LORNA DOONE

From Richard Doddfridge Blackmore’s mid-nineteenth-century English historical novel ‘Lorna Doone’, countless versions have been made in both the silent and sound eras, but this 1922 production directed by Maurice Tourneur is considered the best. Like most adaptations, romance and action coexist in the midst of the English Civil War. John Ridd is the son of a respectable farmer murdered in cold blood by a member of the Doones, a once noble family turned outlaw. Repressing his desire for revenge, John takes care of his mother and two sisters, until he falls madly in love with Lorna, a girl he meets by chance who turns out to be Sir Ensor Doone’s granddaughter destined to marry against her will the impetuous Carver Doone… In ‘Lorna Doone’ Maurice Tourneur masterfully uses natural lighting to frame his actors, achieving a remarkable pictorial effect.