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236 SOUND MOTION PICTURES
to-day to actors, writers, and directors who have the foresight and vision to recognize their opportunities, for the coming of sound means progress, not merely to the film, but to those who will contribute to it and grow with it.
To what extent the foreign motion picture star will be affected by the addition of dialogue to motion pictures, time alone can say. It is doubtful, however, whether European accents can be adjusted to fit the requirements of the American market except in parts that call for such accent. Foreign artists who have experience in Americanmade motion pictures should be of considerable value to motion pictures produced in their own countries.
Thus far in our inquiry we have been either emphasizing sound as apart from sight, or even dealing with it exclusively. That is right and necessary, for it is the newer element that provides our text. However, if we stop for a moment to think of the whole reality, we see at once that the industry is concerned not with the novel facility alone but with a double appeal, a combination of appeals, to the ear and the eye together. Such an attitude, in its comprehensiveness, might lead one to jump at the conclusion that we are in the midst of a movement to substitute machines for men, i. e., talking moving pictures for stage dramas or other stage entertainments. The conclusion, furthermore, would seem to be supported by evidence, for Interference, among other productions, appears to be a "canned" version of a "real" play, just as a Martinelli record is a "canning" of the maestro's art.
Granting the instance — it can be refuted ! — for the nonce let me ask how far it carries us. In what sense is The Broad' way Melody the mere "canning" of a stage play? Is there no sign, for example, of the influence, the dominance, of the technique of the silent cinema? Consider the number and variety of scenes, for one thing. But beyond and above that there is the simple fact that a sound picture is ma