scenes may be taken a month later "on location" hundreds of miles away. This may be a fine system of efficiency for the manufacturer, but it often plays havoc with pictorial continuity. When an actress goes directly from scene 98 to 133, for example, she may be able to remember whether the latter scene is supposed to find her still single or already divorced, but she cannot be allowed to determine her own positions, pauses, tempo and general nature of movement, because that might spoil the transition from scene 132, which is not to be "shot" until several days later!
The farther we go into the study of the relation between the player and the rest of the motion picture, the more we realize that this relation can best be established and controlled by the director, and that the player is, in a sense, only a pigment with which the director paints.
"But what of the movie fans?" you ask. "Are they not more interested in the performer as a performer than in the play as a play, or in the picture as a picture?" Yes, the audience is undoubtedly "crazy about the star," but that is largely because they have not been given anything else to be crazy about. It is true that we all admire the distinction of individual performers in any kind of entertainment; yet we would not approve of a football game, for example, in which the "star" half-back made so many brilliant plays that the rest of the eleven could not prevent the opposing team from piling up a winning score, or of a baseball game which was lost because the batter with a world's record refused to make a "sacrifice hit." And, besides, a distinguished actor or actress may remain distinguished even after having submitted to the direct-
