WEBVTT

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In my book Variety
Photoplays has a lot

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of poems about the movies.

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And I deal with the movies as
I remember them, not the way

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they were necessarily,
but as they affected me.

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I'll read you my
"Frankenstein" poem,

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which is a part of a
trilogy Frankenstein

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the bride of Frankenstein and
the return of Frankenstein.

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[LAUGHTER]

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"Frankenstein."

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"The monster has escaped
from the dungeon where

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he was kept by the Baron, who
made it with knobs sticking out

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from each side of his neck
where the head was attached

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to the body and stitching all
over where parts of cadavers

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were sewed together.

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He is pursued by the
ignorant villagers, who

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think he is evil and
dangerous because he is ugly

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and makes ugly noises.

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They wave firebrands at
him and cudgels and rakes,

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but he escapes and comes to
the thatched cottage of an old

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blind man playing on the violin
Mendelssohn's 'Spring Song.'

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Hearing him approach, the
blind man welcomes him.

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'Come in my friend,' and
takes him by the arm.

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'You must be weary,' and sits
him down inside the house.

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For the Blind man
has long dreamed

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of having a friend to
share his lonely life.

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The monster has never known
kindness, the Baron was cruel,

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but somehow he is
able to accept it now.

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And he really has no
instincts to harm the old man,

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for in spite of his awful
looks he has a tender heart.

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Who knows what cadaver
that part of him came from?

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[LAUGHTER]

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The old man seats him a table,
offers him bread, and says,

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'Eat, my friend.'

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The monster rears back
roaring and terror.

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'No, my friend, it is good.

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Eat-- good.'

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And the old man shows him how
to eat and reassured the monster

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eats and says, 'eat--

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good,' trying out the words
and finding them good too.

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The old man offers him a glass
of wine, 'drink, my friend.

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Drink-- good.'

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The monster drinks slurping
horribly and says, 'drink--

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good,' in his deep nutty voice
and smiles maybe for the first

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time in his life.

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Then the blind man puts a
cigar in the monster's mouth

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and lights a large wooden match
that flares up in his face.

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The monster, remembering the
torches of the villagers,

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recoils, grunting in terror.

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'No, my friend, smoke--

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good,' and the old man
demonstrates with his own

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cigar.

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The monster takes a tentative
puff and smiles hugely saying,

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'smoke--

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good,' and sits back like a
banker, grunting and puffing.

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Now the old man plays
Mendelssohn's 'Spring Song'

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on the violin while tears come
into our dear monster's eyes

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as he thinks of the stones
of the mob, the pleasures

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of mealtime, the magic
new words he has learned,

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and above all of the
friend he has found.

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It is just as well
that he is unaware--

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being simple enough to
believe only in the present--

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that the mob will find
him and pursue him

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for the rest of his
short unnatural life,

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until trapped at the whirlpool's
edge he plunges to his death."

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I didn't see the monster
is not at all the villain.

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In the monster movie
there's a great ambivalence

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about who is the villain.

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And of course really
it's the mad scientist

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who is the villain
which was an accurate

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forecast of things to come.

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[LAUGHTER]

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