Greta Garbo before Hollywood- Einar Hanson

Motion Picture News explained that Corrinne Griffith would begin filming "Into Her Kingdom", based on a nobel by Ruth Comfort Mitchell, upon the completion of the film "Mllo. Modiste" of which she was then currently on the set.

The photo caption beneath Einar Hanson's photograph Picture Play Magazine read, "Einar Hanson, who, made his debut in Corinne Griffith's Into her Kingdom is romantic adventurous, much more like a Latin than Scandinavian." In the article Two Gentlemen from Sweden, Myrtle Gebhardt relates about having dinner with him, her having at first hoped to interview Lars Hanson and Einar Hanson together in the same room. "For it appeared that Einar was working not for Metro, but for First National...Two evenings later I ringed spaghetti around my fork in a nook of an Italian cafe with Einar Hansen...Prepared for a big, blond man, whose bland face would be overspread with seriousness, I was startled by his breathtaking resemblance to Jack Gilbert. "Ya," he admitted, "Down the street I drive and all the girls call, 'Hello Yack' and I wave to them."

Motion Picture News announced the decision for the directorial assignment to the film with Director or Interpreter, "Svend Gade, the Danish director now making Into Her Kingdom is wondering whether he is engaged as a megaphone weirder or interpreter. In directing Miss Griffith, of course, he uses English; but Einar Hanson receives his instructions in Swedish" Meanwhile it also introduced Griffith's co-star, "Einar Hansen, 'The Swedish Barrymore' has arrived in Hollywood to appear opposite Corinne Griffith in her newest First National starring vehicle, Into Her Kingdom, by Ruth Comfort Mitchell." it had been announced by the magazine during early 1926 that, "Corinne Griffith is already planning to start work the first week of March on Into Her Kingdom though now she is only now finishing Mlle. Moditte, both of which are to be First National releases. It is uncertain whether a viewable copy of "Into Her Kingdom" exists, it has appeared as a lost film among films listed as not surviving made by First National, and it seems omitted on lists of lost silent films as either being missing or as being surviving, but at any rate locating a copy held by a museum which preserve films seems beyond public access.

During 1926, Einar Hanson also starred in the eight reel silent comedy "Her Big Night" (Brown).

There is also every indication that there is no existing copy of the lost silent film "The Lady in Ermine" (seven reels, James Flood) in which Einar Hanson starred with Corinne Griffith during 1927. The photoplay to the film was written by Benjamin Glazer . Two weeks before the film went into production, the periodical Motion Picture News announced that Einar Hanson and Frances X. Bushman has been assigned important roles in the film. The periodical Motion Picture World explained, "While the idea is rather sensational and treads perilously close to the risque in its inferences there are no objectionable scenes and the solution is clever and satisfactory." It neglected mentioning Einar Hansen but noted that Frances X. Bushman had been given a "thankless role". Not incidentally, a print of the film "Three Hours" in which James Flood directed actress Corrine Griffith during 1927 does exist.

Motion Picture Magazine in 1927 published an oval portrait of Einar Hansen with the caption, "In Fashions for Women, Einar is the first man to be directed by Paramount's first woman director. How's that for a record? Incidentally, Einar has become a popular leading man as quickly as anyone that ever invaded Hollywood." The caption to the somber portrait published in Picture Play magazine that year held a more sundry description, "Einar Hansen, the young man from Sweden who looks so like a Latin has fared well during his year in this country. he is now under contract to Paramount and has the lead opposite Esther Ralston in Fashions For Women." The film was the first directed by Dorothy Azner, who had worked uncredited with Fred Niblo on Blood and Sand. Gladys Unger, who a year later worked on the scenario to the film "The Divine Woman" (Victor Seastrom), wrote the screenplay to the film "Fashions for Women". The running length of the film consisted of seven reels. The periodical Exhibitor's Herald explained that it was the first starring vehicle for actress Esther Ralston and the first venture weilding the microphone" for director Dortohy Arzner.

Einar Hanson appeared with Anna Q. Nilsson in the lost silent film "The Masked Woman" (six reels) during 1927. The film is presently presumed to be lost with no known surving copies existing.

Of the film "Children of Divorce", Motion Picture News wrote, "It is a picture which is easy to guess the denoument...Frank Lloyd, the director, has overcome much of the plot shortcomings with his lighting and other technical efforts. he provided some charming settings and gotten every ounce of dramatic flavoring from the story." Joseph Von Sternberg's work on the film is uncredited.

