But be sure that someone else has not forestalled
you!
Sayings, proverbs, and well-known quotations are a fruitful source of
titles, as we have already intimated. But sometimes the real
significance and value of such a title are not apparent to a great
many of the spectators until they have witnessed the climax of the
picture. This arises from their ignorance of literature and is, of
course, their loss. Many good and extremely appropriate titles of this
character are taken from the Psalms, from Shakespeare, and other
poets. Frequently these quotations, used as titles, are so well known,
and their meanings so apparent, that almost every one of the
spectators will at once understand them, and catch at least the theme
or general drift of the story from the title. Sometimes, again, the
real significance of a title is best brought out by repeating it, or
even the complete quotation from which it is taken, in the form of a
leader at the point in the action where its significance cannot fail
to be impressed upon the spectators. For example, a certain Selig
release was entitled "Through Another Man's Eyes." Before the next to
the last scene, which showed the ne'er-do-well lover peering in at the
window, while his former friend bends over to kiss his wife--who might
have been the wife of the wayward young man, had he been made of
different stuff--the leader was introduced:
"How bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through
another man's eyes!"
--SHAKESPEARE, _As You Like It_.
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