Several scenes in Maurice Tourneur-directed October 1922's "Lorna Doone" has lead actor John Bowers almost drowning in a raging river and eliminating his opponent in a bog full of water. Some have suggested the water images in the 1922 film was fixated on the actor's subconscious in his struggles to secure acting roles in the new age of sound movies.
His old friend, Henry Hathaway, was directing 1936's 'Souls of the Sea' in and around Santa Catalina Island. The star of "Lorna Doone," who hadn't any significant role in any film since 1931, hopped on a rented 16-foot slope and sailed to the island to ask for a part in the picture. Unfortunately, the role had been filled. Despondent and at the end of his rope, Bowers, it was reported, simply walked into the ocean and was never seen alive again. Some have attributed Bowers' struggle with his movie career and the method of his death as an inspiration for 1937's 'A Star Is Born's' Norman Maine.
Today's viewer can witness the talent of actor Bowers as the hero in the 1922 version of Richard Blackmore's 1869 novel "Lorna Doone." This was the third incarnation of the 17th-century English tale of a family, the bad-boys Doone's, where one member kills Bower character's father. As a boy he stumbles upon youthful Lorna Doone, played by Madge Bellamy, and later rescues her. Throughout it all, Bowers is seen navigating through raging rivers and being swept over waterfalls. And water plays a crucial role towards the end, a scene where some attribute the actor to chose the method to end his life.
Tourneur had been noted as one of the best aesthetically inclined director in his time. Every frame of "Lorna Doone," it's said, can be hung up on a wall as a picture of art. Studios claimed he sacrificed the beauty of the scene for the pace of his films, concentrating on the look of his movies instead of its action. As one reviewer wrote, "the most beautiful movies are often also the slowest."
There have been five other 'Lorna Doone' movies adapted from the Blackmore novel after Tourneur's picture. But those familiar with the more modern versions claim there is none more pleasing to the eye than the 1922 picture.
