It is a matter for real regret to have to be compelled to state that, in spite of the many artistic advances made in motion-picture production during the past six or seven years, this most important point was deliberately overlooked when the Pathe Company made its very fine feature-production of “The Bells” in the Fall of 1918.  We say “deliberately overlooked” because the writer who prepared the scenario for this modern five-reel version had the same opportunity as had the scenarioist who made the other adaptation, years ago, to read the original stage-play and to introduce this most compelling motive for Mathias’s crime.  If anything, the fault is more glaring in the Pathe production than in the older picture, for the wife is shown as a woman in apparently perfect health, although naturally worried by the fact that her husband’s inability to raise the required amount of money may result in their losing both their home and their means of livelihood.  All the fine acting of Mr. Frank Keenan as Mathias, and all the wonderful scenic and lighting effects, were not sufficient to make us lose sight of the fact that the ones responsible for the picture’s production had not given proper thought to the necessity for showing that the innkeeper had an unusually compelling motive for taking the life of and then robbing his guest.  And, make no mistake, no matter how fine the production may be in other respects, this sort of thing is not overlooked by the intelligent, right-minded spectator of the photoplay.

9.  The Theme and the Market

With regard to what are known as “costume plays”—­and what we say is intended to apply to original stories, since it is never wise to attempt an adaptation of a popular book or play, even though you are armed with the right to do so, unless you have previously taken the matter up with some producing company—­there is, perhaps, as was pointed out in Chapter XV, twice as much chance to sell such stories as there was a few years ago, since today every company is doing things in a much bigger way than in former years.  But this must not be construed as meaning that the different companies are simply looking about for new ways to spend money.  On the contrary, economy—­sensible economy—­is becoming more and more the keynote of film production.  In every department, unnecessary expense is done away with.  This applies to both the purchasing and the producing of photoplays.  Better prices are being paid, yes; but stories calling for what appears to be unnecessarily expensive settings or costuming are usually rejected.  That is why you may rest assured that no costume plays will sell unless they have a strong and unusual story back of them.  Again, by “costume” plays we mean stories ranging all the way from Bible times down to American Civil War times.  What is regarded by the editor as a costume play, also, may not be wholly that; it may be a story in which only a few of the scenes are laid in a past age, as when, in the Paramount production of “The Devil Stone,” the heroine, in a series of “visions,” sees herself as the wicked Norse queen of centuries before, and learns how the fatal emerald first came into her possession.