Stranger Than Fiction (1921)

Society girl Diane Drexel invites her friends to see a screening of Carmen in which they have acted. She then tells the projectionist to show her original film, Stranger Than Fiction . This film then unfolds the following action: When the lights are turned up the guests find they have been robbed by the "Black Heart," head of a notorious gang, who have left their familiar mark. Diane declares that she will not marry her indolent fiancé until he has tracked down the robbers. In the slums, Diane meets The Shadow and through him learns that Dick is endangered; with his help she joins the gang. Following a series of escapes, climaxed by an airplane stunt in which the "Black Heart" is forced to his death, the lights flash on and Diane informs the guests that this is her idea of how motion pictures ought to be made.