the photoplay of A Tale of Two Cities is better or worse than Dickens; what is pertinent is that, while not Dfckens as we know him between the covers of a book, it is none the less an effective thing in itself. It is obvious that no picture, lasting two hours, can possibly encompass what requires 400 to 800 or 1,000 pages of written narrative to put over. Let us, then, in judging any picture based on a novel or a play, forget for the time being the original and think of the picture. Then, once we have received the first impression, we may return for comparison to the original on which it was based. The picture Stage Door might, so far as the public is concerned, be an "original" : it stands firmly rooted in a situation which we feel to be essentially true; the characters, allowing for necessary heightening of the highlights, are well delineated, and the story carries the conviction of truth. It is interesting, once we see the picture, to turn to the play, and note the minor and major changes. There must have been several conferences among executives (or it may have been Mr. Ryskind's inspiration) when it came to getting round the authors' viewpoint on Hollywood as a career, contrasted with the "legitimate" theatre. In the play Terry (aided and abetted by Kingsley) refuses to be lured to the "Coast," because she feels that the only career worth fighting for is that of an actress on the living stage ; Jean, on the other hand, gives in to the glamor, and having no particular talent except of a superficial sort, succeeds in Hollywood. Obviously, this point could hardly be made, or emphasized, in the screen version (though we must give credit to one picture company for making a picture version of that delightfully outrageous Jean shows off in Terry's ermines.