On the Banks of Allan Water

Trigger warning:

Suicide

I accept this guidance

On the Banks of Allan Water

1916
Silent
61m

The course of true love certainly doesn't run smooth in this unlikely Scottish drama from the Clarendon Film Company.

Inspired by a popular 18th century ballad, this drama from the Clarendon Film Company is a contemporary setting of the tale in which a baronet's son falls for a miller's daughter, who he spies on the banks of the eponymous Scottish river. Authentic locations and a terrific storm scene partially rescue this implausible modern retelling, in which the heroine appears to attempt suicide when the hero has trouble extracting himself from a dinner party.

Forgotten Features

A hand-picked assortment of hard-to-see British feature films, featuring mischievous mermaids, murderous minors and military mayhem.

Thanks to decades of DVD and online publishing, not to mention archive revivals and restorations, more of Britain’s screen heritage is available today than ever before. You might even be forgiven for imagining that the whole of British cinema is now just a click away.

But much of that history - from the silent era to the relatively recent past - remains out of reach. This selection from the vaults, hand-picked by the BFI's curators, goes some way to remedying that. These fresh rediscoveries offer something for all tastes: whether futuristic fantasy, battle-of-the-sexes comedy, subversive provocation or an Indian-British rarity.