The Story World and Photodramatist (Jul-Oct 1923)

In The Foreground <Brief Editorial Chats on Timely Topics Concerning "The Cheat" THE recent decision of the Famous Players-Lasky studios to re-film "The Cheat," with Pola Negri in the star role, should furnish an object lesson to a number of producers who still cling to the idea that big "feature pictures" must be based upon novels or stage plays, and that the original screen drama lacks the box-office value of the adaptation. Possibly the Lasky decision was influenced by their experience with "Bella Donna," Miss Negri's first American starring vehicle. As a novel "Bella Donna" was undoubtedly successful; but as a film it failed to live up to expectations. In fact, we venture to state that the box-office returns were far below those of a number of other Lasky productions — and that with the very best exploitation angles that a picture could have. In other words, a film must first of all be based upon a story that may be told in screen language. "Bella Donna," although beautifully done from a technical standpoint, was not that kind of a story. "The Cheat" is. It was written as a scenario by Hector Turnbull some years ago. When first produced, Sessue Hayakawa and Fanny Ward played the leading roles. Without any especial exploitation, and certainly with far less money spent upon it than will be expended on the present filming, it immediately became the sensation of the day. It made Sessue Hayakawa famous overnight, and it brought Hector Turnbull into the limelight as one of the most capable scenarists that the motion picture profession had known up to that time. Since then, it has been adapted into printed form, and the plot was also the basis of a grand opera. The novel and the opera have not been any too successful — probably because any adaptations, however well done, can never equal the success of a story in the medium for which it was originally written. But the fact that an original film story has been accorded such recognition is indeed significant. As pointed out in the July issue of The Story World, the original screen story is gaining more and more in favor in the eyes of the big producers. This does not mean that adaptations will be banned entirely. Occasionally a novel — "The Covered Wagon," for instance — contains all the elements of a good photodrama. But, as Adolph Zukor stated before the delegates to the First International Congress on Motion Picture Art, held in New York recently, any story to be successful as a picture, must be told in screenable language, must be written and plotted so as to stand the acid test of the camera, and the author thereof must know the principles of the silent drama. We advise you to see "The Cheat" when it is released. We especially advise you to do this if you have already seen Pola Negri in the role of "Bella Donna." If you have seen the latter, compare the two pictures carefully, analyze their respective dramatic merits. The superiority of the story written directly for screen production will, we are sure, be obvious. Don't Be Ashamed RECENTLY we received a letter from , a woman living in a small Middle Western town. She made the unusual request that we mail The Story World to her each month in a special wrapper that would preclude the postmaster's assistants or her own friends from learning that she was interested in creative writing.