No matter what the opportunity to produce what seems to you to be a strong or interesting story, never offend against good taste.  “Plays that antagonize the finer element in an audience,” says Mr. Louis Reeves Harrison, “had better never be shown at all.  There is nothing funny in what is cruel, though vulgar brutality in a play may get a laugh from a few who have not yet emerged from primitive egoism.”

That last sentence should constantly be borne in mind.

A certain film, “Adrift,” released back in 1912, showed an incident that in real life would have been impossible.  The rejected suitor of a woman who is afterwards seen on the downward path seeks to relieve his lonely existence by the adoption of a child.  Because a certain little girl in an orphan asylum bears a striking resemblance to the woman he has loved and lost, he decides to adopt her.  And he does; they are seen leaving together, the child being turned over to its new guardian in the most off-hand way imaginable.  Of course, later, the child, having grown to womanhood, falls in love with and marries her guardian; but in real life how little chance there would be of a foundling institution’s giving one of its girl charges over to a young bachelor in this informal manner, if, indeed, he were allowed to adopt her at all.  Of course, it is not always possible to say whether the script for such a picture was the work of an outside writer or whether it was written by the director himself.  But it sometimes happens that a picture is produced because it was written by the director himself, whereas the same story, sent to the editor by an outside writer, would be returned with a warning to avoid similar scenes or situations in the future.

The difference between the photoplay and prose fiction, or even the regular drama, is illustrated by the so-called problem plays and novels.  These are acceptable mainly because their themes can be explained from every point of view, and treated in a manner that renders them less objectionable, when skillful dialogue and discussion are used in telling the story, than if they were to be acted in pantomime.  Besides, to give the same story in motion pictures would necessitate the use of more leaders and other inserts than would be practicable, even in a feature picture, unless the director were to risk offending the public, if not the Censorship Board, by putting on scenes that, insufficiently explained, would be far too risque for the photoplay stage.  Furthermore, when there are so many good, pleasant, and interesting themes to choose from, why elaborate what is unpleasant or morally objectionable?

6.  Themes Unsuitable to the Producing Company