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The Enchanted Cottage (1924 film)
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Wikipedia article
'The Enchanted Cottage' is a 1924 American silent drama film based upon a 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and directed by John S. Robertson.[http://ibdb.com/production.php?id=8910 'The Enchanted Cottage' as produced on Broadway at the Ritz Theatre, March 31, 1923;IBDb.com]
The film was produced by Richard Barthelmess, through his company Inspiration, and released through Associated First National. Barthelmess and May McAvoy star in the drama.'The American Film Institute Catalog, Feature Films 1921-30' (The American Film Institute/Library of Congress, 1971)[http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/E/EnchantedCottage1924.html 'The Enchanted Cottage' at silentera.com]
Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire starred in a 1945 version also based on the 1923 play.
Plot
Crippled by the war, Oliver Bashforth (Richard Barthelmess) moves into a lonely cottage in search of solitude. He meets Laura Pennington (May McAvoy), a plain and lonely woman, and marries her, primarily to escape from his energetic sister, Ethel (Florence Short). The unhappy couple allow their insecurities to suppress romance and happiness, but their mutual admiration grows and becomes love, manifested by the recognition of the inner beauty in each of them.
Reception
A reviewer for 'Photoplay' wrote, "To anyone with a poetic soul, this picture will be a rare treat. But the too literal person will be sadly disappointed. A picture for folk who dare to dream. As such we cannot recommend it too highly."
"There is a charm about the spoken or written word that is frequently too elusive to be caught by the camera, and in its efforts to make things clear, too often the screen makes them merely clumsy," wrote Marguerite Orndorff for 'The Educational Screen'. "There was a danger of such a result in filming this whimsy of Pinero's, but the direction of John S. Robertson, and the understanding portrayals of May McAvoy and Richard Barthelmess have in a large measure preserved its delicacy."
Cast
and May McAvoy in 'The Enchanted Cottage'
* Richard Barthelmess as Oliver Bashforth
* May McAvoy as Laura Pennington
* Ida Waterman as Mrs. Smallwood
* Alfred Hickman as Rupert Smallwood
* Florence Short as Ethel Bashforth
* Marion Coakley as Beatrice Vaughn
* Holmes Herbert as Major Hillgrove
* Ethel Wright as Mrs. Minnett
* Harry Allen as Riggs, the major's servant
Preservation status
This film is preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.mbrs.sfdb.1799/default.html The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: 'The Enchanted Cottage']
References
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