Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Fiction; Motion picture industry -- Fiction
The erring brother returned, accompanied by several customers. “Bring a
detective to arrest this man,” ordered the father. One of the customers
stepped out to return with a detective. Again Merton was slightly
disquieted at perceiving that the detective was the cross-eyed man.
This person bustled about the place, tapping the cooked meats and the
cheeses, and at last placed his hand upon the shoulder of the supposed
thief. Merton, at Baird’s direction, drew back and threatened him with
a blow. The detective cringed and said: “I will go out and call a
policeman.”
The others now turned their backs upon the guilty man. Even the girl
drew away after one long, agonized look at the lover to whose embrace
she had so lately submitted. He raised his arms to her in mute appeal as
she moved away, then dropped them at his side.
“Give her all you got in a look,” directed Baird. “You’re saying: ‘I go
to a felon’s cell, but I do it all for you.’ Dream your eyes at her.”
Merton Gill obeyed.
The action progressed. In this wait for the policeman the old mother
crept forward. She explained to Merton that the money was in the ice-box
where the real thief had placed it, and since he had taken the crime of
another upon his shoulders he should also take the evidence, lest the
unfortunate young man be later convicted by that; she also urged him
to fly by the rear door while there was yet time. He did these things,
pausing for a last embrace of the weeping old lady, even as the hand of
the arriving policeman was upon the door.
“All for to-day, except some close-ups,” announced Baird when this scene
had been shot. There was a breaking up of the group, a relaxation of
that dramatic tension which the heart-values of the piece had imposed.
Only once, while Merton was doing some of his best acting, had there
been a kind of wheezy tittering from certain members of the cast and the
group about the cameras.
Baird had quickly suppressed this. “If there’s any kidding in this piece
it’s all in my part,” he announced in cold, clear tones, and there had
been no further signs of levity. Merton was pleased by this manner of
Baird’s. It showed that he was finely in earnest in the effort for the
worth-while things. And Baird now congratulated him, seconded by the
Montague girl. He had, they told him, been all that could be expected.
“I wasn’t sure of myself,” he told them, “in one scene, and I wanted
to ask you about it, Mr. Baird. It’s where I take that money from the
ice-box and go out with it. I couldn’t make myself feel right. Wouldn’t
it look to other people as if I was actually stealing it myself? Why
couldn’t I put it back in the safe?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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