     

     Essayist Tommy Gustafsson almost besmirches Einar Hanson by claiming him to have a Bohemian image, that while carrying with it a "soft masculinity", appeared "unsound" when part of his after hours social life, although the author doesn't specifically include Gosta Ekman, Mauritz Stiller or Greta Garbo leaving it only a generic impression. He noted that there was a posthumous "negative attitude" toward Hanson due to "considerable media exposure he received for 'Pirates of Lake Malaren' and 'The Blizzard' as well as great commotion surrounding the trial following his car accident the same year...This is an example of a new connecting link, a kind of intertexuality, that was created between the real people and the characters they played." Gustafsson stops there, only to infer, without making an obvious conclusion and before speculating that Stiller had brought Garbo and Sjostrom to the United States to avoid having been placed in any nocturnal subculture or artistic society of artists that may not have been entirely accepted in Sweden or Europe.

The six reel lost silent film "The Woman on Trial", directed by Mauritz Stiller was released in October of 1927, more than three months after the death of Einar Hanson. The film which starred actress Pola Negri is presumed lost, with no surviving copies.
The body of Einar Hanson was crushed between the steering wheel and a ten inch drainpipe along the highway. Photoplay Magazine reported, "Here is a tragedy- and a mystery. Einar Hansen was found fatally injured, pinned beneath his car on the ocean road. Earlier in the evening, he had given a dinner party for Greta Garbo, Swedish Silent Film director Mauritz Stiller and Dr. And Mrs. Gistav Borkman...Hanson was unmarried and he is survived by he parents in Stockholm."

Hanson had filmed in Europe before coming to the United States. In his native Denmark, he had appeared in the Danish silent film So "Bilberries" ("Misplaced Highbrows", "Takt, Ture Og Tosser", Lau Lauritzen, 1924) and "Mists of the Past" (Fra Plazza del Polo, Anders W. Sandberg, 1925), the latter having starred Karina Bell.

In Sweden, Einar Hanson starred with Inga Tiblad in "Malarpirater", written and directed by Gustaf Molander in 1924 and with Mona Martenson in "Skeppargatan 40", directed by Swedish Silent Film director Gustaf Edgren in 1925.

Before travelling to Turkey with Mauritz Stiller and Greta Garbo, Einar Hanson appeared under the direction of G.W. Pabst with Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen in "The Joyless Street" (1925). Greta Garbo biographer Norman Zierold gives an account of Garbo having been offered a second film for Pabst of which Garbo had neglected to inform Stiller who learned of it from Einar Hanson. When Stiller accused Garbo of betraying him she broke off negotiations with Pabst. It had been Stiller who had arranged Greta Garbo's appearance in "The Joyless Street", demanding that Einar Hanson appear with her.

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Danish Silent Film

Remade by Greta Garbo

Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Greta Garbo In The Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst, 1...

In The Film Till Now, a survey off world cinema, Paul Rotha writes, “It is impossible to witness the showing a Film by Pabst without marveling at his unerring choice of camera angle for the expression of mood or his employment of the moving camera to heighten action.” Notwithstanding he describes the “tempestuous and badly received” “The Joyless Street” as being only the second film made by the director and that the directors poularity as only having increased later. “With unerring psychology by which he caused the smallest actions of his characters to convey meaning. Pabst brought to his picture moments of searing pain, of mental anquish, of clear unblemished beauty. His extreme powers of truthfulness, of understanding, of reality, of the virtual meaning of hunger, love, lust and greed rendered this extraordinary film convincing.” Rotha noted the collaboration of actress Greta Garbo with the director Pabst. “Mention has been made of Greta Garbo in the film, for it is by this that one theorizes on her beauty and ability. In Hollywood this splendid woman has been wantonly distorted into the symbol of eroticism. But Greta Garbo, by reason of her sympathetic understanding of Pabst, brought a quality of loveliness into her playing as the professor’s eldest daughter. Her frail beauty, cold as ann ice flower warmed by the sun, stood secure in the starving city of Vienna, untouched by the vice and lust that dwelt in the dark Street.”

Roger Manvell, author of Film and Public, writing in 1955, pointed out that Pabst had added a level of tragedy to the events which encompassed his characters, "It was not untill Pabst emerged into the silent German cinema that German melodrama deepened into tragedy....The plots of Pabst's silent film are melodramatic, with happy endings superimposed upon them in almost every case."

Arthur Knight, in his volume The Liveliest Art almost seems to be beginning a discussion on Film Noir while sneaking into the fringes of the subjective camera by positing an "emotional reaction" of the invisible observer, the authorial camera, to its subject, "And there are psychological elements too in the relation of the camera to its subject- close or far, at a strong angle or at a non-commital eye-level, above it or shooting from below. By his choice of the camera's position, the director creates for the audience an unconscious predisposition toward the scene, the characters and the action. Pabst applied his own awareness of this technique to his use of the camera throughout 'The Joyless Street' ". Knight includes the film in a sub-genre of German Silent Film, "street films" including "The Street" (1928), "Tragedy of the Street" (1927) and "Asphalt", perhaps a subgenre of melodrama not reflective of there being a Golden Age of the period.

