A Cottage on Dartmoor (AKA “Escape from Dartmoor”)
Directed by Anthony Asquith
Written byAnthony Asquith from a story by Herbert Price
1929/UK
British Instructional Films/Svensk Filmindustri
IMDb Page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant
Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love. — Charles M. Schulz
This is a late British silent film in the Hitchcockian vein with some gorgeous cinematography.
The film begins with fugitive Joe (Ugo Henning) escaping from the high security Dartmoor prison and crossing the lonely moors to a certain cottage occupied by Sally (Nora Baring) and her baby. He forces his way in and the film moves into a lengthy flashback.
Joe and Sally worked together as barber and manicurist at a salon. Joe is obsessed with Sally but she is not interested. Instead she falls in love with Harry, a kindly customer who buys a farm in the Dartmoor region. Joe is wildly jealous and attempts to kill Harry while he is shaving him. He is arrested and vows to kill both Harry and Sally if he ever gets out of prison. We segue back to the events at the cottage. Will Joe go through with his revenge?
This is a beautifully shot movie with a somewhat implausible story. The acting is good too and we get a nice scene showing Harry and Sally attending a talkie that illustrates the changes in the movie watching experience wrought by the advent of sound.
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