Branding Cigs with ‘R’

THERE’s an old Hollywood story, which may or may not be true, about Humphrey Bogart. He was about to film an “explainer” scene-one of those dialogue-heavy set-pieces, where one character drones on for a page or two of crucial, but eye-glazing, exposition. Explainer scenes are pace-killers, but unavoidable: There’s often no other way to let the audience know that the main character is an orphan, say, or how a cluster-bomb works, or that the hero and the mysterious woman had a love affair once, years ago.

But Bogart, like most actors, worried about boring the audience. The story goes that he looks down at the script, with its long column of dialogue, and then tells the director that the only way he’ll do the scene, the only way the scene won’t bore the audience, is if they place two camels in the background, and get them to copulate.

About the Author

Rob Long

Rob Long is a writer and producer and a co-founder of Ricochet.

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THERE’s an old Hollywood story, which may or may not be true, about Humphrey Bogart. He was about to film an “explainer” scene-one of those dialogue-heavy set-pieces, where one character drones on for a page or two of crucial, but eye-glazing, exposition. Explainer scenes are pace-killers, but unavoidable: There’s often no other way to let the audience know that the main character is an orphan, say, or how a cluster-bomb works, or that the hero and the mysterious woman had a love affair once, years ago.

But Bogart, like most actors, worried about boring the audience. The story goes that he looks down at the script, with its long column of dialogue, and then tells the director that the only way he’ll do the scene, the only way the scene won’t bore the audience, is if they place two camels in the background, and get them to copulate.