"The American drama has been undergoing a steady change for many years," Thomas Mitchell, star and co-author of "Little Accident," told a CRIMSON reporter yesterday. Mitchell's attitude as he explained his views was engagingly frank and matter-of-fact with allusions ranging from Jack Dempsey to Aristophanes.

"Toward the end of the nineteenth century the stage had wandered far from its original position. The theatres of America had become cluttered up with the romantic, sugar-coated, story-telling type of play."

"About the turn of the century there was a change of feeling regarding drama. People began to feel that the stage was no place to spin a yarn. It was insisted that a good play must present a situation of intrinsic importance. The principle that a play must be important gained great headway, spreading with increasing rapidity after the war."

"Then came the talkies. Even before being mechanically perfected, they have displaced many plays. Several well written and well acted productions failed last year. And why not? Just around the corner the same kind of thing was selling for $.75. As the talkie becomes more nearly perfect scientifically, it will displace more and more of the romantic type of play."

Will Never Displace Play

"The talkie will never be able to present a genuine grown-up drama. Aside from its more or less temporary handicap of inability to register many voices accurately, the talkie has several permanent defects. These are due for the most part to the fact that the success of a picture is judged solely by its 'sell.' This means that it must pass the censorship of forty-eight states and several foreign countries. When a play is done for the movies, it is immediately emasculated. The manoeuvers of the average Hollywood film magnate in adapting a play with any degree of frankness would be amusing if the situation implied were not so serious."

"Added to legal censorship is what might be called a form of self-censorship. A movie cannot antagonize any element of the population. Even in the more romantic movies this self-censorship is found necessary. The problem of whom to cast for the villain is one of the most difficult. He cannot be either Chinese, Mexican, coloured, Jewish, or Irish if his character is objectionable."

"It is impossible for the talkie to use the nuances and half-tones necessary to the effective presentation of a complex idea. The real trouble with the talkie is that to be successful it must appeal to the lowest level of intelligence. The dramatist can choose whatever level he pleases."