The script to the film was based on a novel by Hugo Bettauer that only a year earlier had been serialized in a newspaper in Vienna. The length of the film is listed as five reels, but apparently screened with extensive censorship cuts in a version considerably shorter than the modern restored version and in American versions which edited out the character portrayed by Asta Nielsen.

In his volume A Tale from Constantinople, written with Patrick Vondeau, Bo Florin, University of Stockholm, notes that originally actress Vilma Banky had been considered for the lead in the film "The Joyless Street", her having left for America before the shooting of the film. Mauritz Stillerwas on occaision seen at the studio, his apparently having had an interest in directing the film and he in fact having had an offer to direct six films in Europe when he decided to depart for America.

Actress Greta Garbo came directly to America without filming in Sweden after working with G.W. Pabst, and had in fact been working on a Film with Mauritz Stiller before having been given her role in “The Joyless Street”. The Private Life of Greta Garbo, published in 1931 by Rilla Page Palmborg at a time when the world didn’t know how private the life of Greta Garbo would later become, gives an account of Mauritz Stiller, Greta Garbo and Einar Hanson being in Constantinople to film the first movie ever made there. After delays in completing the script, it had finally been finished and Mauritz Stiller had started to direct when its financing had abruptly been discontinued and Stiller’s telegrams had gone unanswered. “In a few days, Mr.Stiller returned with the sad news that the backers of the picture had gone broke. There was nothing to do but disband and go home. But Mr. Stiller had plans for another picture that he wanted to make in Berlin. While she was waiting...Mr. Stiller got her a part in ‘The Street of Sorrow’...During this time, Louis B. Mayer, production head of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Hollywood was making a trip through Europe on the lookout for new talent. The night he saw ‘Gosta Berlings Saga’ he saw photography and new directorial tricks that had never been done before.He wanted to see the genius who directed the fine picture.”

Author Forsyth Hardy, typically as he is usually concise, devotes only a paragraph of his volume Scandinavian Film to the Mauritz Stiller endeavor "Kostantinopel", noting that after he had interested them in his already underway project, Stiller involved Greta Garbo and Einar Hanson deeply in the on location making of the film. The brief account continues: subsequently Garbo completed "The Joyless Street" and then agreed to go to Hollywood with Stiller.

Danish Silent Film Star Asta Neilsen remained in Berlin to film similar social dramas about the decadence, or downfall, of society, among them “Tragedy of the Street” (Rahn, 1927) and “The Vice of Humanity” (Meinhart, 1927) . At first glance, the films are connected to “The Joyless Street” by belonging to The New Objectivity, which depicted the cities of Germany realistically as being in post-War poverty. During 1925, already famous for her portrayal of “Hamlet” (Sven Gade, 1921), Asta Nielsen played the title role of Hedda Gabler in a film adapted and directed by Frank Eckstein and starred in the film “The Living Buddhas” under the direction of Paul Wegner. Only five minutes of the original footage of the film now survive, adding the film to the many now lost films of the silent era.

Silent film director Georg Wilhelm Pabst is perhaps best known to contemporary audiences for directing actress Louise Brooks in the films "Pandora's Box" and "Diary of a Lost Girl" (Das tagebuch einer verbrenen"), both filmed during 1929.
Greta Garbo and Mauritz Stiller

Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo

The Abyss (Urban Gad, Afgrunden, Denmark 1910)

Urban Gad directed Asta Nielsen in her first film "The Abyss" (Afgrunden, 1910) in Denmark, a film often written about due to her popularity and to a scene contained in it in which she dances erotically. Uli Jung and Martin Lorperdinger, editors of Importing Asta Nielsen, the international filmstar in the making 1910-1914, see the rise of Asta Nielsen as meteoric with her first appearance on screen, "she became a well-known and popular actress in many countries on the continent in the 1910/11 season." The film is described by Casper Tybjerg as her "breakthrough film". Scholar Casper Tybjerg, University of Copenhagen/online instructor, notes that "The Abyss" was promoted as an art film, a drama in two acts. Author Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scaninavian Film, sees the principal stars that had brought international recognition to the country's cinema as having been Asta Nielsen and Valdamar Psilander, " It was an immediate success and audiences everywhere responded to a sensitive, expressive acting style of scting which contrasted clearly with the grimmacing antics of her contemporaries."

