By: Blonde Two

A Cottage On DartmoorI had a new experience yesterday evening.  I watched my first full length silent movie.  It wasn’t exactly silent because there was piano music playing all the way through it – someone must have had aching fingers by the end because it lasted for 77 minutes.  It is amazing what you can find on YouTube these days.

I happened upon the movie because it is called “A Cottage on Dartmoor”.  It was made in 1929 and, to my surprise, I really enjoyed it.  Let me tell you about the story and you can decide whether or not you want to watch it yourself (there aren’t any Blondes in it).

Joe and Sally work in a hair salon in Devon (Sally is a manicurist) – you can tell it is Devon because … well you can’t tell really.  Joe loves Sally, Sally doesn’t love Joe but gives him mixed messages (girls eh!).  Sally falls for a customer, a strapping young Dartmoor farmer called Harry (isn’t this “When Harry Met Sally”?)  Harry and Sally get engaged, Joe is very jealous and threatens to kill Harry (did I mention the wet shave and cut-throat razor?)  We are getting to the Dartmoor bit in a minute.

Harry does get badly hurt by Joe’s razor during an argument and Joe is put in Dartmoor prison.  Time passes … (I have always wanted to say that so I will say it again) time passes …  Joe escapes from prison and runs off to Harry and Sally’s Dartmoor cottage (they now have a son – I did say that time had passed).  Sally takes pity on Joe and persuades Harry to help him run away from the police.  Joe finds a picture of Sally in the jacket that they have given him and he can’t face leaving her.  He turns back and runs towards the Cottage on Dartmoor (who wouldn’t?) … and I am not going to tell you the ending.

See for yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHALFiPlS_s – it is an interesting experience trying to guess what people are saying and having to watch faces closely for emotions.  There aren’t as many Dartmoor shots as I had hoped but the place doesn’t look like it has changed much.  I would love to know exactly where the film was shot but I can’t find out – so if anyone does know ….