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, among them 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;how it was reviewed, audience reception perhaps actor to actor.
Robert Sherwood, editor of the volume The Best Moving Pictures of 1922-23, wrote, "In the direction of 'Shadows' by Tom Forman, and in the acting by Lon Chaney, Harrison Ford, Marguerite de La Motte, and John Sainpolis, there was a fine sincerity. They all seemed to realize they were working on a picture that was destined to be a part from the regular run of machine made products."
The periodical Exhibitors Trade Review during 1922 entitled their rebiew of the film "Chaney a Master of Characterization". It read, "Most stars stand for a definite type of pwrformance, while Chaney is never the same except perhaps in the degree of sincerity and finish that he gives to the characetrizations he undertakes." To add authenticity, authority and credibitlity, Exhibitors Trade Review quoted snippets from the periodicals Motion Picture News, The Film Daily, and Motion Picture World, apparently unperturbed by the competition.
The Paramount Artcraft publicity releases for 1918 divided their review into three columns, one announcing a "Startling Theory Suggested", another announcing a "Brilliant Leading Lady for Henry B. Walthall" and another announcing "Exciting Incidents Pictured in Production". (The starling theory was of a German UBoat submarine base off of Martha's Vineyard and as the present author was born and raised on Cape Ann, now and long since living on the Charles River, it remains entirely a matter of imaginative speculation.) The script to "The False Faces" was adapted from a then current serial story printed in The Saturday Evening Post. "Irvin Willat directed the picture with unusual skill." The periodical Wid's Daily during 1919 wrote, "Adaptation of popular serial...offers plot of many complications suitable to screen presentation." Its direction was "responsible for numerous thrills in registering full force of dramatic climaxes."
Lon Chaney as well as having starred in the seven reel silent film “The False Faces”, during 1919 starred under the direction of Tod Browning in the seven reel film “Wicked Darling”.
"The Last Performance" (The Death Knell under the Circus Dome", directed by George af Klercker in 1912 was thought to be a lost film, with no surviving copies untill researcher Gosta Werner discovered a copy in the archive at Rochester, New York. The film was scripted by Svenska Bio production head Charles Magnusson. Like the first film directed by Victor Sjostrom, "The Gardner", the first film directed by George af Klercker, "Two Brothers" (Tva Broder) starring Tollie Zellman and Ingeborg Nilsson, was banned for public exhibition by the Swedish Censorship Board.
"The Last Scream" (Sista Skriket, 1995) depicts a fictional assignation between silent film director George af Klercker and Charles Magnusson, who appointed Klercker studio manager- Klercker during 1915 had left for the Hasselblad studio in Gotenburg only to face Magnusson again after several company mergers. Directed by Ingmar Bergman from his own play, the film stars Ingvar Kjellison, Bjorn Granath and Anna von Rosen, the cinematographer to the film Per Noren. The play was published by New Press in the volume The Fifth Act. Actor Bjorn Granath portrays George af Klercker in the film "Jag ar nyfiken, film" (Stig Bjorkman, 1995), narrated by, of course, Lena Nyman, who appears in the film with Stefan Jarl, Erland Jospehsen, Sven Nykvist, Eva Isaksen and Liv Ullmann.
George af Klercker also appears as an actor in the film "The Last Performance" with his wife, Selma Wiklund by Klercker. It was filmed in Lindingo, where George af Klercker had costarred with Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller under the direction of Paul Garbagni in the film "In the Spring of Life".
George af Klercker that year also directed the films "Musiken makt" (The Power of Music), in which Klercker appeared on screen with Lilly Jacobsson, "Jupiter pa Jorden", which he also wrote, and "Tva Broder" with Birger Lundstedt and Eugen Nilsson.
The following year, in 1913, George af Klercker directed "The Scandal" (Skandalen) for Svenska Biographtearterns, in which the director also appeared with his wife, Selma Wickland by Klercker.