Film historian Marguerite Engberg, in her article, The Erotic Melodrama in Danish Silent FIlm, chronickes the cienam of narrative integration having emerged from the cinema of attractions by discussing the significance of running legnth and the advent of longer narrative films. In 1910, Fotorama had released a Danish Silent Film that was more than a half hour in running legnth, "Den hvide Slavenhandel" (The White Slave Traffic), it being notable that it was shown in one sitting. "The transition to multireels was a very important step in the evolution of film art. For now, with longer films, it became possible to go into details within a single scene." The longer legnth of the film allowed "The Abyss to become a "fully fledged erotic melodrama, the drama which was to become a Danish speciality" with its then sexually explicit dance scene and "long drawn out kisess, a Danish invention in films." Engeby describes erotic melodrama as a love story with a conflict between the ckasses, or economic backgrounds and notes that it often included a love triangle, as did the films "The Abyss", "Den Sorte Drom" (The Black Dream" and "Balletdanserinden" (The Ballet Dancer".
It was also that year that Urban Gad and Asta Nielsen would travel to Germany to film for Duetsche Bioscop. Asta Nielsen appeared on screen under Urban Gad's direction with cinematographer Karl Fruend behind the camera that year in the films "Moth" (Nachtfaler) and "The Strange Bird"" (Der Frerde Volgel). Asta Nielsen would later star with Greta Garbo for G.W. Pabst in "The Joyless Street" and in a silent version of "Hamlet" (1920). Scholar Isak Thorsen, University of Copenhagen, in his paper,Nordisk Film Kompagni and Asta Nielsen, explains that director Urban Gad had signed a contract with Kunst Films Kompagni (Copenhagen Art Film) which allowed his to direct film abroad, with a similar contract for wife Asta Nielsen stipulating that she play as many parts as permissable; Nielsen who had already gained international recognition in regard to transnational cinema. Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian cinema adds, "Marrying Urban Gad in 1912, she widened her range of expression to embrace comedy as well as vampish roles."

Janet Bergstrom, in her paper Asta Nielsen's Early German Films, chronicles Asta Nielsen asking Urban Gad if he would write a film for her. "Afgrunden" not only secured an international audience for her but it heralded the film itself becoming an art form. Bergstrom notes Nielsen having written that she aspired to improve her acting ability by watching herself on the screen.

Although many films from the time period were adaptations of theatrical plays, "The Abyss" has no dialougue intertitles, but rather insert shots containing written letters. Both insert shots of printed material and dialougue intertitles are part of the diegesis of a silent film, whereas expository intertitles that either summarize the action or prepare the audience for it are not part of the film's diegesis, insert shots of letters bringing a more first person authorial camera that provides identification with the character.
Bela Belazs, in his volume Theory of Film discusses Urban Gad's 1918 book on film criticism, "This wise and sound book makes no mention as of yet of the new form-language proper to the new art- at the time Urban Gad knew nothing of this. Hence he dealt chiefly with the specific new subjects suitable for film presentation. According to him, every film should be placed in some specific natural enviornment which must affect the human beings living in it and play apart in directing their lives and destinies. Thus a new personage is added to the dramatis personna of the photographed play: nature itself." Belaz continues aiming at genre theory, that genre is particular, it has exclusivity and allows specific backgrounds where tropes and metaphors can arise, ie. Westerns occur only where cowyboys can be found. The glaring problem is that the description offerred by Belaz, in the historiography of film theory, is precisely that of the description inordinately used to define the Swedish Silent FIlm, to the point where the camera technique of Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller is delegated secondary to the relation of man to his overwhelming envirnment. And yet Belazs is discussing the writing of Danish filmmaker Urban Gad published at a time when Sjostrom had just finished the film "The Outlaw and his Wife", a stunning, but still early example of Scandinavian Cinema.

Scott Lord

Scott Lord Film: A Star is Born (William A Wellman, 1937) - Becky Sharp (Mamoulian, 1935) double feature

Goldwyn in 1923 released an eight reel adaptation of Vanity Fair with actress Mabel Balin starring as Becky Sharp, written, directed and produced by Hugo Balin. The film is presumed lost, with no existing copies surviving. A 1922 film adaptation was directed by W.C. Rowden during 1922. Thomas A. Edison Incorporated released Vanity Fair in seven reels, directed by Eugene Nowland, in 1915. Silent Film Hollywood, Color and Tint in Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Blanche Sweet in Anna Christie (John Griffith Wray, 1923)

Actresses Blanche Sweet and Eugenie Besserer starred in the 1923 version of "Anna Christie", adapted for the screen by Bradley King and directed by John Griffith Gray under the supervision of Thomas Ince. The periodical "Screen Opinions" of 1923 noted the photography of Henry Sharp as being "very good", the type of picture as being "sensational" with a "moral standard" of "average". The periodical Pictures and the Picturegoer reviewed the photoplay as an adaptation, "it is a notable tribute to the power of the screen freed from the limitations that inevitably beset the speaking stage....the story is familiar from the stage play with its stark yet fascinating realism and its true to life portrayal of elemental human passions." The periodical Picture Play Magazine hailed actress Blanche Sweet in the title role, "Most of the interest centers about Blanche Sweet who gives the finest performance of her career as Anna. Miss Sweet has always seemed to me an inspired actress."

