AllMovie

Unfortunately now lost, 1915's Far From the Madding Crowd was the first cinemadaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel. Florence Turner, a Hollywood star who spent most of the pre-World War I years in England, is cast as Hardy's heroine Bathsheba Everdene (the part played by Julie Christie in the 1966 version). Turner's husband Larry Trimble served as director. In simplest terms, the plot concerns a farm girl who marries an army sergeant then almost immediately regrets it. Another of the girl's suitors kills the husband, leaving the heroine free to marry the man she really loves. It is difficult to believe that Thomas Hardy's heady prose was properly represented within the 60-minute running time of Far From the Madding Crowd.