Short Film Review: The Pearl Comb – “packs a whole lot into such a short run time.”

Directed by Ali Cook
Starring Beatie Edney, Clara Paget, Ali Cook, Simon Armstrong

Writer, director and actor Ali Cook’s intriguing short film arrives with a most-impressive list of awards garnered at forty international film festivals, including the Méliès d’Argent, as well as qualifying for the 2026 Academy Awards. Set in 1893, on the rugged coastline of the West Country, we see a middle-aged lady, Betty Lutey (Highlander’s Beatie Edney), fussing nervously with her hair and clothing as she awaits a visitor at her remote, coastal cottage.

It transpires that her visitor is a young man, a doctor, who also happens to be related to her. Betty, it appears, has acquired something of a local reputation as a folk-healer, the sort of thing not unknown in rural areas of the period, and which would likely have remained just a local story, until it is widely reported that she cured a young lad of tuberculosis. The medical establishment (which in Victorian England means a lot of influential, wealthy, white, middle and upper class men, with, let us say, a pretty guarded interest in being the gatekeepers in regards to curing people), have sent Doctor Gregory Lutey (Ali Cook) to investigate.

The tale that Beatie spins is a fantastical one – she claims she didn’t so much cure the case of tuberculosis, at least not in the normal medical sense, she “healed” it, using her gift, which in turn was a gift from her late husband, Lutey (Simon Armstrong). Upright, Victorian medical man that he is, Gregory is rather sceptical of this claim. Betty recounts to him a tale of her late husband, how Lutey had gone foraging for medicinal plants but did not come home one evening. Assuming he was drunk on local home-brew, she tracks him down a day later, sleeping in a barn, surrounded by bottles, but claiming not to have touched a drop. Instead he seems badly shaken, and recounts an incredible tale to his disbelieving wife.

Old Lutey tells her of hearing a strange singing from the rocky shoreline as he was foraging, and on following the sound, finds the remarkable sight of a mermaid, sitting by a rock pool, fish tail and all. After being initially startled by the appearance of a human, the mermaid begins to speak to him, and then requests his help, offering gifts and wishes in return, such a riches, which she assumes all men want, but Lutey is happy to simply help her and doesn’t care about vast wealth. In fact the only thing that he can think of he’d like as a wish, is the ability to heal people of illness, especially his wife.

Of course, as any of us know, offers of services and wishes from any residents of the Otherworld should always be taken with caution – they always come attached with terms, not all of which are good for you. And that’s assuming he’s telling the truth – Betty is, understandably, not convinced, until he produces the pearl comb from the mermaid’s hair and demonstrates his healing ability.

At this point, Gregory is not exactly taken with this story – a fine yarn for the grandchildren, of course, but not a serious explanation for her supposed healing abilities that he, as a doctor, chosen to investigate this case, can accept seriously, even though he is related to her. In fact he’s quite dismissive of her, and of women in general, with all the scorn of a patriarchal Victorian man, sure of his place in the world and acknowledging nothing that science cannot explain (and certainly sure that there are strict places for what women can and cannot do).

While interesting, and very well-made, this could easily have moved into a predictable third act, but instead – well, no spoilers, of course, but suffice to say Cook brought together a satisfying conclusion, drawing on aspects of science, of folklore, and drawing inspiration from real history (such as the early women medical pioneers who had to fight to be recognised). The Pearl Comb packs a whole lot into such a short run time – it sets up its premise swiftly but assuredly, introduces its characters and then mixes elements of drama, horror and fantasy into a piece with some social commentary thrown in too, all in about twenty minutes – impressive.