Scott Lord on the Silent Film of Greta Garbo, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, John Brunius, Gustaf Molander - the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film........Lost Films in Found Magazines: Victor Seastrom directing John Gilbert and Lon Chaney, the printed word offering clues to deteriorated celluloid, extratextual discourse illustrating how novels were adapted to the screen; the photoplay as a literature, a social phenomenon; how it was reviewed, audience reception.
Scott Lord on Silent Film
Gendered spectatorship notwithstanding, in a way, the girl coming down the stairs is symbolic of the lost film itself, the unattainable She, idealized beauty antiquated (albeit it being the beginning of Modernism), with the film detective catching a glimpse of the extratextural discourse of periodicals and publicity stills concerning Lost Films, Found Magazines
The caption to the review of "A Girl's Folly" (five reels) in the periodical Wid's Films and Film Folk during March 1917 read "Bad Moral and Tells Secrets, But Will Get Money." It elaborated further with "Very interesting, but tells studio secrets, which is dangerous," if that too can be deciphered by a modern audience sauntering through the cannon of silent films left remaining that have not yet deteriorated over time. The periodical then went so far as to, half-heartedly or not, suggest that "exhibitors", theater owners, should "protest" the film's having divulged what were "backstage secrets". The periodical admittedly was looking for the exploitation of silent films but it takes a historian's glance to decided if there was a sensationalism on which the reviewer may have counted during an extratextural discourse. It continued to question "purely from the viewpoint of whether you can get money with it" and conceded, "The thread of the story is quite slender and has a very questionable moral as presented, but the introduction of scenes showing clearly activity about a film studio is sure to prove exceptionally interisting to any film fan." It offerred the theater owner consolation, "Since the producer has already gone and 'done it', I presume you might as well go ahead and get the money with this, because it would be impossible to eliminate the back-stage scenes and have a picture left."
The photoplay was cowritten with director Maurice Tourneaur by Frances Marion and starred actresses Doris Kenyon, Robert Warwick and June Eldvidge. Frances Marion that year also wrote the photplays to
to the films Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Poor Little Rich Girl both starring Mary Pickford. Actress Doris Kenyon appeared on screen in the films of Alice Guy Blanche, in 1916 in the film "The Queen's Waif" and in 1917 in "The Empress". During 1917 Robert Warwick and Doris Kenyon also starred together in "The Man Who Forgot" (Emile Chautard). The film is presumed to be a lost silent film, with no surviving copies existing. Silent FilmSilent Film
Scholar Bo Florin gives us a point of departure when seeking to analyze the ten reel film “Lady to Love” and the transition from silent to sound film by placing director Victor Sjostrom as part of the M.G.M. Studio, adding that Sjostrom had ushered in the beginning of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film with his adapation of Ibsen’s poem Terje Vigen and effected the transition which would be carried through the merger of Swedish film companies that had changed Svenska Bio to Svenska Filmindustri, and in doing so it is important to Florin that both transitions were from quantity to quality when involving Victor Sjostrom.
Bo Florin sees the transition of silent to sound film as one that depicts both off screen and onscreen space through the use of diegetic sound. Florin sees the film "Lady to Love" as important when analysizing "the intersection of different cultures" and "the consequences of the transition to sound for an individual director who was frequently using visual 'sound effects' in his films during the silent era."
Edward G. Robinson starred in both versions of the film, the English languge and the German, as did his co-star actress Vilma Banky, who in 1928 starred in the film "The Awakening" (Victor Fleming (nine reels), a film presently presumed to be lost silent film with no surviving copies. Bo Florin, Stockholm University, in his volume Transition and Transformation, Victor Sjostrom in Hollywood, 1923-1930, writes, "The making of multi-language versions remains on the side of diversity; here, concrete dialects, accents, and sociolects in different spoken languages enter the public sphere through sound recording, but the concept of the film as a unified work with a potential for universalism is also challenged." There were some "minor changes in camera angles" between the two versions and some alternative filming of a bedroom scene to accomodate the American censors, although Florin sees a metonymy that is suggestive through ellipsis.
Victor Sjostrom would soon return to Sweden, not to direct Swedish Sound Film, but to step into the proscenium arc with the blocking of an actor in front of the camera and under the lights. Bo Florin writes that it had been considered that returning to Sweden would have been only a sabbatical and that he could film for M.G.M. there, on location. Florin mentions that Begnt Forslund viewed "A Lady to Love" as "in some sense unworthy of Sjostrom as a director" without directly attributing the Hollywood production system as a reason for Sjostrom's departure, although it may be recurring that Hollywood methods differred from those of Svenska Bio.
In 1918, the first feature films directed by Sidney Franklin appeared in theaters, among them those that were to star actress Norma Talmadge, "The Safety Curtain" (five reels), "Her Only Way" (six reels) and "The Forbidden City" (five reels). Previsously Franklin had directed childrens film for the Triangle Film Corporation at the behest of D.W. Griffith. "Her Only Way", made for the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation is presumed to be a lost silent film, with no surviving copies. Sidney Franklin during 1919 directed Nornma Talmadge in the film "The Heart of Wetona" (six reels).
During 1918, Norma Talmadge had starred in the film "The Ghosts of Yesterday" directed by Charles Miller for the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, a corporation active between 1917-1926. The film is presumed lost with no complete copies that have survivied. There is an account that the first four reels are housed in the Library of Congress as an incomplete film.
