Author Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian film explains that the film "Puss and Boots" was for Swedish Silent Film director John Brunius an early, debut attempt at filmaking and that he quickly established himself among his contemporary directors of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film by directing historical dramas.
The beautiful Mary Johnson stars with Gosta Ekman in the film, the director John Brunius also appearing in the film onscreen with son Palle Brunius. The cinematography was done by photographers Gustav A. Gustafson and Carl Gustav Florin.
"Puss and Boots" featured the first on screen appearance of actress Anna Carlsten.
To connect the directing of John Brunius to that of Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller and the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film that emphasized man's relationship with a personified enviornment, one can look at a photocaption praising actress Mary Johnson in the periodical Photoplay Magazine during 1919, "Miss Johnson is an ingenue leading woman of a type that we make favorites of in America. Location work in Sweden hasn't become a bore, evidently, as both town and country people, impressed by the novelty of the thing are heartily inclined to make the companies their guests instead of momentary suspected tenants." Photoplay Magazine, in a second photocaption featuring Gista Ekman, announced that the film was as not yet having finished post-production but that it was scheduled to run in America. "The Skandia Film Commision, the employer of these young stars is doing some really big plays on the screen....The Skandia Film Corporation has just finished the construction of a great glass studio modelled after and lighted by American methods near Langagen, north of Stockholm." Honestly, as a modern American reader, one would casually think this was written after the merger creating Svensk Filmindustri had already taken place. Photoplay Magazine later, while formally announcing that Svensk Biografteatern and Skandia had combined, called actress Mary Johnson the "Mary Pickford of the Land of the Midnight Sun" and "Sweden's Sweetheart". The theme of the article, although Mary Johnson would soon be appearing in an adaptation of the works of Selma Lagerloff by director Mauritz Stiller, Swedish audiences seemed uncontrollable over the appearance of Charles Chaplin in "A Dog's Life".
Actress Mary Johnson during 1918 also appeared in the Swedish Silent Film "Storstadfaror", directed by Manne Gothson, who had appeared with her that year as an actor under the direction of George af Klercker. The film was photographed by Gustaf A. Gustafson. Appearing with Mary Johnson in the film were Agda Helin, Tekla Sjoblom and Lilly Crowin. Mary Johnson appeared in the titular role together with Carl Barklind that year in the film "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter" (Fyrvaktarens dotter), which featured an onscreen appearance of Johnson's daughter Maj.
Mary Johnson and Gosta Ekman were reunited for the film "En Lyckoriddare" (John Brunius, 1921).
Silent Film
John Brunius
John Bruniusr
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
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