Monday, May 17, 2010

1914 - THE WISHING RING: An Idyll of Old England, a little charmer of a comedy

For an early silent picture, The Wishing Ring was a pretty delightful film to watch.  From the opening scene of a chorus of women prancing in front of a Proscenium stage to the final tracking shot, the director Maurice Tourneur showed a pretty deft touch with the actors and the gentle humor of the story.


A young girl thinks she has purchased a magical ring from some gypsies and uses it to fix the relationship between a rich land owner and his son.


This little piece of whimsy only about about an hour long, but considering some of the more recent love stories I have sat through, seems a lot more realistic and contemporary than a lot of love stories.  These types of films are still extremely hard to do.


Maurice Tourneur was a strong visual director and he was also  smart enough to know not to pad out this story with a lot of irrelevant detail.

54 minutes.

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