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Lilly Beck starred in over ten films made by Mauritz Stiller during the first four years of Svenska Biografteatern and almost ten films directed then by Victor Sjsotrom. Before that, Charles Magnusson had directed her in the 1911 film "The Talsiman" (Amuletten). By 1912 she was married to Erik Magnusson and starred in the film "The Fying Circus" as Lilli Beck Magnusson. Actress Stella Lind, who died in 1919 at the age of 26, also appears in the film. During 1912 Beck also appeared in the sequel to the film, entitled "The Bear Tamer from the Flying Cicus", her having been billed as Lilli Beck , as well as having that year costarred with Rasmus Ottesen in the film "The Strong Power". She was married to Victor Sjostrom, whom she also divorcd, from 1914-1916.
Alfred Lind had begun as a photogtapher on the film "The Little Hornblower" for director Eduard Schnedler-Sornensen in 1019. He is listed as having been cinematographer to the film "The Flying Circus" as well as having coscripted the photoplay with Carl Dumreicher.
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During 1912, Lilli Beck appeared in the sequel to the film "The Flying Circus" (Lind, 1912), again appearing on the screen as a snake charmer under the direction of Alfred Lind in "The Bear Tamer of the Flying Circus". Alfred Lind is notable for having directed the seven reel film "The Masque of Life/The Jockey of Death" during 1916 if only for its having been an example of an early attempt to create a new genre of "Thrill" movies in it continuance of circus themes and motifs, the publicity for the film similar to that of serials, or "cliffhangers", a later short film directed by Lind survives from 1923 entitiked "Filmens vovehals" (Daredevil of the Movies", starring Emilie Sannom. During 1913, Motography Magazine in the United States introduced The Great Northern Film Company to its readers by defining the "circus thrill" film as an emerging genre, "The natural scenery in the suburbs of Copenhagen and in the country surrounding this old city afford all that could be desired for the taking of motion pictures and the atmospheric conditions have been pronounced as ideal by experts in the art of motography. The companyy boasts of a perfectly equipped circus arena in which many of its talked of feature productions are made."
Lilli BeckSilent Film
Directed by George af Klercker for Hasselblad during 1917, "I Morkets Borje" was phtotgraphed by Swedish cinematographer Carl Gustav Florin and starred Sybil Smolawa. That year George af Klercker also directed the film "The Suburban Vicar".
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During 1917, Swedish Silent Film director George af Klerker directed actress Mary Johnson in the film "The Suburban Vicar" ("Forstudprasten"), in which she starred with Corcordia Selander and Lilly Graber. Photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin, the film was scripted by Harriet Bloch.
Victor SjostromVictor SjostromSilent Film
Fan magazines from the United States have occaisionally reported that Rasunda Studios in Stockholm had recieved a vistor during 1929. There is an account that Greta Garbo, by then a star of the American silver screen purportedly with the power to avoid her own set while negotiating her salary, had visited actor Carl Brisson, an old romantic acquaintance, on the set of his film, "The Triumph of the Heart". As late as 1934, while announcing that Brisson was in Hollywood filming "Murder at the Vanities", Hollywood magazine introduced Brisson as "Garbo's first love". It having been 1934, Paramount International News was there observing publicity as Greta Garbo attended the premiere of the film, "Equipped with dark glasses and a knowledge of side entrances, she was able to elude her photographers on the way out, but reporters spotted her in the audience just after the picture started." That year, Movie Classic magazine published an article written by Carl Brisson himself entitled "There's No Romance Between Garbo and Me". The modern American reader might be unsure of Brisson's intentions when reading the Photoplay magazine of 1930 which writes, "He held out both his hands to her." in that Brisson may have been romanticlly evasive when sentimentally having said that he only knew her as the Greta that had been at the Dramatic School and that he may have only feigned surprise when being told that he had met Greta Garbo. The actress, who also had been to the set of the film to see Axel Nilsson, an old friend, had in fact known director Gustaf Molander in 1923 when she was still Greta Gustafsson of the Royal Dramatic Theater, whether or not there is conjecture as to Brisson having used innuendo refering to Garbo not having married actor Lars Hanson.
