ch firms as do accept outside
scripts of this kind are prepared to "go the limit" in the matter of
expense in order to make their pictures superlatively funny and
unusual in the matter of staging. The Pathe comedy, "Cleopatsy,"
featuring the famous clown Toto, was a striking example of how a
slap-stick comedy today is unhesitatingly given as elaborate and
sumptuous a scenic investiture as was accorded a few years ago to
screen-versions of Shakespearean or other "classic" plays. The laughs
in this Pathe production were produced, principally, by the
introduction of business and situations that simply could not have
happened in the time of Cleopatra, Antony and Caesar. Thus we saw
traffic policemen with their Stop and Go signals in the middle of the
Sahara; telephones, check books, motorcycles and automobiles in use,
and so on. In addition, the leaders were filled with modern business
and other slang; and the spectacle of a huge negro wrapping Cleopatsy
in a modern Axminster rug and carrying her in to show her to Antony
(instead of, as according to history, Caesar) kept the spectators in a
roar of laughter. For an originally-worked-out idea such as this there
is nearly always a ready market.

Finally, remember that comedy-action should run as smoothly as a
well-oiled machine. Start with a good, fresh, funny idea and then
make each scene run smoothly and logically into the next. There are
certain series of comic pictures in the comic section of the
newspapers which might well serve as your models for progressive and
logical action. Mr. Bud Fisher's well-known "Mutt and Jeff" and Mr.
George McManus's "Bringing Up Father" series are excellent examples.
Particularly in the McManus pictures do we get funny, logical, and,
above all, generally natural--in the sense of its being
probable--comedy action. Take as an example the one which is
sub-titled "It's a pity the valet left--he would have been such a nice
playmate for Father." "Father," as we know, is the very much
hen-pecked husband of a socially impossible woman who holds her place
among the "400" only by reason of her husband's wealth. It is Father's
constant ambition and determination to spend as much of his time as
possible amongst his old "roughneck" working-man pals, instead of in
attending his wife's receptions and other society functions. A
sociable companion of his own class is what he constantly seeks. In
this picture there are, as is usual in the Sunday supplements