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6.8/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.8/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Tess of the Storm Country remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you love the sight of Janet Gaynor looking wistful while wearing a wet shawl, this is absolutely worth your time today. It is a cozy, rainy-Sunday kind of movie made for people who miss when stories had simple good guys and villains who basically twirl their mustaches. But if you hate old-fashioned melodramas where everyone talks like they are shouting from a theater stage, you will probably want to throw your shoe at the screen.
The plot is mostly about Tess and her dad getting kicked off their coastal land by a local rich guy named Garfield. Garfield is so mean he looks like he eats lemons for breakfast. 🍋
Then Tess saves this handsome young guy from drowning, and surprise, it turns out he is the rich guy's son, played by Charles Farrell. It is one of those classic star-crossed lovers situations, but with a lot more mud and rain than usual.
I really loved how Charles Farrell looks when he is supposedly "drowning" in the ocean. He looks more like he is doing a lazy backstroke in a very calm lake, but everyone on the beach is screaming like a shark is coming. 🦈
Also, Janet Gaynor is just so unbelievably tiny compared to him. There is a quick moment where she tries to drag his wet body up the sand, and it looks like a small ant trying to move a sleeping golden retriever.
The movie has this weird, clunky energy because it was made right in that awkward transition era of early sound. Some scenes have this dead silence where you can actually hear the actors' shoes squeaking loudly on the studio floor.
It reminded me a bit of The Squall where the microphone feels like it was hidden inside a fake flowerpot on the table and everyone is aiming their face directly at it. But once they get outside on the Maine coast, which is clearly just a dusty backlot with some damp rocks, things get more better.
Frank Rice plays Tess's dad, and he has this big beard that looks like it was glued on in a massive hurry during lunch. He gets framed for murder because of course he does, since that is just what happens to nice poor people in these old movies.
This leads to a lot of intense staring through prison bars. Personally, I noticed the prison set looked way more sturdy than their actual cottage, which seemed to be made entirely of cardboard and hope.
If you have ever sat through The Face on the Bar-Room Floor, you already know how these early 1930s dramas love their heavy-handed moralizing. But *Tess* stays pretty sweet because Gaynor and Farrell have that silent-movie chemistry that easily survives the clunky talking parts.
They had done so many films together before this one, and you can just tell they know how to look at each other. Even when the dialogue gets super corny, like when they talk about "the storm country" like it is some mystical fantasy land instead of just a soggy beach.
One tiny detail that drove me crazy was the dog. There is a little dog that wanders into several shots, and I swear it is just staring at the camera crew off-screen waiting for a biscuit the entire time. 🐶
It completely ruins the dramatic tension of the eviction scene, but honestly, I liked the dog more than the villain. The villain is played by Claude Gillingwater, and he plays it so angry you expect steam to start shooting out of his ears like a cartoon kettle.
It is definitely not a masterpiece, and some of the middle parts drag like a wet blanket. But it has this cozy, dusty charm that you just do not find in modern films anymore.
IMDb 5.2
1926
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