In dieser Verfilmung einer englischen Kurzgeschichte weist die Wirtin Mrs. Waters einen aufdringlichen Verehrer in seine Schranken. Ein ehemaliger Bootsmann inszeniert mit Hilfe eines Ex-Soldaten einen vorgetäuschten Einbruch, um die „oh so kleine und schwache Frau“ zu retten und somit als Held ihr Herz zu erobern. Doch die „Dracula“ lesende und mit der Flinte hantierende Herzensdame dreht den Spieß um und nimmt die Geschichte nach ihrem Geschmack in die Hand. Florence Turner brilliert als kluge und unabhängige starke Frau, deren Charakterzüge der genialen Drehbuchautorin Lydia Hayward zu verdanken sind.
W. W. Jacobs had a great talent for gentle British comedy and the authentic argot of the coastal communities. Born in 1863, the son of a London commercial dock manager, this Wapping wharf rat wandered freely among the sailors, picking up their dialect and tall tales. He started writing stories for Jerome K. Jerome’s magazines and later, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, had a long run in the Strand. His stories were collected, and he wrote novels and plays which were hugely popular.
Inevitably the film companies came calling and several adaptations were filmed in the 1910s, but it was the films of Manning Haynes and Lydia Hayward for Artistic Films that really brought the stories to life on the screen. This director/writer partnership had met when they were acting during the First World War, and they collaborated on a version of THREE MEN IN A BOAT in 1920 (sadly lost) with Haynes’s dog starring as Montmorency. It was so successful that they followed up with another doggy pic, MONTY WORKS THE WIRES (1921). Jacobs himself sanctioned the films and seems to have taken to Lydia Hayward. She recalled the happy relationship in an interview: “I have done scenarios for 14 of W. W. Jacobs’ books, and we sit hand in hand at all the trade screenings of the films.” Six of these survive at the BFI.
Bryony Dixon, bfi.org.uk, 1 June 2023
THE BOATSWAIN’S MATE, one of the author’s best known stories, is splendidly treated. The humours of the ex-bo’sun, desirous of marrying the innproprietress and arranging a mock burglary to show his courage are well exploited. The accomplice, an ex-Service man, is too clever for the covetous admirer, and the lady “spoofs” the scheming man be declaring she has killed the burglar and making him dig a grave. The terrified man does so; but arriving in the morning with a wreath, finds that his accomplice is alive and the lady’s accepted suitor. A very strong cast includes Victor McLaglen, who is splendid as the accomplice, and Florence Turner, whose performance as the widow is full of delightful touches. Johnny Butt is broadly comic without ever descending to mere buffoonery, and J. E. Barber plays a small part well. The whole picture refreshing, and the situations well treated.
The Motion Picture Studio, 20 January 1924
