Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Synd (Gustaf Molander, 1928)

Swedish Silent Film director Gustaf Molander had in fact been at the Intima Theatern from 1911 to 1913.
In regard to the film “Synd”, Forsyth Hardy writes, “The Merzback influence had helped to scale down the Strindberg drama into a thriller.” In his volume Scandinavian Film, Forsyth Hardy, while outlining that there had been a turn to a more theatrical style in cinema just prior to the advent of the sound film and, for economic reasons, an attempt to make films that could be exported, mentions that there had been a departure from the tradition of the Golden Age of Swedish silent film that conversely gained little recognition outside of Sweden. Paul Merzbach had become head of the script writing department and produced films directed by Gustaf Molander that were, according to Hardy, “superficial rootless products”.

The periodical Close Up reviewed the film with, "A Swedish picture, Sin develops from darkness. Photography is uncannily natural. One cannot see the faces of the actors, only the shimmer of a tinsel, evening sea. This is modern in the best sense of the new school of photography."

Starring in the film “Synd” (Sin, 1928) were Lars Hansonand Elissa Landi. The cinematographer of the film was Julius Jaenzon with Ake Dahlquist as assistant camerman.


Gustaf Molander

Gustaf Molander

Scandinavian Silent Film

Lars Hanson

Scott Lord Silent Film: Greta Garbo in Love (Edmund Goulding,1927)

Norman Zierold, in Garbo, his autobiography of Greta Garbo, mentions the willingness of M.G.M. to increase its budget on the films of Greta Garbo now that she had previously starred in three earlier films. The studio had originally slated Dmitri Buchowetsky to direct and Richard Cortez to star in the film "Love". "On seeing the early rushes the studio heaads were dissatisfied. They decided to scrap the footage, replace Buchowetsky with Edmond Goulding and Cortez with John Gilbert....The cost of the shifting of forces was nearly a quarter of a million dollars."

The film was photographed by William Daniels.

John Gilbert during 1927 also appeared in the films "Twelve Miles Out" (eight reels) directed by Jack Conway and starring Eileen Percy and "Man, Woman and Sin" (seven reels), directed by Monta Bell and starring actress Jeanne Eagles. Greta Garbo in Love silent Film

The extratextural discourse that included fan magazines exploiting the Garbo-Gilbert affair during 1927 alluded to it while reviewing the performance of John Gilbert in "Man, Woman and Sin" (seven reels), which the periodical Photoplay saw as being of interest because of the actor and actress being paired together, but concluded, "Miss Garbo needn't worry over Miss Eagles", it having purported that the film and oart played by the actress was tailored to substitute for Greta Garbo ie. it being a John Gilbert vehicle in that stars as commodity fulfill the audience exoectations of genres as they develop. "Monta Bell knows his city room. After that the film disintegrates into cheap melodrama. "Man, Woman and Sin", by virtue of it being lost silent film is included in the volume Lost Films written by Gary Carey, Museum of Modern Art. A comeback film for which actress Jeanne Eagles was "extrememely well recieved", Gary Carey writes, "Few of her films have been preserved and thus has been lost the record of the most heralded actress of the decade."

While situating John Gilbert in a genre that contained torrid love scenes with the headline "Bell in Hot Tilt Over Seductive Siren", the periodical Moving Picture World traced the work of director Monta Bell after he taken Greta Garbo from a developing genre driven by the Vamp character to a genre of driven by the quest of two isolated lovers, with actress Jean Eagles providing "Much interest, especially among women." Moving Picture World chronicled the now lost film with "The director Monta Bell- he wrote the story too- has his job cut out for him in guiding his two lovers through the maze of their emotional eruptions for the least padding here, or the meerest off-shade there would have resulted in extracting the sauce of plausibility from the seasoning."
The film was photographed by Percy Hilburn. The periodical Close-Up sheds some light upon technique searched for by film detectives of lost silent films,"Use is made of a mix consisting of a fade-out and iris-in. With brightly lit futuristic sets, this effect has a certain'chic', like a neat fashion plaque from 'Vogue'." Bell may have been aiming for the moderninity later present in the Greta Garbo-John Gilbert film "The Single Standard".

Scott Lord Silent Film: The King on Main Street (Monta Bell, 1926)

Actresses Bessie Love and Greta Nissen appear in "The King on Main Street" (seven reels), directed in 1926 by Monta Bell. Silent Film Monta Bell