The Lady from the Sea

British International Pictures who produced this film were responsible for the production of Britain's first full length sound film Blackmail.They turned ailments into part talkies by making the second half into talking pictures.In this instance they effectively remade the film as a talking picture using a few sequences from the silent film.Presumably it must have been worth their while as this film would serve as the bottom half of a double bill for quota purposes.Ray Mill and was quite caustic about this film in his autobiography,but it is an entertaining and interesting curio.Also interesting to see Moore Marriott a few years before he found fame with Will Hay.

This was made as a silent film, then they re-shot it again with sound. They didn't change the directorial or acting style whatsoever or write anything approaching believable dialogue so the result is the worst of both worlds.

A tiny handful of directors managed to make their first talking pictures absolutely right first time but very, very few. Most 'first efforts' even from some top directors were either awful or really awful. Castleton Knight might have had a fantastic name but he was no Rouben Mamoulian - this is really, really awful. Even some of those poor 'first efforts' are still entertaining and enjoyable, they're not just museum curios; they're watchable just as movies. This is only interesting as an example of BIP's bumpy transition from the silent to sound age.

It's also interesting to see veteran actor Moore Marriott before he became Will Hay's 'Harbottle.' He actually puts in a reasonable performance - compared with everyone else anyway.

If this was a silent, where any complexity or subtlety wasn't possible, it might have been a passable story. With the addition of the atrocious, unbelievably unbelievable dialogue however it feels utterly absurd. Had they not decided to add the tiresome sing-song at the beginning you could almost watch this with the sound turned off. It might be better that way because visually, it's not too bad. The on-location scenes filmed on the north east Kent coast especially add a degree of authenticity but the whole thing is ruined by the failed attempt to turn a mediocre silent drama into a talkie.

Moore Marriott is the head of a family in the life-boat service, along with wife Anita Graham and sons Ray Milland and Bruce Gordon. Milland pulls Mona Goya from a wreck. She's fine, though he is badly injured, and his marriage to Eugeni Amami has to be delayed until he recovers. When he does, Miss Goya is there to hire the family boat for beach parties at which she takes time from guests to vamp the brothers. They get into a fight over her, and Gordon is killed. A tsimmis ensues.

Visually it's pure late silent. In terms of sound.... well, there's an opening sequence in which the simple seafolk are partying and singing old tunes, and it's clearly meant to show off what British International Pictures can do with sound as long as people are not expected to be moving about. Once that's done, however, the films takes a turn towards awful. Marriott is all right in a dramatic turn, Milland is adequate -- although something is seriously wrong with his voice. After that, the performances are terrible, speaking their words slowly and in a manner that suggests they are more interested in enunciating clearly than any emotional weight. Given the cut-rate Erda plot centering around Miss Goya, there's little to recommend this movie except to Milland completists.