The Enchanted Cottage (1924 film)

The Enchanted Cottage
1924 lobby card
Directed by	John S. Robertson
Written by	Josephine Lovett (scenario) Gertrude Chase (intertitles)
Based on	The Enchanted Cottage 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero
Produced by	John S. Robertson
Starring	Richard Barthelmess May McAvoy
Cinematography	George J. Folsey
Edited by
Production company	Inspiration Pictures Inc.
Distributed by	Associated First National
Release date	March 24, 1924 (1924-03-24)
Running time	71 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

The Enchanted Cottage is a 1924 American silent drama film directed by John S. Robertson^[1] based upon a 1923 play by Arthur Wing Pinero.^[2] The film was produced by Richard Barthelmess, through his company Inspiration, and released through Associated First National. Barthelmess and May McAvoy star in the drama, ^[3][4] which shows how two lonely people—a young man mutilated in war and a plain young woman—experience the transforming power of love.

Robert Young and Dorothy McGuire starred in a 1945 version, also based on the 1923 play.

A quotation from Robert Browning fills the screen: “God be thanked, the meanest of his creatures boasts two soul sides—one to face the world with, one to show a woman when he loves her!”

Flyer Oliver Bashforth returns home from the Great War “to fit a helpless body into a cruelly normal world”. He uses a cane to support the right side of his body, which is distorted.  His face is gaunt with pain. In his  darkened rooms, he hides from the relentless attentions of his “nerve-shattering” family. His mother and stepfather are kind but insensitive. His sister Ethel is a big, blustering stereotype of an English country woman who is “endured by horses and dogs” but unendurable to people. His fiancée Beatrice loves another but feels duty-bound to marry Oliver—until he wishes them well.

Oliver confronts his reflection and decides to go far away. He travels aimlessly until he finds a refuge in a 300 year-old cottage. His housekeeper is Mrs. Minnett. Neighbors include Laura Pennington, plain, dependable, beloved by the children who flock around her, and blind Major Hillgrove, who was in the same hospital as Oliver.

In the grips of a terrible headache, Oliver staggers out to glare at them. Mrs. Minnett explains that he is always in pain, and has no friends. Laura apologizes to him, they did not know Honeymoon cottage was occupied. Once part of the Dower House, it has been lent to newlyweds for centuries. She offers to introduce him to people. Oliver refuses and then apologizes. Laura goes for a remedy for his headache. Mrs. Minnett tells him about her, “frightfully poor and alone…always so kind...”

Ethel arrives, storms into the cottage, takes away his cigarettes (while lighting up herself) and announces she is coming down to look after him. When he reminds her they always fight, she explodes, then drives away, promising to return

Laura returns from the chemist's to find Oliver in agony. He must run away again, She gives him the medicine and, seeing him groping for cigarettes, retrieves his pipe. Laura talks about loneliness, and Oliver sees they are in the same boat. He asks her to marry him, for the companionship. She is hurt at first, but he follows her into the village…

The Bashworth household is in an uproar because of Oliver's letter announcing their marriage.

On their wedding night, we begin to see the spirits of lovers of the past, reliving their days in the cottage—and pausing to look at Oliver and Laura.

At last Laura goes upstairs and sits, weeping. She sees the spirits of the brides who come to sit beside her and of a couple sitting by the fire, and is overcome. Oliver hears her and goes in. He speaks of her unselfishness and tenderness. Her face is transformed. Laura looks at him and experiences the same change of vision. “You are wonderful to me,” she says.

They conceal themselves from everyone except the Major, who tells them to accept the miracle. He too, is “waiting.” He tells his batman not to give up hope, but the man, who has lost an arm, is skeptical.

Oliver sends for his family and asks the Major to greet them, explain their transformation, then sound the gong.

Mrs Minnett is worried, “If only they had been content with each other.”  Reluctantly, she lets the family in and introduces the Major, They are confused and upset. Ethel rings the gong. The newlyweds descend the stairs—unchanged. Ethel declares they are mad. The family leaves. The Major delicately feels Laura's face, confirming the truth. Laura flees to the bedroom, praying for enough beauty to keep Oliver's love, Weeping, she falls asleep on the fourposter. Oliver sits on the chaise longue at its foot. The bed becomes a bower of flowers and silk, like an illustration from a fairy tale. They reach for each other in their sleep. In the morning, they wake as their beautiful selves. “If there's a child,” she asks, “there is a chance it will be beautiful…?” They agree. Their children will be beautiful and blessed. “Happy?” She nods and leans back into his arms.

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."^[5] Michael L. Simmons, in his review for Exhibitor's Trade Review, praised Barthelmess's performance, writing he delivered "a powerful characterization, or, one might rather say, a character study, as stirring in its essence as any story which depend on lightning-bolt action for effect."^[6]

Fred Schader of Variety stated, "It is a picture that interests to a certain extent, but in its handling the general idea of the fantasy isn't driven home sufficiently early in the story to make it possible for the average film fan to grasp it."^[7] Marguerite Orndorff for The Educational Screen wrote: "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 ... 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."^[8]

A print of The Enchanted Cottage is preserved at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.^[9]

In 2024, Edward Lorusso restored the film from a 35mm print held by the Library of Congress. The restoration included a new score by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

• The Enchanted Cottage at IMDb
• Synopsis at AllMovie
• The Enchanted Cottage at the TCM Movie Database
• The Enchanted Cottage at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films