LORNA DOONE

Grahame N's Web Pages

Main titles from the Network DVD, can't find my 9.5mm print!

Renown poster for their re-release of the film in 1945 (courtesy Maurice Trace)

Trade flyer from Renown re-issue

SB.30246 (4 reels) UK 9.5mm silent film release by Pathéscope - November 1937
(Also released in the UK by Pathéscope on 17.5mm optical sound as T.7023 - 10 reels in August 1937)

"LORNA DOONE"                 GB 19Dec1934     Dir: Basil Dean
---------------                  A.T.P. (Associated Talking Pictures)
90mins B/W                       Produced by: Basil Dean
(Approx 34 mins on 9.5mm/ full length on 17.5mm sound)
Cert "A"                         Produced at Ealing Studios, UK 
                                 Distributed by: Associated British
Assistant Director: Carol Reed
Based on the novel "Lorna Doone" (1869) by: R.D. Blackmore
Screenplay by: Dorothy Farnum, Miles Malleson, Gordon Wellesley 
Cinematography:  Robert Martin 
Edited by: Jack Kitchin
Original music: C. Armstrong Gibbs
Orchestration & Musical Direction: Ernest Irving

(Originally released for the cinema in 1935, and re-released in 1945 by Renown Pictures)

Cast:  
    Victoria Hopper ......... Lorna Doone
    John Loder .............. John Ridd 
    Margaret Lockwood ....... Annie Ridd
    Roy Emerton ............. Carver Doone
    Mary Clare .............. Mistress Sara Ridd
    Edward Rigby ............ Reuben 'Uncle Ben' Huckaback
    Roger Livesey ........... Tom Faggus
    George Curzon ........... King James 11
    D.A. Clarke-Smith ....... Counsellor Doone
    Lawrence Hanray ......... Parson Bowden
    Amy Veness .............. Betty Muxworthy 
    Eliot Makeham ........... John Fry 
    Wyndam Goldie ........... Chief Judge Jeffries
    Frank Cellier ........... Capt Jeremy Stickles
    Herbert Lomas ........... Sir Ensor Doone

"1673 - The maurauding Doomes terrorise Exmoor and murder farmer Ridd. Jan, his twelve year old son, swears vengeance.
Later the boy is concealed from the outlaws by a young girl - Lorna Doone. Nine years later, they meet again and fall in love.
When she escapes to the Ridd farm, brother Carver Doone and his men attack the dwelling, but are driven off. After more
violence, the locals unite and wipe out the brigands with only Carver getting away. It is revealed that Lorna is not really a
Doone, but the daughter of nobility, who had been kidnapped as an infant. In a country church she marries Jan, but is shot
by Carver. Jan pursues him on to the moor where Doone dies in a bog. Lorna survives her injury."

(Description from Maurice Trace's fantastic "Guide to Pathescope Silent 9.5mm Dramas, Thrillers, Adventures and Western Films")

Pathéscope Monthly magazine Aug/Sept 1937

Pathéscope Monthly magazine October 1937

Pathéscope Monthly magazine - November 1937

Now available on DVD on
"The Ealing Studios Rareties Collection Volume 11"
a four film / two DVD set from
Network / Studio Canal

(try Amazon etc.)

By the way, it includes the "Lorna Doone" cinema trailer!

Notes:

 1. Not to be confused with the Pathéscope 9.5mm 1 reel notched 9.5mm release
    S.20007 "Lorna Doone" which is a British silent film dating from 1920. 

 2. The third screen version of the story, the first with sound.  A
    further screen version appeared in 1951.

 3. The Radio Times noted - "Margaret Lockwood, in her screen debut, is a
    ravishing beauty. The story still holds water, even if the acting and
    the techniques of 1934 may leak a bit."

 4. An early screen appearance by Margaret Lockwood who plays the minor role
    of Annie Ridd. She later became a big star of British Cinema. When 
    Renown reissued "Lorna Doone" in 1945, their publicity put her name in
    larger letters than the rest of the cast.
    
 5. There was extensive location shooting in the West Country.

 6. Victoria Hopper was the third wife of Basil Dean.

 7. It was reported that much to the Director's distress, the film was derided
    at the Charity premiere.

(Extra Info gratefully added from Maurice Trace, Wikipedia  and gln)

Return to: 9.5MM PATHESCOPE SILENT FILM CATALOGUE ........... ALPHA .......... NUMERIC

Return to: 17.5MM PATHESCOPE SOUND FILM CATALOGUE ......... 17.5MM