Malachi's Cove (also known as The Seaweed Children) is a 1974 British-Canadian coming-of-age period drama film directed by Henry Herbert and starring Donald Pleasence, Veronica Quilligan and Dai Bradley.[1][2] It is based on the 1964 short story Malachi's Cove by Anthony Trollope.

Malachi's Cove
Lobby card
Directed byHenry Herbert
Written byHenry Herbert
Based onMalachi's Cove
by Anthony Trollope
Produced byAndrew Sinclair
Kent Walwin
StarringDonald Pleasence
Veronica Quilligan
Dai Bradley
CinematographyWalter Lassally
Edited byTeddy Darvas
Music byBrian Gascoigne
Production
company
Penrith Productions
Distributed byImpact Quadrant Films
Release date
  • 29 November 1974 (1974-11-29)
Running time
86 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
Canada
LanguagesEnglish
Cornish

Plot

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In North Cornwall, 1880, Mally Trenglos, a tough young girl aged sixteen, collects seaweed and sells it as fertilizer for the local farmers. She lives with her grandfather Malachi in a little hut above the cove where she collects seaweed. Her parents died two years before from drowning. When Mally's mother discovered her father's body, she wanted him to be buried and stayed with his body in a dangerous storm. Mally went in the village to get help but no one came. The Gunliffes, a local farming family, answered but did not believe her. By the time she was back at the sea, Mally's mother had also drowned.

The film focuses on the life of Mally, her grandfather and Barty Gunliffe, a local boy (son of the family who did not believe Mally when she claimed of her mum's drowning) who keeps taking weed from their cove. Barty and Mally remain enemies until one day when Barty comes to prove to Mally that he is not afraid of the stormy ocean. As a result, he hits his head on a rock. He is unconscious but Mally manages to pull him from the sea. Luckily, though, Barty survives. However, Mrs. Gunliffe, who despises Mally, has a suspicion that Mally tried to kill him. In the end, Barty and Mally become friends and the film ends with Barty helping Mally collect the seaweed.

Cast

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Production

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Jacquemine Charrott Lodwidge was the film's art director.

The film was made at Bray Studios and the location filming was carried out in Trebarwith Strand but most was in Clovelly.[citation needed]

Reception

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The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "It's pleasing to see a modest British film avoiding the usual tired formats for U certificate entertainment, but sadly there is little dramatic conviction behind the pretty pictures of Cornish coves, cliffs and cobbles. The flashbacks to the drowning and failed rescue attempt occur too frequently, and the performers only emphasise the uncomfortably bogus nature of the whole enterprise. Veronica Quilligan, as the urchin heroine, looks as though she regularly has four square meals a day, while Donald Pleasence – pipe in mouth, coughing and muttering Old Cornish proverbs (all of them swiftly translated for the uninitiated) – provides some swiftly fading colour. 'Oh yes, you laugh at my Cornish', he says scornfully at one point. Yes indeed, unfortunately."[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Malachi's Cove". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 19 September 2024.
  2. ^ "The Seaweed Children (1977) | BFI". Ftvdb.bfi.org.uk. Archived from the original on 29 January 2009. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
  3. ^ "Malachi's Cove". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 44 (516): 197. 1 January 1977 – via ProQuest.
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