That marvel - the movie : a glance at its reckless past, its promising present, and its significant future (1923)

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80 THAT MARVEL— THE MOVIE was a striking revelation of the valuable service that an expert scenario-writer may render, now and then, to the professional writer of novels. For the many outrages that fictionists have received at the hands of the film-makers some atonement is offered at times, and "The Four Horsemen" as a photoplay proves that the pot may sometimes be unjust in calling the kettle black. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. The screen may commit — yes, frequently has committed — mayhem, assault and battery and actual murder upon the revered form of some great masterpiece of narrative literature; but you who are well-read, you who love the "old melodious lays that softly melt the ages through," and the tales told by the great romancers, pause before you recklessly indict a new art, groping its way toward a full realization of its possibilities and powers. By turning your haughty back upon a photoplay made from some famous novel, you may conceivably lose an opportunity for drinking again from that Fountain of Eternal Youth which you, more fortunate than Ponce de Leon, discovered one day in a library when you were still a boy.