The most surprising thing, when one looks back and considers the single-reel stories of a few years ago, is that a complete, logically told story could ever have been produced in one thousand feet of film, part of which was consumed by sub-titles and inserts.  Of course, the sub-titles and inserts helped to tell the story in those days, just as they do now, but even so, the comparatively small amount of footage allowed to each picture seems even less than it actually was in the light of the five- to eight-thousand feet and more to which we expect feature pictures to run today.

The fact remains, however, that for several years one-reel pictures were the rule; and a still more important fact, considered from the standpoint of the writer, is that many—­a great many—­of the stories that were then confined to one thousand feet of film were far better stories, if not quite so pleasing as pictures, than many that are now being put out in lengths of five-thousand feet or more and labeled as features.

The reason is clear; there simply could not be a clearer or more undeniable reason:  When a story had to be told in one thousand feet—­perhaps a few feet less than that, but never a foot more—­it had to be all story, all meat.  “Padding” was a thing quite unknown in 1909.  The wonder was that so much story could be crowded into so few feet of film.  Good as was the Famous Players five-reel production of Dumas’ “Monte Cristo”—­judged by the standards of the year in which it was released—­a great many people who saw it were struck by the fact that this feature production had very little more actual story in it than had the carefully condensed one-reel version of the same novel-play that was put out by the Selig Company in 1908.  What it did have was more detail, and a great deal more opportunity for pictorial effects.  The one-reel Selig release gave every essential detail of the romance, with the necessary explanatory inserts in the way of leaders, letters, etc.  The Famous Players feature production gave the essential details plus innumerable details that were by no means essential—­although very effective as helps to a better understanding of the locale, the period in history, and the author’s characterization.

The Famous Players “Monte Cristo,” however, was not, at any point, “padded.”  It might have been two reels longer—­and probably would have been three reels longer had it been produced a little later—­without giving too much of the wealth of picture-material contained in the complete story of Edmond Dantes.  We mention these two pictures solely for the purpose of drawing a comparison between the kind of stories put out in 1908 and those that were beginning to appear about six years later.  But “padding”—­the filling up of the picture with non-essential and often very extraneous details or pictorial effects—­has steadily increased with the yearly increase of the so-called “features,” and has unquestionably