John Drew and
Mr. Cyril Maude. They may treat of society, of business life, or of
life in the home, but on account of the light, airy, and subtly
humorous way in which the situations are developed they take far
higher artistic rank than may be accorded to farce. There is also a
good demand for comedy-dramas in which there is a strict regard for
dramatic values in handling the different scenes, and in following out
the plot, which has its serious elements, but in which the
comedy-element remains comedy from first to last.
The domestic comedies produced by Metro, featuring Mr. and Mrs. Sidney
Drew, of which we have already spoken, are so well known, and these
artists are so universally popular, that a word or two from Mr. Drew
on the subject of screen comedy should be interesting and instructive:
"Comedy is and always will be an amusing story humorously told," says
Mr. Drew. "If it _is_ a good story, well told, then it is a comedy,
but if it has no story or cannot be told humorously, then no amount of
bolstering will ever make it into a comedy. You may add a lot of
knockabout and perhaps get an acceptable farce, or you can write in
sensation and get travesty, but you cannot by these means change the
unfit into comedy, and the broad use of 'comedy' to apply to anything
intended to be diverting is a misuse of an ancient and honorable
word.
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