the river. Back to the saloon again, and we
see the two friends looking at their watches, about to leave, the
third glass still standing untouched. Then, back to another pretty
exterior, where the young man proposes and is accepted. Toward the
climax, the use of the cut-back becomes even more effective: we see
the wife go out to get the milk; the two friends at the same old table
in the saloon; the husband bending over the child, taking out the
revolver, and indicating what is in his mind to do; then the scene in
the saloon, where the fourth man tells the kind-hearted friend how the
foreman has discharged his former comrade; back in the house again, we
see the man and the woman prepared to die together; then the exterior
of the saloon, with the two friends coming out; another home scene
leading up to the expected tragedy; the two friends hurrying down a
street--and even though they are hurrying, we know that they are
unaware of what is going on in the house which is their destination,
and we are fearful lest they may arrive too late; the man with his
hand held over the eyes of his wife, the revolver being slowly raised;
the two friends at the gate of the cottage; and then the climax as
they enter the room just in time to avert the tragedy. Thus the
cut-back effect kept suspense and interest at highest pitch every
moment.

Some years ago the same company released a drama, "The Cord of Life,"
in which the cut-back was used so effectively to heighten the suspense
and add to the thrill that many people in the audience of the theatre
were leaning forward in their seats and making excited comments--the
supreme test of a picture "with a punch."

One caution is necessary in the use of the cut-back--_do not use it as
an excuse to digress_. Above everything else, when you have started
the ball of your plot rolling, keep it rolling _forward_. You must not
switch back to some earlier scene for the purpose of picking up a
point that you have overlooked. Nor is it possible to go back and
follow the characters who have been temporarily dispensed with. If
they reappear, it must be in a scene which naturally follows, and does
not come with a sense of perplexing surprise. Remember this: When
characters are reintroduced they must not have been too long absent
from the plot-movement, but they must have been all the time
consciously or subconsciously present in the mind of the spectator _as
being essentially in the story_.

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