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TRITE, STALE — AND PROFITABLE?
anything that's new in a motion picture." Much of Hollywood's production is governed by the formula of the successive repetition of success. In fact, too much.
Not so long ago, we recommended a dramatic story (by another writer) to an eminent producer-director. After reading, he asked: "What's good about it? Can you name me any successful play, novel or picture that told this same story?"
On the other hand, there is the enterprising producer, who welcomes something definitely out of the groove, and encourages you to write it.
Back in the Dust Bowl era, two unrelated headlines appeared in the same newspaper, on different pages. Bannered was the exploit of an Oregon outlaw, who had slain two National Park foresters and two deputy sheriffs. Almost buried, the other item concerned a WPA scandal in New Mexico, where men had been thrown off relief jobs for not voting the ticket of the local political machine.
A telephone call was made to the producer, an intelligent and imaginative fellow, and the two themes literally thrown together over the wire. Although a series picture, without special exploitation or publicity, Wyoming Outlaw did 142 percent of normal business because of the originality and freshness of its ingredients.
The success of this Western, taken literally from one day's headlines, has been duplicated by experiences of other writers, proving that the use of fresh material is possible — and profitable.
Another angle of approach to the problem of "what's new" may be found by examination of possible dramatic incident. In Ward's Santa Fe Stampede, the heavies did not bump off the hero's pal, as usual. No, they shot down a tiny five-year-old girl. As a result of the story which grew out of this then-novel act of villainy, the picture played to more than normal theatre business.
Coincidental ly, about a year later came Rangers of Fortune, a million-dollar special, in which the heavy shot down a ten-yearold girl.
Ward has also experimented with feminine heavies (Jezebel
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