The Enchanted Cottage (1924 film)

This article is about the 1924 silent film. For the play, see The Enchanted Cottage (play). For the 1945 remake, see The Enchanted Cottage (1945 film).
The Enchanted Cottage

1924 lobby card
Directed by John S. Robertson
Produced by Inspiration Pictures Inc.
Written by Josephine Lovett (scenario)
Gertrude Chase (intertitles)
Based on The Enchanted Cottage
1923 play
by Arthur Wing Pinero
Starring Richard Barthelmess
May McAvoy
Cinematography George Folsey
Edited by William Hamilton
Distributed by Associated First National
Release dates
  • March 24, 1924 (1924-03-24)
Running time
 7 reels at 7,120 feet (appr. 80-85 minutes)
Country United States
Language Silent
(English intertitles)

The Enchanted Cottage (1924) is a silent, drama film based upon a 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero, and directed by John S. Robertson.[1]

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.[2][3]

Plot summary

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.[4]

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."[5]

"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."[6]

Cast

Preservation status

This film is preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.[7]

References

  1. ↑ The Enchanted Cottage as produced on Broadway at the Ritz Theatre, March 31, 1923;IBDb.com
  2. ↑ The American Film Institute Catalog, Feature Films 1921-30 (The American Film Institute/Library of Congress, 1971)
  3. ↑ The Enchanted Cottage at silentera.com
  4. ↑ "The Enchanted Cottage". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. American Film Institute. 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ "The Shadow Stage". Photoplay. New York: Photoplay Publishing Co. June 1924. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
  6. ↑ Orndorff, Marguerite (June 1924). "The Theatrical Field". The Educational Screen. Chicago: The Educational Screen, Inc. Retrieved April 3, 2016.
  7. ↑ The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: The Enchanted Cottage


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