During 1923 actress Blanche Sweet also appeared in the film "In the Palace of the King" directed by Emmett J. Flynn and written by June Mathis. The film is presumed to be lost, with no surviving copies existing. During 1924, actress Blanche Sweet appeared under the direction of Lambert Hillyer for Thomas Ince Productions, Incorporated in the eight reel film "Those Who Dance". The film is presumed lost, with no surviving copies existing. Lambert Hillyer cowrote the photoplay with Arthur Statter.

Greta Garbo Silent Film Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Triumph of the Heart (Hjärtats triumf, Gustaf Molander, 1929)

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.

Scandinavian Silent Film

Gustaf Molander Gustaf Molander

Scott Lord Silent Film: A Girl's Folly (Tourneur, 1917)

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 Film Silent Film

Scott Lord on Film: A Lady To Love (Victor Seastrom, 1930)

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.

Victor Sjostrom
Victor Seastrom playlist Victor Sjostrom

Scott Lord Silent Film: Clara Bow in Parisian Love (Louis J. Gasnier, 1925)

The 1923 Clara Bow film "The Pill Pounder" (two reels) was discovered to exist when a 35 millimeter print was found in 2024, it evidently having been purchased unknowingly at an auction for twenty dollars.

Directed in 1925 by Charles Giblyn, the six reel film "The Adventurous Sex", starring Clara Bow is presumed to be a lost silent film, with no surviving copies existing.

Motion Picture News avoided flattering the direction of "Parisian Love", "Weak and wandering. Thrill stuff poorly executed, action draggy, footage wasted."

silent Film Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Hans nåds testamente (Victor Sjostrom, ...

During 1919, Victor Sjostrom directed the film “His Lord’s Will” (“His Grace’s Will” “Hans nads testamente”) from the writings of Hjalmer Bergman. Photographed by Henrik Jaenzon, it starred actresses Greta Almroth, Tyra Dorum and Augusta Lindberg. In bookstores during 1919, God’s Orchid, written by Hjalmer Bergman appeared published in its first edition, followed in 1921 by the novel Thy Rod, Thy Staff and in 1930 by Jac the Clown. The film was remade in 1940 by Per Lindgren, scripted by Stina Bergman and starring Barbra Kollberg and Alk Kjellin.

Scott Lord Scott Lord Victor Sjostrom

Scottt Lord Silent Film: The Three Musketeers (Niblo, 1921)

Douglas Fairbanks the following year continued his series of films in which he starred as an adventure protagonist, each film seeming to be a story in a different historical period and a different geographical country. In addition to its being a costume drama, author William K. Everson saw "The Three Muskateers" (Fred Niblo, 1921, twelve reels) as being indicative of the influence of D.W. Griffith with its cornocopia of intertiles and various intersecting subplots. Starring in the film with Douglas Fairbanks was actresses Barbara Del La Marr.

Photoplay Magazine, in a full page of six publicity stills, not only explained that "Dumas' famous romance" was a ten reel silent film, but that Douglas Fairbanks' moustache was real. It included publicity stills of acresses Mary MacLaren and Margueritte de la Motte in costume drama attire. Exhibitor's Herald included a six sheet poster "suggesting action and romance" and a twenty four sheet inteded for the "far flung" bilboard".

Douglas Fairbanks in The Iron Mask Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Fairbanks

Greta Garbo in The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928)

