Tragedy of the Cornish Coast

A keen lifeboat crew stars in this exaggerative romance featuring a Cornish rescue mission.

Oversized characters populate this drama about a jealous fisherman who kidnaps a local girl when she falls in love with a travelling artist. A lifeboat team - arguably the real heroes of the hour - is corralled in attempt to make the rescue. B&C, the London-based producers of the picture, were well-regarded at the time for both feature films and documentary-style items.

If this all looks a little melodramatic at times, it's worth considering that the stars of silent dramas would often have to compensate for a lack of sound with exaggerative acting - as perfectly evidenced by the mad histrionics of the jealous fisherman. They were also likely to have come from backgrounds in the theatre, which is now viewed as an altogether different acting platform.