Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-04-10

@NE of the many surprising
\ achievements of motion pic
" lures is the apparent upsettng
of previously accepted Judgne:nIS
respecting master works OF hctloll'
Novels and romances which had re-
NAMED secure in their proud hrst-
rank position with several genera
t;ons of readers, have been unable
70 withstand the pitiless analysis OF
screen picturization; others OF repu--
t2tion much inferior have revealed
new and unsupported values with
their characters and their acton
thus visualized.
In the first instance the authors
method suggests much more thaA II
actually, depicts, and herein hes MS
triumph through the medium OF PRINT
for his delighted readers own mag
nation enables them unconsclously to
conpIete the mental picture, each IN
his own way and therefore to pcrfcc-
ton. In the second instance the au-
thor enters into no such cOllabora-
.icn with his readers. What he be-
Gins he finishes, in characters, scenes
and action, as he goes along. me
reader sees them as he docs-'lhd
so do the screen actors and the mo-
ton picture camera.
The situation is the same with re-
spect to the great heroes OF 70
nance. AS a general thing. the
no%ier they are, the more hl5aly
endowed with moral qualities and
the 2a...t OF sclf-sacrlhce, the !eSS
capao.1 they are of being Adequately
represented on the stage or the PIC
ture screen. Outside OF the printed
page the legendary heroes arc mere
shadows. King Arthur, Gal2Aad,
Percivale. Bayard-thesc are beyond
the powers of the best actors; they
fail to impress when visualizcd-e>,,
cept possibly "ParsifaP as glorlhcd
bv the musical aura supplied by
Richard Wagner. The Ivanlloe OF
Walter Scott is in the same category
although the latter is somewhat
mcllowed by familiar human cAarac-
teristics.
Romances that enjoy the greatest
popularity seldom present heroes OF
: exceptional nobility of character.
Such qualities, either in real lie or
in fiction, iarearegarded, as ,eXpTess.ng
ideals rather than actualitles; heroes
OF that type are more apt TO be
reyerenced by the few than aP-
plauded by the many; they lack dl-
rect human appeal. Ben Hur, in the
romance bearing that title, IS IN m
stance of superhero who also IS
engagingly human and therefore
popular" Yet it IS probably the
vivid and irresistible dramatic &C
ton of a story with fascinating
historical background that is mainly
responsible for the remarkable sue
cess of Ben Hur."
5. Lord Rochester in ~Jane Eyre" =
an epoch-making romance from tli'
literary viewpoint-has very noble
heroic qualities and does not lack the
deepest of human emotions, but h'
yisualizes as too harsh and domln
ating, for applauding general accep
tance. As a matter of fact, ''Jan'
Eyre" is one of the those trul y grea
romances that is Caviar to the gen
eral." John Halifax, Gentleman.
upset English society with its til
umphant demonstration that
gentleman may De or the nun
best birth and station. John Aallia:
certainly is real hero, but too long
suffering, too meek under snobblsI
Tebuke, to endear himself to tn
multitude. Sidney Carton in Dick
ems "Tale of Two Cities" is a
ideal hero with 1ovable human fail
ings. He does not run true t
form" His character is too compile
to be entirely convincing, and h
suffers from the formal artlhces
the narrative, so unlike Dickens an
SO like Wilkie Collins, who is sal
to have been responsible for tn
vastly greater writer's departur
from his usual method.
After three quarters of centur,
Alexandra Dumas "Three Musk
Aeess" appears to hold its own as IT,
spost fascinating romance ever wrl
e.. Never did an ambitious, ga