While editor of Film Comment magazine, Richard Corliss signed the dedication of his biography of Greta Garbo "To My Own Mysterious Lady, who taught me all I know." Apparently, he had met his wife at a Greta Garbo retrospective during 1968. He writes on Garbo in the film, "It's not that Garbo needed roles of majestic tragedy- she certainly got enough of those!- but she should in films as slight as Mysterious Lady (1928) and as substantial as Ninotchka (1939), that she could have fun without sacrificing the sense of fated seriousness that made her roles, and sometimes even her films, something special." The cover for Exibitors Herald and Motion Picture World was literally designed by M.G.M, their having apparently purchSed it as space, as it was still advertising Greta Garbo in War in the Dark against John Gilbert in The Cossacks and Four Walls. Photoplay in its pages from that year added a provocative photo of Greta Garbo seductive, bare shouldered, in a low cut evening dress with the caption, "Who wants movies with incidental sounds? who would be disturbed by the smack of the kiss Conrad Nagel is planting on Greta Garbo's knock in War in the Dark?" Motion Picture magazine may have lacked tact in its review of The Mysterious Lady, "Greta Garbo's latest picture is devoted to disproving those two disagreeable statements of Jim Tully's- that Greta Garbo is anemic and flat-chested. She darts about displaying unwonted vim and vigor and wears a gown that might very appropriately adorned Barbara La Marr. Greta as a beautiful lad spy is too alluring to miss...Conrad Nagel is occupying John Gilbert's usual place besides the couch." The Celluloid Critic from Motion Picture Classic Magazine of 1928 also noted that Gilbert was "conspicuously absent" from the film, leaving us to wonder if there wasn't more interest in his having been replaced, the studio not being able to elicit vamp characters from Greta Garbo and finding other seductresses that would lend themselves to the imagination. "The picture is nothing to rave about. The Scandinavian lady rises far above it in her role as an icy spy of the late war. Her particular assignment is to tempt a susceptible youth to his doom. You see, he has papers...It is an antique yarn dusted off for the occasion but functions fairly well, what with the Garbo woman tempting and tempting and tempting. And it builds a fair line of suspense." Motion Picture News during 1928 wrote, "Whatever Garbo tackles in the line of stories she has the personality and technique to make it interesting...The Mysterious Lady has been done time and again on the screen. it is old of plot that even the merest tyro at picture going can spot it all the way. it is fair enough because the presence of Greta Garbo. Conrad Nagel is opposite her for a change and acts very creditably."
Picture Play Magazine during 1928 included the film in an article entitled "Are the Movies Scorning Love?", written by Edwin Shallert. It wrote, "A love scene that is susceptible of laughter is scarcely an asset to a film, and if Flesh and the Devil did triumph, it was rather because of a strong friendship theme rather than its lush blandishments...the amorous episodes in The Mysterious Lady, which stars Greta Garbo, were visibly shortened following its initial preview. the audience was inclined to titter at certain languorous poses that Greta Garbo and Conrad Nagel assumed. Romantic love interest consequently is subdued in this spy melodrama. Moreso, at least, than in Greta's earlier luxuriating." it is difficult to gather much about the film from the review of it placed in The Film Spectator during 1928, as it seems severe, other than the plot was met with disdain in its treatment, "The main fault with The Mysterious Lady is that it's leading man is made out to be an idiot...It is not customary for Conrad Nagel to play an idiot and he's not convincing at it. of course, Fred Niblo, the director, didn't intend Nagel to be an idiot, but he made him do so many silly things that he became one anyway...Niblo's direction was very good on the whole, the scene where the hero has his commission taken from him being very impressive...Greta Garbo, Conrad Nagel have nothing to be desired in the acting line." The absence of John Gilbert from the film had been predicted from the moment Greta Garbo was included in the film. Exhibitor's Herlad reported, "Niblo signs Greta Garbo for War in the Dark. Fred Niblo announced yesterday by arrangement with Louis B. Mayer that Greta Garbo will head the cast of his forthcoming Metro Goldwyn Mayer Special 'War in the Dark' by Ludwig Wolff. he was director of The Temprest in which Garbo appeared some time ago. Bess Meredith is preparing the scenario. John Gilbert will not be in the cast as rumored in Hollywood."
The Motion Picture News Booking Guide during 1929 provided a brief synopsis of The Mysterious Lady, directed by Fred Niblo, "Theme: Romantic drama in which beautiful Russina spy falls in love with young Austrian officer. When he discovers her identity, he casts her off, and to get even girl steals valuable army plans. OFficer trails her to Russia and regains plans. Spy gets into trouble when she aides lover, but pair escape across border and back to Austria."

Fred Niblo seemed to have caused what would have been viewed carefully as a wince from fans of Greta Garbo in Screenland Magazine during 1928. He is quoted by the magazine along with others from Hollywood in response to the question of what a vamp at that time was. "A vamp is a girl like Greta Garbo. her mysterious allure is her appeal. her eyes have the look of concealing some emotion. You have the sensation that she is withholding something all the while and that she can never be understood." During the same issue, Fred Niblo acquired a byline for his article Crashing the Gates of Hollywood, which begins with his explaining the difficulty of keeping silent actors on the screen with the coming of sound. It carried a photocaption to an octagonal portrait of Greta Garbo , "Accoring to Fred Niblo, Greta Garbo is 'a blonde personality with a brunette voice.' She has a voice pitched lower than any other woman in pictures."  Greta Garbo Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo in Love

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Scott Lord Silent Film: Silent Film Studio Tours, Life In Hollywood (Del...

Silent Film Studio Tours

Silent FIlm Studio Tours silent film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Silent Film Studio Tours, Life In Hollywood (Del...

