Talking pictures : how they are made and how to appreciate them (1937)

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Talking Pictures This fluidity was reduced when the theatres of Shakespeare's time were replaced by modern buildings with set footlights, curtains, drops, all the familiar impedimenta of the current stage. And David Garrick, Sir Henry Irving, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Edwin Booth, Sothern, Marlowe, Lawrence Barrett, and Katharine Cornell have found it necessary to alter Shakespeare's original text to fit the physical limitations of the stage of their times. Critics of the motion picture, whose study of the medium has been insufficient, frequently confuse their readers. They dwell at length on a change in dialogue, often not important to the meaning, and miss the significance of a plot change necessary for the film medium. Frequently, critics do grave injustice to a fine piece of transitional writing when they say, "It is very like the play," overlooking subtle changes which had a large part in the creation of a successful photoplay version. Too many appropriate changes are not given the recognition they deserve. With this in mind a third generalization is submitted. No story reaches the screen without changes. Even if the dialogue remains the same and the essential dramatic sequences are unchanged, there still remain important physical changes which mark a definite dividing line between the appeal of the story in pictures and in its original form. Of this, Grand Hotel and Romeo and Juliet are good examples. Not many changes from the stage form were required for Grand Hotel It is one of the few modern plays that was almost perfect screen material. It is an [66]