Technique of the photoplay (1916)

CHAPTER LV 271 This is the straight drama form in which the idea rather than the action gains the effect. Another story suggests itself, which has already been referred to in Chapter LIII. In this the secretary of a wealthy man is a lip reader. Her employer is killed and suspicion falls upon his son, with whom the secretary is in love. The real murderers come to watch the trial and by reading their lips the secretary is enabled to free her sweetheart and serve the ends of justice. 4. This is slightly more melodramatic than the other, but is not true melodrama. This might be represented ,by this plot: Jack Hardy is a detective who has studied lip reading because his sweetheart is deaf and practices lip reading. She has persuaded him to take up the study, arguing that it will help him in his pro- fession. They are to be married when Jack, who has recently quitted the police force to become a private detective, is able to open his own office. Meanwhile he is an operative for a private agency. Jack is called, in by a bank to explain a constantly growing deficit in the cash reserve. An examination of the books has shown no altera- tion and suspicion can be directed against none of the clerks. Jack, with his knowledge of police matters, searches the slums for men who might know something about the job, for he feels that this is the work of outsiders. For the sake of revenging themselves upon him for work done while on the force, the members of a gang abduct him and carry him off. He is bound to a chair while they consult as to his fate and speculate as to whether or not he suspects the existence of a tunnel through which they can enter the bank vaults in such a manner that the point of their entrance does not show. The entire plot is exposed. The gang departs, determined to kill Jack that night. He makes his way to the window and presently his sweetheart comes in search of him, guessing that he is in trouble^ He enunciates the story of the plot and tells that the men have gone to the bank. They are captured in the vaults while Jack is rescued. There is a large reward, partnership in the agency and a wedding in immediate prospect. This is straight melodrama with all the accessories of abduction, secret panels and the like. It moves more rapidly than the synopsis indicates and is vivid in action. 5. In comedy drama the tendency would be to elaborate on the lip reading and the mistakes made by those not aware of the uncanny faculty. A plot might run something like this: Aunt Louisa is rich and she is also a pest in general, and her al- most total deafness does not make her any more welcome when she makes the rounds of her relatives on her semi-annual visits. Among those she visits are the Buddens. a family consisting of the father, mother and three daughters. Two of the girls are proud and greedy. The third. Maude, is the direct opposite. Aunt Louisa in the course of time makes her appearance with her huge tin ear trumpet. She is flattered by the parents and elder sisters^ who find some relief for their exasperation by calling her names and then shouting flatteries into the trumpet when she asks them to repeat the remark. Maude alone serves her ungrudgingly and reproves the others for their cruel remarks. In the end Aunt Louisa explains that since her last visit she has studied lip reading and is making the rounds \yith the trum- pet again for no other purpose than that of unmasking the treat-