The extratextural discourse of Hollywood in behind the scenes footage of a studio tour featuring John Barrymore, Mae Marsh, Marie Prevost, Tom Mix snd Frank Lloyd.

Silent Film Studio Tours silent film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Silent Film Studio Tours, Life In Holllywood (De...

The extratextural discourse of Hollywood in a behind the scenes footage of a studio tour including a brief shot of the on the set shooting of a presumed lost film, the serial "Mystery Pilot" of which there are no surviving copies.

Silent Film Studio Tours, Reel Four

Silent Film

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”.
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 Shakespeare in Silent Film:King Lear (Ernest Warde, 1916)

Author Robert Hamilton Ball explains that due to the world being at war, there were no film adaptations of the plays of Shakespeare filmed during 1915 and that those filmed during 1916 were stricly American. This may or may not be a matter of course, but there having had been being no film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays during 1918 as well, Ball sees The Great War as having inhibited them. Actor Frederick B. Warde had previously starred in the film " "Richard III" (Keane, five reels) during 1913. Actress Lorraine Huling starred with him as Cordelia in the film "King Lear" (five reels).

Silent Film director Ernest C. Warde during 1917 directed an adaptation of Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. The Taming of the Shrew Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Mystery of Dr. Fu Man Chu, The Sacred Order, Man with the Limp (Stoll, 1923)

Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Movie Museum Reel One (Kiliam, Everson, Knight)

Silent Film Movie Museum Reel Two Silent Film


Silent Film Movie Museum Reel Three Silent Film Movie Museum Reel Four
Paul Killiam opens his series on "the first quarter century of the movies" with the cinema of attractions and a brief section of "newsreel footage" of Fifth Avenue in New York City. It is mostly a compilation reel from the "Killiam Collection", perhaps selected or presented seemingly at random. The film abruptly cuts to a one reel example of the cinema of narrative integration from D.W. Griffith at Biograph.

Killiam televised silent films from the library of the Museum of Modern Art with his narration to suit then modern audiences while hosting The Paul Killiam Show, among the films featured having been "A Daughter of the Wilderness" (Edison Company, 1913) starring actresses Mary Fuller and Elsie MacLeod. The "Movie Museum" series aired in 1954.

Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Movie Museum, Reel Four (Kiliam, Everson, Knight)

Silent Film Movie Museum Silent Film Movie Museum Silent FIlm Movie Museum

Scott Lord Silent Film: Movie Museum, Reel Two (Killiam, Everson, Knight)

Silent Film Movie Museum Reel One


Silent Film Movie Museum Reel Three Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Movie Museum Reel Three (Killiam, Everson, Knight)

Silent Film Museum Reel One


Silent Film Movie Museum Reel Two Silent Film Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Wedding March (Eric Von Stroheim, 1928)

Author William K. Everson, in his volume Amwrican Silent Film writes, "Stroheim's understanding of film technique was so thorough that 'The Wedding March' (eleven reels, 1927) is structured around the editing process. Everson notes that when the two romantic characters meet they never appear in the same frame together, their habing been editied as apart from each other. It was Everson's impression that "while Griffith would use film technique (rather than plotting or acting) to tell his stories, often calling attention to that technique in the process, Stroheim put all the emphasis on the story itself and on players (for the most part actors rather than stars) to hide his technique.." Von Stroheim appears in the film with acresses Fay Wray and Zazu Pitts.

Motion Picture Magazine, in a page on camera angles from 1927, pointed out Von Stroheim's use of a shot filmed conversely to the top shot, a "worm's impression" which phtographed the soles of the soldier's shoes by being filmed from underneath them in a glass topped pit.

The periodical Close Up claimed that at the time of publication that Von Stroheim had completed the filming of "The Wedding March" but but was still cutting the film, which inits original form was a monolithic fifty reels in length.Silent Film

Film detectives are searching for the entire eleven reels of "The Honeymoon" directed by Eric von Stroheim starring Fay Wray and ZaSu Pitts during 1928 which,according to the Library of Congress, is presumed lost- is is in fact the second part of "The Wedding March" as a diptych intended by Strohiem, several editors having cut the film according to its storyline.

Eric Von Stroheim Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Constance Talmadge in Her Sister From Paris (Sidney Franklin, 1925)

Directed by Sidney Franklin for First National Pictures, the 1925 seven reel film "Her Sister From Paris" paired Ronald Colman with actress Constance Talmadge. The periodical Moving Picture World reviewed the film with the emerging genres of the period in mind, "This is listed as comedy-drama but may more properly be called farce comedy, since great liberties are taken with mentalities of principal characters and the situations."

