I definitely think that in 1929 Alfred Hitchcock was the director who all young up and coming British directors aspired to. Saying that, I do think, Anthony Asquith was majorly under-rated. It was the fashion to put Asquith down as a major director, that after "A Cottage on Dartmoor" his talent declined but even though his 30s output was sparse, from "Pygmalion" on he started to deliver on the promise he showed with "Shooting Stars" (1927). "Cottage to Let", "Fanny By Gaslight", "The Way to the Stars", "The Browning Version" - all so different yet superior in their own genres.
With an opening scene reminiscent of the moody atmospheric and expressionism of the then currently in vogue films coming out of Europe - the lowering skies, the stark leafless trees and the homeward bound cattle. Disturbing this tranquility is an escaped convict who runs to the shelter of a woman's cottage. In a very novel approach, as she recognises him and calls his name - "Joe" - the film returns to an earlier time, when he is a barber's assistant and Sally is the manicurist. Sally is flirtatious with the customers but not with Joe, who, in turn, is very interested in Sally but also very jealous. Joe is a lonely obsessive who interprets actions and looks with more meaning than they actually have. Sally invites Joe around to her boarding house for the evening and wears a flower he has given her - Joe is walking on air!! It is really Harry, a customer, that Sally is keen on and when he shows her pictures of a farm he has recently bought in Dartmoor, she, wanting security, marries him.
There is a extended sequence in a cinema ("My Woman" taken from a play by W. Shakespeare (that's what it says in the newspaper)!! preceded by Harold Lloyd - you catch on it's a Harold Lloyd movie by the way a small boy looks at the screen, looks at the man sitting next to him who has horn-rimmed glasses, then giggles to his mate). Much is made of going to a talking picture but the cinema has a small orchestra playing musical accompaniment. It is actually a great study of character as you look at everyone viewing the movie. It does a lot to further the narrative as Sally realises Harry is the man for her whereas Joe, who has purposely followed them to the pictures is slowly consumed by rage and jealousy. The film goes in another direction from the one you think.
Norah Baring didn't have a huge career but she did get to star in an early Hitchcock talkie, "Murder" along with Herbert Marshall. Uno Henning was a Swedish actor whom Asquith probably saw in "Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney" (1927) which was a very popular film directed by G. W. Pabst. After "A Cottage on Dartmoor" he returned to Sweden where he continued his career.
Highly, Highly Recommended.
With an opening scene reminiscent of the moody atmospheric and expressionism of the then currently in vogue films coming out of Europe - the lowering skies, the stark leafless trees and the homeward bound cattle. Disturbing this tranquility is an escaped convict who runs to the shelter of a woman's cottage. In a very novel approach, as she recognises him and calls his name - "Joe" - the film returns to an earlier time, when he is a barber's assistant and Sally is the manicurist. Sally is flirtatious with the customers but not with Joe, who, in turn, is very interested in Sally but also very jealous. Joe is a lonely obsessive who interprets actions and looks with more meaning than they actually have. Sally invites Joe around to her boarding house for the evening and wears a flower he has given her - Joe is walking on air!! It is really Harry, a customer, that Sally is keen on and when he shows her pictures of a farm he has recently bought in Dartmoor, she, wanting security, marries him.
There is a extended sequence in a cinema ("My Woman" taken from a play by W. Shakespeare (that's what it says in the newspaper)!! preceded by Harold Lloyd - you catch on it's a Harold Lloyd movie by the way a small boy looks at the screen, looks at the man sitting next to him who has horn-rimmed glasses, then giggles to his mate). Much is made of going to a talking picture but the cinema has a small orchestra playing musical accompaniment. It is actually a great study of character as you look at everyone viewing the movie. It does a lot to further the narrative as Sally realises Harry is the man for her whereas Joe, who has purposely followed them to the pictures is slowly consumed by rage and jealousy. The film goes in another direction from the one you think.
Norah Baring didn't have a huge career but she did get to star in an early Hitchcock talkie, "Murder" along with Herbert Marshall. Uno Henning was a Swedish actor whom Asquith probably saw in "Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney" (1927) which was a very popular film directed by G. W. Pabst. After "A Cottage on Dartmoor" he returned to Sweden where he continued his career.
Highly, Highly Recommended.