The Enchanted Cottage (1924 film)
- March 24, 1924 (1924-03-24)
The Enchanted Cottage is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by John S. Robertson[1] based upon a 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero.[2]
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.[3][4]
Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire starred in a 1945 version also based on the 1923 play.
Plot
As described in a film magazine review,[5] Oliver Bashforth (Barthelmess), physically wrecked by the late war and hating himself because of his twisted body and hollow cheeks, breaks his engagement with his boyhood sweetheart and quits his family to seek isolation in a lonely cottage in the woods. There he meets Laura Pennington (McAvoy), a lonely little governess, whose plainness makes her unattractive to men. They marry and then both commit themselves to intense depression because they are both so ugly. However, with the dawning of real love, both commence to see each other through the beauty of the soul, with the consequence that each appears as handsome to each other as either could wish. In the week of their enchantment, they have found love and they look forward to a future happiness and to the creation of children who will embody the beauty they do not possess.
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."[6]
"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."[7]
Cast
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/The_Enchanted_Cottage_-_Masters_and_Masterpieces_of_the_Screen.jpg/260px-The_Enchanted_Cottage_-_Masters_and_Masterpieces_of_the_Screen.jpg)
- 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
A print of The Enchanted Cottage is preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.[8]
In 2024 Edward Lorusso, restored the film from a 35mm print held by the Library of Congress. The restoration included a new score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.
References
- ^ "The Enchanted Cottage". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
- ^ The Enchanted Cottage as produced on Broadway at the Ritz Theatre, March 31, 1923; IBDb.com
- ^ The American Film Institute Catalog, Feature Films 1921-30 (The American Film Institute/Library of Congress, 1971)
- ^ The Enchanted Cottage at silentera.com
- ^ Simmons, Michael L. (April 19, 1924). "Box Office Reviews: The Enchanted Cottage". Exhibitors Trade Review. New York: Exhibitors Review Publishing Corporation: 19. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
- ^ "The Shadow Stage". Photoplay. New York: Photoplay Publishing Co. June 1924. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
- ^ Orndorff, Marguerite (June 1924). "The Theatrical Field". The Educational Screen. Chicago: The Educational Screen, Inc. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
- ^ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: The Enchanted Cottage
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- The Enchanted Cottage at IMDb
- Synopsis at AllMovie
- The Enchanted Cottage at the TCM Movie Database
- The Enchanted Cottage at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
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