se--fortunately, they have not been
many--which revealed and held up to the public the secret and dark
sides in the lives of famous men and women of history. "There are some
things that are sacred," says a writer in _The Moving Picture World_,
"even from the hand of the most circumspect of picture makers." It is
a source of regret that even a shadow of reproach should be cast upon
distinguished men, particularly when the question of blame is
debatable, as when, for instance, a picture portraying the love affair
between Sir John Millais, the artist, and Ruskin's wife, was actually
produced by a well-known company.

No matter what the opportunity to produce what seems to you to be a
strong or interesting story, never offend against good taste. "Plays
that antagonize the finer element in an audience," says Mr. Louis
Reeves Harrison, "had better never be shown at all. There is nothing
funny in what is cruel, though vulgar brutality in a play may get a
laugh from a few who have not yet emerged from primitive egoism."

That last sentence should constantly be borne in mind.

A certain film, "Adrift," released back in 1912, showed an incident
that in real life would have been impossible. The rejected suitor of a
woman who is afterwards seen on the downward path seeks to relieve his
lonely existence by the adoption of a child. Because a certain little
girl in an orphan asylum bears a striking resemblance to the woman he
has loved and lost, he decides to adopt her. And he does; they are
seen leaving together, the child being turned over to its new guardian
in the most off-hand way imaginable. Of course, later, the child,
having grown to womanhood, falls in love with and marries her
guardian; but in real life how little chance there would be of a
foundling institution's giving one of its girl charges over to a young
bachelor in this informal manner, if, indeed, he were allowed to adopt
her at all. Of course, it is not always possible to say whether the
script for such a picture was the work of an outside writer or whether
it was written by the director himself. But it sometimes happens that
a picture _is_ produced _because_ it was written by the director
himself, whereas the same story, sent to the editor by an outside
writer, would be returned with a warning to avoid similar scenes or
situations in the future.

The difference between the photoplay and prose fiction, or even the
regular drama, is illustrated by the so-called p