Good deeds are just as dramatic as wicked deeds, and clean comedy is
far and away more humorous than coarseness. Keep away from scenes of
brutality, degeneracy, idiocy or anything which may bring a poignant
pang of sorrow to some one of the millions of people who will see your
story in the pictures, unless the pang will be one of remorse for a
bad deed done or a good deed left undone. In a word, help the
film-makers produce films which will help those who see them, and make
the whole world a little better for your work."
CHAPTER XVIII
THE TREATMENT OF COMEDY
Let it be remembered that the lines of division between the several
sorts of comedy are not sharply defined, for one often overlaps the
other; nor is a rigid adherence to type insisted upon by either
playwright or public--for example, on the regular stage we have
farce-comedy, and other hybrids.
_1. Types of Humorous Plays Distinguished_
_Comedy_, strictly, is a lighter, more refined, type of humor than
farce. It deals with those amusing situations which do, or may, happen
every day, without the introduction of the extravagant and the
unnatural. True comedy is distinctly probable. Its humor is the humor
of reality, however laughable it may be. It may press humor to an
extreme, but that extreme must never strain our credulity.
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