Cape Forlorn

Captain Frank Harvey leaves the shipping and takes up lighthouse keeping with his bride, Fay Compton. Isolation and the ever-surging sea take their toll, and Miss Compton falls to the brutal charms of Harvey's assistant, Edmund Willard. Then one day, another man comes into the mix when Ian Hunter's boat crashes into the lighthouse; suddenly there are a lot of men around Miss Compton, and not all of them know what's going on.

Director E. A. Dupont offers a fairly Germanic tone to this obviously symbolic tale, with a two-minute tracking shot -- shot wild, with voices and effects added -- and minimalistic set design; I can't imagine anyone would design the steps on the outside of a lighthouse without something to give traction. I also found Miss Compton's performance a bit erratic; clearly she's an Erda figure here, totally unaware of the fatal attraction she holds for all men, and then she'll offer a big gesture appropriate for the silent screen. Clearly Dupont was dealing with two different types of film making and hadn't gotten the details of directing actors in English down straight yet.

Even so, it's a lot of fun to see cameramen Jack Cox and Claude Friese-Greene demonstrate they were quite capable of producing lighting effects that were the equal of the technicians at UFA, and Alec Murray's sound editing is also effective.