A Cottage on Dartmoor

A Cottage on Dartmoor (2007 DVD)
Directed by Anthony Asquith
UK, 1929
Silent with English intertitles

Since that decadent German aristocrat Herr Graf Ferdinand von Galitzien just weighed in with a more sophisticated analysis of this nitrate in his silent modern-day diary a couple of evenings ago, please bear with me as I add a few unpolished words in praise of this early British thriller from the perspective of a commoner. While deemed "Hitchcockian" by more than a couple of reviewers online, A Cottage on Dartmoor actually seems to have its own take on the manhunt-for-an-escaped-convict-on-the-lam genre that Sir Alfred almost singlehandedly made famous among the fish-and-chips eating peoples of the world. The story is told in flashback after barber Joe (Ugo Henning) falls in love with but is then spurned by his lovely coworker Sally (Norah Baring, a cutie), leading to an unfortunate "accident" involving Sally's new fiancé (Hans Adalbert Schlettow) and a straight razor (played by itself) that's held to his throat a tad too tightly. When Joe gets sent to prison for this crime of passion, he vows revenge, which he seeks to exact during his flight from justice. Asquith's visual style (featuring paired shots dissolving into each other and clever juxtapositions of barbershop chatter about sports with location shots taken at different sporting events) and sense of mischievousness (Joe's silent movie path down the slippery slope of terminal stalkerdom begins when Sally goes out on a date to a talkie filled with assorted bluehairs, unattended children, snorers, and other totally disruptive people still familiar to moviegoers today) constantly keep you guessing where things will lead next, a nice surprise considering how many 21st century tales of jealousy and rage have their outcomes given away in the course of each trailer. A fine effort. (http://www.kino.com/)