Sometimes, when you have seen a movie that did not please you, you may have found it difficult to decide just where it fell short of the mark. You have a feeling that something is missing but you do not know exactly what it is. In such a case there is a good chance that the difficulty rested in the story. It was not constructed in a way to hold interest. Let us consider at this time a few of the things that one should look for in a well-told tale.

Climax

One of the most important features of a good story is the climax. You have no doubt listened to music on the radio that was arranged and played in such a way that the most exciting moment came near the end of the piece. There may have been several smaller climaxes, but the main one was quite noticeable and represented the point of highest excitement. If you will think a little further, you will remember that the music led up to the climax by slowly getting louder and perhaps faster. This is exactly what happens in a good story. As the plot unfolds, it becomes more and more interesting because you suspect that something important is going to happen. Finally it does happen and your interest is greatest at that point. In a well-written play, all of the action works up toward this climax and the story comes to a logical ending soon thereafter. It would be most boring to watch a play in which the climax came first and your interest became less and less from that time on.

Sometimes the writer of a story does not develop his plot well and the climax is weak. After seeing such a picture you are apt to ask yourself, What was the point of that play? It has failed to arouse your interest and hence has not made you think or feel any differendy from the way you felt before you saw the play.

Characters

Another important part of a good story is the character drawing. Stories are usually about people (sometimes animals), and it is the job of the author to tell you what kind of people the story describes, by showing you how they act when they meet different problems. If the characters all seem alike to you, talking and acting in the same way, then they are "weak55 characters. They do not stand out in your mind.

In a play that is written well you become interested in the characters because they seem true to life. They are the kind of people you would like to know more about. Furthermore, if they are well drawn, they act in the same pattern all during the play. A character who starts out to be a country bumpkin should not end up in the last part of the play as a city slicker unless there is some good reason for the change.

Of course, the characters and the plot are closely related. No matter how good one is, the effect may not be pleasing unless supported by the other. In a good story the characters are faced with important decisions. They meet real difficulties. A play in which everything goes well for the characters is not interesting.

Action! When a movie is being taken the director very often gets the whole scene ready, rehearses with the characters until he is satisfied then tells the cameramen to get ready to "take." He then makes certain that everything is in readiness and says, "Ready! Action! Camera!" and the scene is photographed.

That word action is very important to the good story. We would be terribly bored if the characters sat around and did nothing for an hour and a half. In a good story action moves forward smoothly. You arc carried from one interesting adventure to another without much delay. The story unfolds easily and does not stop to wait for anyone. You will notice, in the movies especially, that there are many ways of moving the action forward quickly by showing short shots of important scenes. In showing a trip by airplane, for example, the director does not show it all in detail; that would take too much time. Instead, he shows the most important parts of the trip and you fill in the rest with your imagination. Scenes of buying the tickets, boarding the plane, the propeller's roaring, the plane swooping skyward, and then a shot inside the plane are enough to tell a complete trip by air.

The next time you see a dull movie just take stock and see if the action is fast. If it is not, then the chances are that this is one reason why you may be yawning instead of watching the screen.

Comedy

We all enjoy a good laugh. This fact is one of the reasons why we go to the movies. Hearty laughter is healthy and stimulating to old and young alike. When we go to the movies and expect to laugh and then do not, we are usually disappointed. The art of humor has been developed to a very fine point in American movies, and yet many of them do not furnish the kinds of humorous scenes they should.

Good comedy should fit well into the story. To drag in a lot of supposedly funny sayings to create comedy is not good. It is much better to have the laughs come from actions or words that fit logically into the story that is being shown. If the story is well written and the characters are true to life, many amusing things can happen without taking the actors out of character. Many years ago the comedies that were shown in the theaters were commonplace and consisted of pie throwing and silly things like that. Fortunately, today, we have progressed beyond that stage. The reason for this change is that the public, who paid to see the movies, became tired of such trash, and stayed away every time such a picture was scheduled at their local theater. It did not take the producers long to realize that this type of comedy was unpopular with their customers, and they changed their brand of humor.

In the old days of Mack Scnnett comedies policemen were always good for a laugh.

The Solution

Here's another typical American scene. Two boys were standing in front of a theater looking at the pictures on display and talking about the movie they had just seen.

"Aw shucks!" one of them burst forth. "I don't think the hero could have licked all those crooks alone. That was a goofy show."

In too many cases the ending of a good show is so weak that it leaves you with a bad impression of the whole thing. It is all right to have the hero a strong, intelligent man, but his prowess should be within reason. Your own intelligence is underestimated by the director who thinks you will believe that one man, no matter how good, can beat up twenty others his size at one time. And in the effort to give happy endings to the most complicated plots, the solution is sometimes too simple for all that is involved.

We do not expect all movies to end according to life. It is good to have happy endings most of the time, but we should keep in mind that life is real. The movies should do their part in showing life correctly except when it is a fairy tale they are depicting.

Social Good

There is one more thing we should look for in a good movie if this modern invention is to make its greatest contribution to our lives. Down through the ages there have grown up certain ways of doing things and certain ways of thinking that have proved to be worth while. Such a thing as honesty is a good example. Long years of experience have shown the human race that it is much easier to live with each other in peace, if we can each depend upon what the other says. If it were not possible to believe what the other fellow says and writes, modern life with its money system and trade policies would be impossible. In fact, our whole civilization is built upon mutual trust and faith in one another.

It seems only reasonable to expect the movies to do their share in promoting these human values, which we know are worth while. Since the moving picture with sound effects is such a marvelous way to teach, it becomes doubly important that it be so arranged as to teach those things that will mean a happier and more wholesome life for everyone. Glorifying the gangster, praising the gaining of wealth through unfair means, and many other things could well be left out of the modern motion picture. There are too many worth-while things to be shown to waste the time and money that is involved in producing a movie to promote ways of acting that we know are definitely wrong for society as a whole.

This does not mean that all movies should be sermons. Life should be presented accurately and in a constructive and beautiful way. It does not detract from the interest of a movie to show what will happen in real life to an individual if he acts in a certain way. A true portrayal may have great effect upon the behavior of young people.

Some Interesting Things To Do

1. Read some of the books listed at the end of Chapter 26 and report to the class on the activities of a movie studio.

2. Test your movie vocabulary. What is meant by these terms?

3. When you see a finished movie, what workers have contributed?

4. Who is the most important worker in the whole production of a movie? Why? Discuss this with the class.

5. Odd Jobs in Hollywood would make a fine title for a story. Include icicle makers, spider-web makers, lion farmers. Find any information or pictures that you can for this story. Write it up for your local paper.

6. Plan a "What! No Mickey Mouse?" program in which reports on animated cartoons are given. Stress the reasons for their wide appeal. Name stories you would like to see told in an animated

8. A photoplay must have unity, coherence, and proportion. What pictures have you seen recently that illustrated the use or lack of these qualities?

9. When a picture is made from a long story, how are the standards mentioned in Question 8 kept in so short a space? How does photography, editing, and direction help attain these standards?

10. We can help producers, too, by writing about obvious historical distortions, grave errors, or the like noted in the film. Producers appreciate knowing the truth, and if your letter is written with "light" (not heat) it will be valuable to them.

11. List new ideas you glean from movies.

Name Purpose of Play Taught You What?

(Educational or Recreational)

12. Make a list of pictures you have seen that have high social value film. Debate the appeal of the short-type cartoon, like "Donald Duck" and "Pop-eye," versus a full-length color film, like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

7. Name some books or stories you have read that would make good movies. Why? Tell the class briefly.

American history is often vividly and interestingly portrayed on the screen. In this picture Fulton's steamboat floats again for those who go to the movies.