Of course this matter of title-duplication has a bearing, though a remote one, on titles that are similar yet not identical, as when Artcraft releases “Wolves of the Rail” (with William S. Hart) and Triangle puts out “Wolves of the Border” (with Roy Stewart).  Perhaps there is no valid objection to such similarity, which can be called imitation only when the themes are more or less alike, but it actually seems to have been the policy of many companies to follow the line of least resistance when selecting titles for their pictures, using a title, provided it is good in itself, and appropriate to the picture under consideration, regardless of whether or not it is already familiar to the public as the title of another photoplay, fiction story, or legitimate drama.  Needless to say, this has led to a great deal of confusion—­and, in one or two cases, to law suits.

Bear in mind that the titles of already published fiction and already produced stage plays are not the lawful prey of the photoplaywright merely because he is working in a different literary field.  More than one librarian has told us of the confusion caused by reason of Anna Katharine Green’s title, “The Woman in the Alcove,” having been used later by another popular woman novelist.  Again, such a unique and thoroughly distinctive title as Gouverneur Morris’s “It” has been used for a very different type of short-story by another writer.  Occasionally, we will admit, this happens by the merest chance—­although not when a certain motion picture concern puts out a picture showing life in an American factory town and bearing Kipling’s well-known title “The Light That Failed.”  Your literary conscience must dictate what you should do—­willing as we are to admit that there is, very frequently, a great temptation to use the title already employed by another writer because of its extreme appropriateness to your own story.

It may be said that most photoplay producing companies are led to use unoriginal titles because of the poor and inappropriate titles given the stories sent in to them by the authors themselves.  Your duty, then, is to help to keep the producing company from “going wrong” in this respect by supplying them with the very best and most original title you can devise for every story of yours which you are fortunate enough to sell.

4.  Where to Look for Titles

Good titles are everywhere—­if you know how to find them.  The Bible, Shakespeare, all the poets, books and plays that you read, newspapers, even advertisements on billboards and in street cars, all contain either suggestions for titles or complete titles, waiting only to be picked out and used.  But be sure that someone else has not forestalled you!