Review of The Enchanted Cottage

By silent movie standards, this is a long film of 7 reels comprising 7,120 feet which at silent speed would translate to approximately 100 minutes. This is probably too slow for actual projection, so the running time of the superbly tinted Grapevine DVD of 93 minutes seems just exactly right. I thought the movie was very convincingly acted by all concerned, but particularly by Richard Barthelmess, May McAvoy, Florence Short and Holmes Herbert. However, I must admit that even in 1922, when it was first performed in London, Sir Arthur Wing Pinero's stage play would have seemed a bit dated. The plot is simply a variation of "Beauty and the Beast". Many writers have had a crack at the idea that beauty exists only in the eyes of the beholder and Pinero's variation is not all that innovative or dramatic, but at least he does take sides and let's us know the true state of affairs. The movie, however, unlike the 1945 remake, tries to have it both ways by introducing the supernatural and this lessens its total believability. To my mind, if you're going to have ghosts, use them for some dramatic purpose, don't just have them decoratively flitting around in the background and enjoying no intercourse whatever with the main action of the play, let alone the main characters.