The old magic remains... The Enchanted Cottage (1924), Edward Lorusso Kickstarter No. 26

"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."

Photoplay, June 1924 (see below)

 

This is a fascinating film on so many levels and I’m not surprised Edward Lorusso chose it as his 26^th Kickstarter Project and that he aimed for a specially written score from the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra for this Blu-ray presentation. It’s a tale of post-war angst and redemption that for all the accusations of melodrama does indeed address the very real issues for those of the audience who did not look like movie stars or who were disabled, injured during the Great War as were an estimated six million British and German soldiers alone.

 

It's also rare to see two leading stars, in this case, Richard Barthelmess and May McAvoy, and who aren’t called Lon Chaney, playing disfigured versions of themselves in romantic leading roles. Barthelmess plays former British officer Oliver Bashforth who was so badly injured his body is twisted out of shape whilst McAvoy has false teeth to play the “plain” Laura Pennington a challenge to the prevailing demand of Hollywood to portray the most beautiful people in the most beautiful of ways. Both give of their best and their performances elevate what is a slight story to levels of poignancy that still resonate.

 

Ed made a 4k scan of the Library of Congress’ 35mm print, perhaps the only surviving copy on this stock, which had oddly been copied onto stock containing the music track from another film. He cropped the music off and makes the most of what is a pretty decent print to which he added new opening credits which fit very well with the style of Gertrude Chase’s intertitles. The result also highlights Livingston Platt’s gorgeous designs of the titular cottage, enabling us to feel anew the romantic and possibly even supernatural properties of this space.

Richard Barthelmess

The film was based on the 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero who was also impressed by this design. His story echoed others of the time in its desire for damaged people to be made somehow whole again by romantic love or dreams coming true against all reason. You can understand why such stories were popular after the war and the flu pandemic and there are so many works of fiction reflecting this. Lorusso quotes Testament of Youth, the memoir of British nurse and activist Vera Brittain, whilst at the time there were comparisons with JM Barrie’s supernatural Mary Rose which had its premiere in 1920. Pinero was aiming more for the redemption through love of Barrie’s Sentimental Tommy, written in 1896 and made into a film, now lost, in 1921.

 

Directed by John S. Robertson with a scenario from Josephine Lovett the film hedges its bets on the supernatural elements of the “enchantment” and you can just as easily read it as a tale of two people who find themselves against all odds in terms of class, physicality and looks.

 

Soul and body awry, Oliver sought out the pain of his own reflection…

 

We find Oliver Bashforth wounded and miserable still trying to fit in with the rather shallow lives of his upper-class family and friends… The stiff upper lip is much in evidence from his father whilst his mother is caring if trapped in her circumstances whilst his sister Ethel – a spirited turn from Florence Short – just thinks he should shake himself out of it, a mindset very much still prevalent among the conservative British classes. In modern parlance, The Enchanted Cottage is something of a treatise on PTSD or “shell shock” as it used to be called at this time and as explored in Pat Barker’s exceptional Regeneration Trilogy. Whatever the changes to Oliver’s perceived reality during the film, he recognises his crisis which, for psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers, who pioneered treatments of post-traumatic stress and is one of Barker’s subjects, is part of the road to wellness.

May McAvoy, yes, really...

At the start though Oliver forces himself to release his fiancée after she has quite clearly fallen for his able-bodied pal. Heartbroken, he goes to hide himself away at a remote country cottage, downsizing his status along with his outlook on life and possibility. His only companion is housekeeper Mrs. Minnett (Ethel Wright) who, an intertitle notes, is possessed of the uncanny intuition sometimes found in simple folk. That condescending sentence may well hit the nail on the head.

 

Into Oliver’s darkened misery floats the sounds of children playing and to his dismay he finds that his poisoned reverie has been introduced by the simple honesty of the plain and lonely governess Laura Pennington (McAvoy) along with her friend Major Hillgrove (Holmes Herbert) who is blind and can therefore only hear the truth around him with the aid of the classic cinematic trope insisting that losing one sense enhances those that remain… but why not?

 

The text is pretty brutal and hard to read but there’s no doubt that Laura may well be a wonderful human being but she is “hopelessly plain but… dependable…” and that reliability is of tremendous value with, “… plain women the bricks of the World.” McAvoy’s extra teeth and extended nose can’t hide her glowing eyes though and she’s clearly enjoying this role. She pretty quickly bursts Oliver’s misery bubble and explains that he’s living in Honeymoon Cottage, for three centuries a go-to destination for newly married good folk.

 

Father and Ethel (Florence Short)

With his sister Ethel offering to come to the cottage and look after him, Oliver gets desperate and hatches a plan to marry his new – plain – friend so that they can be left alone. McAvoy is great value here, portraying her character’s heart breaking a-new as this man whom she’d come to love sees her only as a device. But strange things begin to happen after they are wed and the ghosts of honeymooners past float through the rooms of the cottage, possibly visible to Laura and Oliver but certainly palpable in spirit.

 

All I see Laura, is your unselfishness – your tenderness – how blind I’ve been you are beautiful!

 

Sooner or later, the inevitable happens and the two realise that they are in love but is this a supernatural or even Christian moment or are they, and the audience, now seeing their idealised versions, a hale and hearty Barthelmess and a beautiful McAvoy. There’s only one way to find out, call in Oliver’s family to meet the new bride and put their closeted romance to the test…

 

The spirits of romance?

The Enchanted Cottage is a sweet film and it makes some brave decisions for the time allowing both those wonderful leads to express its emotive content to the full. I doubt there was a dry eye by the end in 1924 and a century later, this Cottage is still Enchanted. The magic is also manifested by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra who play pianist Rodney Sauer’s score to perfection with the cello of David Short and violin of Britt Swenson aided by the clarinet of Brian Collins and the trumpet of Dawn Kramer. The ensemble are always so good at comedy and here they present their more soulful side.

 

Thank you to them and especially Ed Lorusso for another project well realised; how else would we find this enchantment? Hopefully it will get a wider release after the Kickstarters as it’s a film many would find resonant.   

 

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