so (Mary) tells the stranger that her father is over in the
     next field, milking the cow.  He starts to, etc.

Now, whether or not the spectator in the theatre were shown a previous scene in which Father actually milked a cow, the pantomime of Mary, in trying to make plain without the aid of a cut-in leader the fact that she was telling the man what her father was doing, would be extremely ludicrous, to say the least.  You must give thought to every bit of action you write, remembering that it is of no use to say that so-and-so happens if the action described will not register clearly in pantomime.  Here again experience will teach you what to put in and what to leave out.

9.  The “Cut-Back"

Readers of the boys’ story papers published a few years ago will remember how at the end of one chapter the hero would be left hanging by a slender vine over a yawning chasm, “one thousand feet deep.”  The next chapter, instead of continuing the logical sequence of action and explaining how he was rescued—­or rescued himself—­would begin:  “Let us now return to Captain Barlow and Professor Whipple, whom we left facing the band of dwarfs at the mouth of the cave, etc.”  These stories exemplified practically the same technique as is employed today by photoplaywrights who use what has become known as the “cut-back,” sometimes referred to as the “flash-back.”

Mr. D.W.  Griffith is commonly credited with having “invented” this technical device, which is simply a frequent switching from one scene to another, and then back again to the first, in order to heighten interest by maintaining the suspense.  Its use has been well illustrated by Mr. C.B.  Hoadley, who cites a play in which the contrasting pictures of “a gambler seated at cards with convivial companions, and his wife at home in a scantily furnished room keeping vigil at the bedside of their sick child,” are flashed back and forth in such a manner as to keep the contrast before the spectators while yet developing the drama effectively.

Another good example of the use of the cut-back was shown in an old Biograph subject, “Three Friends.”  One of three friends who have sworn never to separate falls in love with a young woman of the village and marries her.  A second of the trio is enraged to think that his friend has broken up the triangle; the third, of better nature, is merely very much disappointed.  As a result of breaking up the trio, the two bachelors leave the factory to go to another town.  A baby is born to the young married couple, and they are very happy for a time.  Then the second friend, Jim, comes back to his old shop to take the position of foreman.  As the result of a quarrel between him and the young husband, the latter is discharged.  From that time on things go badly with the young couple, and soon bad is followed by worse.  When they are on the verge of starvation, and the husband has returned home after a fruitless search for work, the wife goes