At a certain point in the action of the drama, just where the
intervention of someone from outside would have been most opportune,
the audience expected that the "jeweler" would make his reappearance;
but of course he did not, the play ended as the author had intended it
to end--and the audience went out feeling that something had gone
wrong somewhere--as it had.
The lesson to the photoplaywright is plain: Never introduce into the
early scenes of the scenario any incident that is likely to mislead
the spectator into thinking that it is of sufficient importance to
affect the ultimate denouement, when it really has no bearing upon it.
Reverse this, and you have another good rule to follow in writing the
scenario. As one critic said in substance, if you intend to have one
of your characters die of heart disease toward the end of the play,
prepare your audience for this event by "registering" in an earlier
scene the fact that his heart is affected. Do not drag in a scene to
make this fact clear, but, in two or three different scenes, have him
show that his heart is weak, and be sure that every one of these
scenes serves the double purpose of registering this fact and
introducing other important action relevant to the plot. In other
words, make the slight attacks which the man experiences all through
the story merely incidental to the scenes in which they occur.
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