I Watch Films: Lorna Doone (1951)

 

Lorna Doone (1951)

In Exmoor at the start of the Restoration, the farmers have been under the yoke of their overlords the Doone family. They over-reached themselves, backing the wrong side (Parliament) and the Doone’s have been outlawed. However when farmer Ridd leads a group wanting to stop paying their rents to the Doones, he’s killed.

His young son John Ridd wants revenge, but the Doone castle is impregnable, the only entrance being fortified and the rest surrounded by cliffs. Not quite impregnable though, it’s possible to climb the waterfall. There he meets the younger Doones, Lorna, who likes him, Carver and Charleworth, bullies. He is taken to the Patriarch Sir Ensor Doone who admires his daring and tells him to go away until he’s tall enough to cast a shadow on the door.

Some years later John Ridd returns from King Charles' foreign wars to discover the Doones still in charge, and if anything worse with Carver causing trouble. He tries to organise the men, only to be caught and flogged, only to be saved by Lorna. He and a rhyming outlaw cousin secretly organise. They discover a secret – that Lorna is not Sir Ensor’s daughter, but in fact the kidnapped child of a relative of the king. Meanwhile Carver takes control of the Doones against Sir Ensor’s wishes and plans to marry Lorna.

This streamlines a rather rambling novel into a Hollywood swashbuckler, losing much of the history and politics (and, for that matter, religion). The fights are best when duels, Carver is pretty good as a villain and Lorna manages to exert some influence on the plot, which keeps wanting to force her to be a damsel in pretty frocks.

Watch This: Bright, enjoyable swashbuckler
Don’t Watch This: Washes away almost all the specific bits that make the novel interesting