I both enjoyed it and struggled with it. Everywhere I look they say it is 97 or 98 minutes, but it feels so much longer than that. It's a silent movie, so you have to pay very close attention. Then it has a musical soundtrack that, in my case, induces sleepiness. I bet I took three naps just trying to make it through this one film, stopping the DVD of course each time.
But like I said that doesn't mean it wasn't enjoyable, because it was. There were, however, many scenes that could've been shortened or even left out all together. But it looks like the theory was that a silent movie needed longs of prolonged close-ups to get the full story across, the emotional transformations that a person makes.
The premise of the film is that a farmer's wife died, and he eventually decides to remarry. He makes a list of the eligible bachelorettes he can think of in the area. He has a housekeeper, but for some reason never considers her. Then we step through the attempts to marry the women on the list, each of whom reject his proposal. In the picture above, the woman on the left is the housekeeper, Araminta Dench (called 'Minta) played by Lilian Hall-Davis. The woman in the middle is one of the women on the list, my favorite character, Thirza Tapper played by Maud Gill. The man is not the farmer, but the farmer's handyman, Churdles Ash, played by Gordon Harker.
Each of these characters I really came to like, to the point that I wasn't really thinking about the characters so much but the individuals who played them. The others were great too. Maybe my least favorite was the farmer himself, who, even though he had land, animals, etc., didn't seem like that great a guy. I don't think I would've married him either, like if we were in a state that allowed that. Of course I know it was the premise of the film that had to be worked through, but anyone who would overlook the housekeeper for that much of the movie would have to be a blockhead. She was clearly the best girl in town, and already right under his own roof!
Of the four women who rejected him, I would only have good things to say. They played their characters excellently. I liked the mousy, fussy Thirza Tapper best. The farmer shows up to a party at her place a half hour early and it's a lot of fun watching her, very flustered, get ready to go down and meet him, since she has to work on her make-up, hair, etc. She really looks the part, her face and mannerisms.
One other thing, Gordon Harker plays a hilarious handyman, with a lot of excellent mannerisms. The camera's on him a lot, being very comic.