Directed by Gustaf Molander, the film “Hjartats Triumf” was written by Paul Merzbach and is listed as having been photographed by J. Julius, a pseudonym used by Julius Jaenzon along with cameraman Axel Lindblom and assistant cameraman Ake Dahlqvist. Starring in the film were Edvin Adolphson and actresses Lissy Arna and Anna Lindhal. Although this was the second on screen appearance for Lindhal, she had only had a brief appearance in the film “Ingmarsarvet” during 1925 under the direction of Gustaf Molander.
"The Song of the Scarlet Flower" (Sangen och elroda blomman, 1919) was to star Lars Hanson, Greta Almroth, Lilebel Ibsen and Edith Erastoff. The film was directed by Mauritz Stiller with a photoplay written by Gustaf Molander. "Man's Way With Women" (Sangen och elroda Blommen, 1934) was to star Edvin Adolphson, Inga Tiblad, Aino Taube, Birgit Tengroth and Gull Maj-Nori . The film was directed by Per Axel Banner with the legendary photographer Julius Jaenzon with a script by the legendary photoplay dramatist Ragnar Hylten-Cavallius. "The Song of the Scarlet Flower" was with Gunnel Lindblom and Anita Bjork was directed by Gustaf Molander The tinting of the first film provides contrast netween its individual scenes, moods and uses of nature as a background, its narrative creating a structure of seperate chapters. Scholar Jaakko Seppalia attributes the rapid shooting of director Mauritz Stiller in "Song of the Scarlett Flower" as a direct influence on the film "The Logroller's Bride" (Koskenlaskijan marsian") directed by Finnish director Ekki Karu, particularly the use of several cameras and longshots during a rapid shooting sequence, both directors realizing that "heroic moments of action could be depicted in detail on film". Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, points out the "lyrical imagery of documentary realism" of the film while delineating the gap between the work of Mauritz Stiller and Victor Sjostrom as further narrowing into less of a contrast. Mauritz Stiller
While writing about the film "Wild Strawberries", Jorn Donner notes that Ingmar Bergman's film is in part a tribute to Victor Sjostrom the director. "Many scenes have a tie-in with Victor Sjostrom's work. A smashed watch plays a part in 'Karin Ingmarsdotter'." Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, points out the danger involved in the hazardous stunts, notably plunging into an icy river, that Victor Sjostrom employed while shooting the film. Author Forsyth Hardy again defines the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film by describing the several adaptations of the novel "Jerusalem", written by Selma Lagerlof, "These stories of peasant life had the qualities which had come to be expected in the Swedish films: a stern and exacting moral code, an expressive use of landscape, and a consciousness of the power of the elements...Her novels had their roots deep in the counntry's culture and in this, and in the breadth and sweep of their treatment they gave the directors what they needed." With a photoplay scripted by director Victor Sjostrom, the six reel film was photographed by Julius Jaenzon.
Actress Tora Teje costars in the film as the title character with director Victor Sjostrom. Harriet Bosse, who was married to playwright August Strindberg between 1901-1904 and then actor Gunnar Wingard between 1908-1911, appears in a breif appearance during the film. She had previously appeared in the film "Ingmarssonerna", written and directed by Victor Sjostrom and photographed by Julius Jaenzon during 1919.
Victor SjostromSilent Film
It seems odd that the periodical The Film Review and Moving Picture News during 1922 included "Samson and Delilah" in a series of "one reel pictures based on dramatic incidents in well known opera", a publicity still from the film being the only still featured in its article titled "Tense Moments From Opera Filmed", in which it hailed it to be the best of the "unduly hurried" productions from either Gaumont or Masters studios, or both. The magazine printed the opinion that "the artificiality of such a performance is more noticeable perhaps in the screen version of a stage success owing to the character of the dress, the make up of the performers and the background in which they work." Director Edwin J Collins that year also directed a screen version of "Don Juan" included in the "Tense Moments in Opera" series starring actresses Lillian Douglas, Pauline Peters and Kathleen Vaughn. Silent Film
Silent Film actor and actress Maurice Costello and Florence Turner star in the 1911 filming of "A Tale of Two Cities" (three reels), directed by Charles Kent. Among several later adaptations was "A Tale of Two Cities directed by Frank Lloyd in 1917.
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