If such is the case, abandon the theme. The
comparatively few inserts permitted cannot be relied upon to give much
aid--the chief reliance _must_ be pantomime.
For this reason it is inadvisable to write detective stories, unless
you have a plot that can be easily and convincingly told in action.
The average fictional story of this class depends more upon dialogue
and the author's explanation of the sleuth's methods of deduction than
upon rapid and gripping action. In a fictional detective story, the
crime usually has happened before the story opens. In a film story,
this would be impracticable, unless a long explanatory insert were
introduced either before or after the first scene or two. But long
inserts are not wanted, even in multiple-reel stories. Since events in
a photoplay must appear in chronological order, you cannot depict
murder without showing the murderer in the act, and that will soon
bring you counter to the censors.
Aside from the consideration of the censorship is this point: in a
fictional detective story the real murderer is not revealed, in most
cases, until the last chapter. In the photoplay, on the other hand, it
would be necessary to show the spectator almost at the first who the
real murderer is--the other characters in the picture, and not the
spectators, being the ones in doubt as the story progressed.
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