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From Scientist to Clown – He Who Gets Slapped 47
Fig. 3: A Tie-In: The complete novel based on He Who Gets Slapped with
illustrations from the photoplay.
Sjöström as Hollywood Scriptwriter
The idea that Sjöström had changed the play radically, which seems to be generally
accepted by most scholars, must, however, also be related to the intermediary
stage of Lewis’ script outline. 13 A suggestive headline following the
title of the play in this outline reads: “(Sensational and symbolic melodrama of
circus life, with tragic ending)”. 14 This short summary seems to have inspired
Sjöström in his work on script and film. Also, this script outline, in contrast to
Andreyev’s play, isn’t limited to one single space but, rather, seems to suggest
multiple spaces for the plot development, just like in Sjöström’s later script. It
also suggests a past for “He” as “a man of distinction, fashionably dressed”, but
also, more specifically, as “a great thinker and a great writer”, in Sjöström’s
script, as we have seen, turned into a scientist. 15 But in Andreyev’s play, a past
for “He” is suggested: among other things by a line put in the mouth of one of
his former acquaintances, here called The Gentleman: