So, we can lead the world, if we will. But unfortunately, those two pictures are exceptions. One can name a few more, like “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” “Humoresque,” and “Over the Hill,” that are good enough to hold their own with the best producers elsewhere; but that is about all. The run of our American-made pictures are not good enough, to-day, to deserve world supremacy. That is something to think about. The German pictures, as well as those of some of the other foreign countries, have certain qualities, resulting from an unwillingness to compromise with ideals, that allow them, as a class, to outrank ours. For instance, while the Germans desire beauty, just as we do, and would like to have their heroine as beautiful as ours, they also desire a real ability to act. If they can not have both, they will let the beauty go, and take the real acting. We will not; we let the ability go, and stick to the pretty flappers. Accordingly, in American pictures, our leading actors and actresses are almost always good-looking—and frequently poor at acting. It is the same about truth, or the sense of reality. We sacrifice convincingness—fidelity to life—truth—to our desire for youth and beauty. If we could have both, well and good; but it is impossible. Accordingly, on the American screen, we see, again and again, our beautiful little flapper friends playing parts that should be taken by older women—not so young and pretty, perhaps, but true to life, instead of childish caricatures of truth. Even with Griffith’s “Orphans of the Storm,” we see still another sacrifice of an ideal—one might almost say principle. That is the giving up of historical value, and big things, for excitement, and little things. The French Revolution is a tremendous story in itself; in the foreign made films it is made the backbone of the whole story; in Griffith’s film, it is merely a background, while the “main” story is centered about one or two appealing characters, that mean, except for momentary entertainment, little or nothing. It is a question of Lillian and Dorothy Gish being more important, on this side of the Atlantic, than the French Revolution; but on the other side, when the French Revolution is filmed, it is more important than the great actress who plays in the picture—Pola Negri. Also, in the mad “run to the rescue” in “Orphans of the Storm,” the main dramatic value of the story is sacrificed in order to have the mechanically produced excitement of horses galloping across Paris in time to save the beautiful Lillian from the guillotine. And who leads the headlong, melodramatic dash across the city? Why, Danton himself, leader of the Revolution! That’s putting it on pretty thick!