Fox Farm

This 1922 film is based on a 1911 novel by Wawick Deeping. Story follows Jesse Falconer (Guy Newall), a fatalist who runs a failing farm and is married to a nagging harridan (Barbara Everest), who calls him a fool. Falconer refuses to worry about what is fated to be, yet is a sentimental man.

The Wetherells are neighbors, headed by a cruel and abusive father who beats his son on a regular basis. His elder daughter Ann (Ivy Duke) is a gentle soul who is powerless to stop her father's abuses. When she comes upon some village boys abusing a dog, she intervenes and is set upon by the larger boy. Falconer happens by and rescues both Ann and the dog.

The dog instantly bonds with Falconer, but the wife threatens to get rid of it. After Falconer is blinded in a hideous farm accident, the wife takes over the farm and embarks on an affair with another man. Eventually Ann comes to work in the house as a cook to escape her father and secretly falls in love with the sad Falconer.

Eventually Falconer becomes aware of his wife's infidelity and sets in motion what is fated to be.

Guy Newall turns in a powerful performance as the fatalist, and Ivy Duke is excellent in a change-of-pace role. Barbara Everest is also very good in the thankless role of the harridan. A. Bromley Davenport is the cruel Wetherell, Charles Evemy is the son, Cameron Carr is the other man, and John Alexander plays the wandering gossip and religious fanatic.

Slow, somber, and beautifully done.

Guy Newall is the dreamy owner of a failing farm, unhappily married to Barbara Everest. Ivy Duke is the daughter of a neighboring farmer, who is cruel to his children. The two leads bond over a dog Miss Duke rescues, but has to give up. Newall loses his eyes -- indicated by playing the rest of the movie with his eyes shut -- and Miss Duke comes to work at his farm as a maid-of-all-work.

I found this movie sweet, but a bit title-heavy. It's a common failing of silent British adaptations of novels. Miss Duke is a handsome, strapping girl with a strong jaw. Miss Everest struck me as someone who would come to look like Marjorie Main.

The stars were newly married at the time of the production, although they had been collaborating professionally since 1919. Their marriage ended in 1929. They both died in 1937.