A Cottage on Dartmoor is an odd - and by odd, I mean, completely unbelievable - sort of romance. The times when Sally appears most in love are not by the piano with Joe, or at the talkies with Harry, or soon after when accepting Harry's proposal - no, the times when Sally appears most in love are firstly, when a jealous Joe, after attempting to murder Harry, escapes from prison and breaks into her house with the design to murder her; and secondly, after he is shot by the police and dying in her arms, because 'he couldn't bear to live without her'.
'But that is a very romantic way to die', you might say - romantic that one would break prison for you - and while true, she had plenty of time to accept the same man before he committed any crime, and showed no interest in it. Buying a ring and getting married may also be something you consider romantic, but the film never shows suggests as much compared to the actions of the escaped murderer, who I suppose they want us to view as some kind of hero, but isn't anything like it.
This is all because Cottage on Dartmoor is not a romance but a suspense thriller, and they want to build the most amount of melodrama possible, which is hugely unfortunate, as it takes away any semblance of reality. It breaks the tension which had been building so well in an excellent, Hitchcock-esque first half.
The excellence of the first half is in the way a mentally tormented character must behave in a socially acceptable manner, while giving a haircut (his job) and watching a film, thus hiding all torment from view, and it is here that the tension lies - will he break? How much can he take? In excellent performances, the actors manage to both suppress and express all their emotions with Keaton-esque straight faces.
The lighting is all high contrast and shadowy interiors, which given the locations, is not an accurate reflection of reality, but is an accurate reflection of Joe's mental state, and therefore very effective. However you will not mistake this for the mastery of light in say a Murnau or Lang film, as sometimes awkward shadows fall all over faces and walls in places they shouldn't.
And so it is a film that is both masterful and poor, swaying between the two extremes. I feel it would grate too much for the casual viewer, but there is much for filmmakers and silent film fans to take out of.
'But that is a very romantic way to die', you might say - romantic that one would break prison for you - and while true, she had plenty of time to accept the same man before he committed any crime, and showed no interest in it. Buying a ring and getting married may also be something you consider romantic, but the film never shows suggests as much compared to the actions of the escaped murderer, who I suppose they want us to view as some kind of hero, but isn't anything like it.
This is all because Cottage on Dartmoor is not a romance but a suspense thriller, and they want to build the most amount of melodrama possible, which is hugely unfortunate, as it takes away any semblance of reality. It breaks the tension which had been building so well in an excellent, Hitchcock-esque first half.
The excellence of the first half is in the way a mentally tormented character must behave in a socially acceptable manner, while giving a haircut (his job) and watching a film, thus hiding all torment from view, and it is here that the tension lies - will he break? How much can he take? In excellent performances, the actors manage to both suppress and express all their emotions with Keaton-esque straight faces.
The lighting is all high contrast and shadowy interiors, which given the locations, is not an accurate reflection of reality, but is an accurate reflection of Joe's mental state, and therefore very effective. However you will not mistake this for the mastery of light in say a Murnau or Lang film, as sometimes awkward shadows fall all over faces and walls in places they shouldn't.
And so it is a film that is both masterful and poor, swaying between the two extremes. I feel it would grate too much for the casual viewer, but there is much for filmmakers and silent film fans to take out of.