''The Enchanted Cottage'' is a 1924 American silent

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by John S. Robertson based upon a 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero. The film was produced by

Richard Barthelmess Richard Semler Barthelmess (May 9, 1895 – August 17, 1963) was an American film actor, principally of the Hollywood silent era. He starred opposite Lillian Gish in D. W. Griffith's ''Broken Blossoms'' (1919) and ''Way Down East'' (1920) and w ...

, through his company Inspiration, and released through Associated First National. Barthelmess and

May McAvoy May Irene McAvoy (September 8, 1899 – April 26, 1984) was an American actress who worked mainly during the silent-film era. Some of her major roles are Laura Pennington in '' The Enchanted Cottage'', Esther in '' Ben-Hur'', and Mary Dale ...

star in the drama. Robert Young and

Dorothy McGuire Dorothy Hackett McGuire (June 14, 1916 – September 13, 2001) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for '' Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947) and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actre ...

starred in a 1945 version also based on the 1923 play.

Plot

As described in a film magazine review, Oliver Bashforth (Barthelmess), physically wrecked by the late

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

and hating himself because of his twisted body and hollow cheeks, breaks his engagement with his boyhood sweetheart and quits his family to seek isolation in a lonely cottage in the woods. There he meets Laura Pennington (McAvoy), a lonely little governess, whose plainness makes her unattractive to men. They marry and then both commit themselves to intense depression because they are both so ugly. However, with the dawning of real love, both commence to see each other through the beauty of the soul, with the consequence that each appears as handsome to each other as either could wish. In the week of their enchantment, they have found love and they look forward to a future happiness and to the creation of children who will embody the beauty they do not possess.

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." "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."

Cast

The Enchanted Cottage - Masters and Masterpieces of the Screen

Preservation

A print of ''The Enchanted Cottage'' is preserved at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

in Washington DC.The Library of Congress American Silent Feature Film Survival Catalog: ''The Enchanted Cottage''
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References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Enchanted Cottage, The 1924 films 1920s fantasy drama films American silent feature films Films directed by John S. Robertson American black-and-white films American films based on plays Films set in England American fantasy drama films First National Pictures films 1924 drama films 1920s English-language films 1920s American films Silent American drama films