This is what I would think was a film that would have appealed to the common man back in the 1920s--a film with very modest pretensions and a less than sophisticated plot but plenty of action as well. In other words, this film is cool to watch but isn't exactly "high art".
Instead of showing the leading man dating or getting married, the film jumps right to a scene shortly after the wedding where the new bride and groom are on a runaway wagon. The horses won't stop and ultimately the bride is thrown from to her death--a very good scene indeed--except when the corpse is shown with her eyes wide open in death and only a second later, after the man says that she is dead, her eyes are magically closed. This isn't much of a quibble--just an interesting mistake.
The grieving groom takes off in his sailboat with his friend and spends the next three years trying to forget. Eventually, fate brings them to a lonely island off the coast of Georgia that is inhabited by three crazy freaks! One is a guy who is an agoraphobic who, according to the film, still thinks the Civil War is on or some such nonsense. Another is his pretty young daughter who is an agoraphobic who wants to get out and see the world (THAT'S an interesting dichotomy). The third is a maniac who likes killing people and is described as "half man and half animal"! The groom falls for the agoraphobic lady. They ride away in his boat but then she panics and remembers that she's afraid of leaving her home, so he takes her back. However, after he sets out to sea again, he can't get her out of his mind, so he returns to find the maniac waiting to kill him. It seems that the crazy dude killed the old man and is now trying to force himself on the woman, so it's time for our hero to come to the rescue. To make a long, long and SUPER-violent fight short (including a scene where the groom is biting the maniac's arm so hard that blood is pouring from the wound), they escape and the maniac is torn apart and drowns thanks to a wild dog!!!
Believe it or not, this REALLY is the plot of the film!! It's not exactly Masterpiece Theater or Shakespeare, but on the other hand in a salacious way, it's quite entertaining in a low-brow sort of way. The funny thing is earlier this evening I saw a "sophisticated" silent film starring the legendary Louise Brooks and I actually enjoyed this trashy tale more than Brooks' film! So, for a weird but enjoyable change of pace, give this film a try.
Instead of showing the leading man dating or getting married, the film jumps right to a scene shortly after the wedding where the new bride and groom are on a runaway wagon. The horses won't stop and ultimately the bride is thrown from to her death--a very good scene indeed--except when the corpse is shown with her eyes wide open in death and only a second later, after the man says that she is dead, her eyes are magically closed. This isn't much of a quibble--just an interesting mistake.
The grieving groom takes off in his sailboat with his friend and spends the next three years trying to forget. Eventually, fate brings them to a lonely island off the coast of Georgia that is inhabited by three crazy freaks! One is a guy who is an agoraphobic who, according to the film, still thinks the Civil War is on or some such nonsense. Another is his pretty young daughter who is an agoraphobic who wants to get out and see the world (THAT'S an interesting dichotomy). The third is a maniac who likes killing people and is described as "half man and half animal"! The groom falls for the agoraphobic lady. They ride away in his boat but then she panics and remembers that she's afraid of leaving her home, so he takes her back. However, after he sets out to sea again, he can't get her out of his mind, so he returns to find the maniac waiting to kill him. It seems that the crazy dude killed the old man and is now trying to force himself on the woman, so it's time for our hero to come to the rescue. To make a long, long and SUPER-violent fight short (including a scene where the groom is biting the maniac's arm so hard that blood is pouring from the wound), they escape and the maniac is torn apart and drowns thanks to a wild dog!!!
Believe it or not, this REALLY is the plot of the film!! It's not exactly Masterpiece Theater or Shakespeare, but on the other hand in a salacious way, it's quite entertaining in a low-brow sort of way. The funny thing is earlier this evening I saw a "sophisticated" silent film starring the legendary Louise Brooks and I actually enjoyed this trashy tale more than Brooks' film! So, for a weird but enjoyable change of pace, give this film a try.