The Lure of Crooning Water

Arthur Rooke: The Lure of the Crooning Water (1920). Photo: Internet Movie Database.

THE LURE OF CROONING WATER (George Clark Productions, GB 1920)
    Dir/prod: Arthur Rooke; sc: Guy Newall, dal romanzo di / from the novel by Marion Hill; ph: Joe Rosenthal, Jr.; des: Charles Dalman; cast: Ivy Duke, Guy Newall, Mary Dibley, Hugh C. Buckler, Arthur Chesney, Lawford Davison, i bambini Hood / the Hood children, Chuh Ah Moy; trade show: 1.1920; 35 mm, 6237 ft, 84’ (20 fps), BFI / National Film and Television Archive.
    Didascalie in inglese / English intertitles.
    Viewed at Teatro Zancanaro, Sacile, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto (GCM) (Asquith e gli altri), 15 Oct 2004.

Bryony Dixon (GCM): "Ivy Duke plays Georgette Verlaine, a sophisticated and jaded city actress suffering from exhaustion who is sent by her doctor friend for a rest cure to a farm in the country, where she causes the farmer, Horace (Guy Newall), to fall in love with her. The tensions between the hard work and simple morals of the rural environment and the excesses of the town are thrown into sharp relief when he later follows her to the city. The setting-up of the romance starts lightly, as she mocks him for his coarseness and he shows his disapproval of her frivolity. This is frequently juxtaposed with the homeliness and drudgery of the farmer’s wife Rachel (Mary Dibley), although the husband and wife seem to exist together happily enough."

"Of Ivy Duke’s charms in the film, historian Rachael Low said that they held “just that touch of refinement and distinction that might cause resentment in a village”, and Duke does indeed play the part with great subtlety. Likewise, Newall’s portrayal of his developing passion for her is beautifully restrained. The pivotal scene takes place in a thunderstorm, prefigured metaphorically in the intertitles: “Rachel didn’t see the storm clouds gathering.” As Rachel comforts the children upstairs, Georgette invades the farmer’s private study. As the lightning flashes, he sneeringly asks if she is afraid. “ No,” she says, “I want someone to revel in it with me”. Bodies move closer; he follows her off screen; fade to black. A great movie moment, even if the lightning is a bit cheap."

"This was one of the first George Clark/Guy Newall feature collaborations. It was made with very little money, and cramped studio space, but ironically this forced the team (with Rooke directing and Joe Rosenthal, Jr. on camera) to shoot as much as possible on location, greatly to the benefit of the final film." Bryony Dixon (GCM)

AA: The theme of the collapsing diva reminds me of Persona. Crooning Water is the name of a place, of which it is said that it is "the back of beyond". (A Finnish expression would be "tuppukylä").