This charming adaptation of a story by British humourist W.W. Jacobs, stars the irrepressible Florence Turner, the former “Vitagraph Girl”, who had been one of the most popular American movie stars in the 1900s and early 1910s, and Victor McLaglen, before he went off to make westerns with John Ford. The story tells of an ex-boatswain (a sailor) who is eager to win the hand of the landlady at the local pub. He bribes an ex-soldier to stage a house-breaking, so that he can win her in a heroic last-minute rescue. The plan begins to unravel when the faux-burglar (McLaglen) and his victim, the landlady (Turner) are instantly smitten. It’s the feisty shotgun-wielding landlady who puts the boatswain in his place. At only 30 minutes long, this delicious little featurette has very funny stick-figure, illustrated intertitles and the sight of Turner’s “little woman” (as the Boatswain describes her), sitting up at midnight reading Dracula and munching biscuits is a rare joy. The skill is in the adaptation to film by Britain’s best screenwriter of the 1920s, Lydia Hayward.

Bryony Dixon