Night Out.

It wasn’t just any old film - this was the only existing 35 mm archive print of the 1934 classic ‘Lorna Doone’ - R D Blackmore’s classic novel - which was first shown in 1935 at Minehead’s own Regal Cinema. The Cinema itself had had a grand opening in 1934 and it was thrilling to be treated to a short film recording the opening. What a splendid place it looked in those days with palms in the foyer and a wide impressive entrance with commissionaire. (Part of the ground floor now houses a supermarket) The class system was very evident with men in cloth caps, gents in ‘hets’. The ladies were more uniform with mid calf dresses, beanies and the odd dead animal round their necks. The cars were fascinating too – I could have happily watched that over and over.

Basil Dean directed the film and folk lore has it that his Aston Martin conked out on Porlock Hill because of course they filmed it on Exmoor and stunning it looked too. The film tells the story of John Ridd, the son of a decent farming family who falls in love with Lorna – supposedly a member of the evil Doone family – cutthroats and murderers, who had murdered John’s father so you can see it wasn’t a match made in heaven. Eventually Lorna flees to John’s farm and they get married in Oare Church. Some time ago I was in the church and told my DIL I didn’t know the full story so she proceeded to tell me as we stood before the altar.

‘See that window? That’s where Carver Doone (the arch villain) shot Lorna with his musket.’

My face must have fallen because she quickly said,

‘But she didn’t die.’ Huge sigh of relief.

We knew Margaret Lockwood was in it - (who remembers that marvellous quartet of stars – Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert, Stewart Granger and James Mason – two baddies and two goodies) but Margaret L was only 18 and she only got the part of John’s sister because of the illness of another actress. She was perfectly natural and clearly meant for stardom. Victoria Hopper was Lorna – she looked the part but had songs to sing and her voice was rather screechy. I’ll have to check but I think she was married to Basil.

The film was in black and white and the reel had to be changed for time to time but the audience didn’t care- audience participation was total with hisses and boos , cheers and applause and much laughter – especially in the battle and fight scenes. There was an enormous cast and villagers, farmers and local gentry played extras. The hunters brought their horses and the riding was as convincing as any western. When they all saw the finished product they grumbled that they weren’t on the screen long enough

John Loder was convincing as the gentle giant John Ridd aka Jan Ridd and was clearly an excellent horseman - there is a long tracking shot of him galloping across the moor which is amazing. He captured the gentle ruminative character of John without being too much of a country bumpkin. Roger Livesey played the dashing highway man who captured the heart of Margaret Lockwood.

The next day when I asked the girls what their impressions had been. They all loved the fight scenes – bloodthirsty creatures – I don’t want to sound girly but they were very noisy and very long - all those blunder busses. They also preferred the crowd scenes to the lovey- dovey parts and found the revels in the huge farm kitchen much to their taste. Joy enjoyed the harvesting – the blessing of the fields and the scything. One could tell from the animated discussion the film had had a great impact. We enjoyed the audience participation and agreed the best bit was at the end when John Ridd finally tossed the evil Carver Doone – who resembled a Gerald Scarfe cartoon of the most evil villain imaginable – into the terrible Wizard’s Slough and he was slowly sucked down into the ooze.

Margaret and Malcolm are clearing their house ready for the move and Malcolm has given me his Doone memorabilia including two booklets which identify the various spots in the Doone valley which makes Exmoor even more romantic. Malcolm pointed out that the scenes in the Royal Court when John follows Lorna to London were a great contrast to the Exmoor part and were most convincing.

We are lucky to have such a place as Exmoor on our doorstep and fortunate that it is still one of the best kept secret of the west. Of course I should tell you that Blackmore based his characters on real people. Two booklets I found invaluable are ‘Down in the Doone Country’ written and illustrated by Ron Barrington and ’A Day with Jan and Lorna’ by Bill Loaring but I’m not sure if they are still available.