Whilst that Genesis song is ultimately about finding hope and light at the end of a dark tunnel, this film is relentlessly miserable and leaves you wishing you hadn't watched it. That's assuming you can make it to the end through the quagmire of despair and bad, really bad writing.
Silent film maker, Harry Pollard actually does a reasonable job using sound to imaginatively enhance his picture. As you'd expect from an experienced silent film director, he creates effective contrast in mood between the sunny, beach based first half with the dark, damp and claustrophobic latter part. As effective as he is with the look of the film, he is completely out of his depth in directing his cast. Acting in a silent film was a totally different skill to acting in a "talker." Silent film stars directed by a silent film director with a truly lousy script is a recipe for disaster.
Mary Nolan isn't too bad and considering her terrible and tragic life (she was nearly beaten to death by her monstrous boyfriend, MGM's 'fixer' a few months earlier) it must have been hard for her to act in those scenes of physical abuse. Her life was so sad. Unfortunately she still comes across as a silent film star not doing a particularly good job as a talking picture star. Even so, she's ten times better than Johnny Mack Brown - he's staggeringly awful.....and as for Robert Ellis, I think we can see why nobody's heard of him!
You don't get too many films set in lighthouses and maybe that's why this is surprisingly memorable - but it's not a memory you want. Even if was made better it would still be a miserable and pointless mess. Listen to Genesis instead!
Silent film maker, Harry Pollard actually does a reasonable job using sound to imaginatively enhance his picture. As you'd expect from an experienced silent film director, he creates effective contrast in mood between the sunny, beach based first half with the dark, damp and claustrophobic latter part. As effective as he is with the look of the film, he is completely out of his depth in directing his cast. Acting in a silent film was a totally different skill to acting in a "talker." Silent film stars directed by a silent film director with a truly lousy script is a recipe for disaster.
Mary Nolan isn't too bad and considering her terrible and tragic life (she was nearly beaten to death by her monstrous boyfriend, MGM's 'fixer' a few months earlier) it must have been hard for her to act in those scenes of physical abuse. Her life was so sad. Unfortunately she still comes across as a silent film star not doing a particularly good job as a talking picture star. Even so, she's ten times better than Johnny Mack Brown - he's staggeringly awful.....and as for Robert Ellis, I think we can see why nobody's heard of him!
You don't get too many films set in lighthouses and maybe that's why this is surprisingly memorable - but it's not a memory you want. Even if was made better it would still be a miserable and pointless mess. Listen to Genesis instead!