During 1925, Sidney Franklin also directed actress Constance Talmadge in the film "Learning to Love", scripted by Anita Loos and John Emerson. Only an incomplete copy if the film is presumed to exist.

Silent Film

Constance Talmadge

Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Lookout Girl (Fitzgerald, 1928)

Motion Picture News of 1928 reported, "Before starting on a co-starring role in 'The Spieler' for Pathe-DeMille, Jacqueline Logan will barely have time enough to star in 'The Lookout Girl' for which she has been signed for Quality Pictures at the Tee-Art Studios." The "Lookout Girl" (seven reels) was directed by Dallas M. Fitzgerald from a photoplay by Adrian Johnson. Photoplay Magazine 1929 reviewed the film with, "The plot becomes complicated but clears up in some mysterious fashion and everything manages to be 'hotsy-totsy' with Jacqueline Logan safe in Ian Kieth's arms. Unworthy of your attention."

Actress Jacqueline Logan during 1928 also starred in the seven reel Silent Horror Film "The Leopard Lady", directed by Rupert Julian. The film is presumed to be lost, with no surviving copies existing.

Silent Film Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Cabiria (Pastrone, 1914)

Silent Film Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Silent Film Movie Posters, Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks

Lon Chaney Trade Magazine Covers

Tod Browning Lon Chaney

Victor Seastrom

Greta Garbo

Lon Chaney

Swedish Silent Film, director George af Klercker

Anne-Kristin Wallengren, for Nordic Academic Press, only indirectly refers to the work of Gosta Werner and the restoration of lost silent film in the article, Welecome Home Mr. Swanson-Swedish Emigrants and Swedishness on Film. "There is the still extant film Storstadfaror (Perils of the Big City, Manne Gothson, 1918), in which a young man goes to America and at the end of the film, returns to Sweden, rich; however, while this was one of the very few films made in the 1910's to show America in a positive light, it is also significant that his was only a supporting role." The film Perils of the Big City was written by Gabrielle Ringertz and photographed by Gustav A. Gustavson. Appearing in the film were Mary Johnson, who, having made several films with George af Klerker, would later film under the direction of Mauritz Stiller. Appearing in the film with Johnson were actresses Agda Helin, Tekl Sjoblom and Lilly Cronin.

Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Swedish Cinema, From Ingeborg Holm to Fanny and Alexander, places Georg Af Klercker into his niche within the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film by chronicling that Charles Magnusson in 1911 contacted Klercker to head the Lidingo studios, "None of his films from the Svenska Bio days are extant, but when one inspects the few films of Klercker's that have survived- all from the Gothenburg years- one is forced to recognize that here was a major talent.

Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, elaborates,"Several of the 27 features completed by Klercker at Hasselblad were enhanced by the etheral beauty of Mary Johnson,an actress in the mould of Lillian Gish; she would reachher apogee as Elsa Lilli in 'Sir Arne's Treasure'" The film apparently was the only film produced at Hasselblad Fotografiska, from its first film in 1915, untill it merged early in 1918 to become Filmindustri Skandia, not to have been directed by George af Klercker, Manne Gothson had previously been Klercker's assistant director. This having been said, scholar Astrid Soderberg Widding points out that Gosta Werner neglects or omits the films made by Af Klercker before he began with Hasselblad, almost to confer with other authors that place Sjostrom and Stiller at the forefront of Swedish Silent Film's Golden Age; Leif Furhammer has advanced that Af Klercker had been an Auteur  only to heighten the comparison that can be made between George Af Klercker and Carl Th. Dreyer, despite Dreyer's having entered directing later and his only having scripted melodramas while searching for adaptations.

The fourty one minute film 'Mysteriet natter till den 25ie' proves to be more enigmatic than its director. it stars Swedish Silent Film actress Mary Johnson with Carl Barklind and was photographed by Sven Peutersson- one of the first films to demonstrate the need for silent film preservation, it was not shown to audiences until, 1975. Recently a genealogical study on the af Klercker family, which not only includes George af Klercker, but also Birgitta af Klercker and Fredrick af Klercker mentioned the film, but not as a film that had been lost, as many silent films have, or lost and then later found, but as a film that was originally banned by Swedish film censorship. The Swedish Film Institute confirms the film having been originally banned as a "Nick Carter" detective film, but that when the film became no longer lost, in 1975, the elements in the film that were objectionable were no longer able to be censored and the restored version was given a "for all" rating after having been missing for nearly sixty years. Describing the film as a "three act sensational drama", Peter Cowie writes, "Klercker's ingenuity yeilds constant suprises.", there being a sensibility in keeping with the director's eye evident in that "this fascination with mirrors and decor colours all Klercker's cinema".
Clearly George af Klercker was eclipsed by Mauritz Stiller and Victor Sjostrom in that af Klercker left had Svenska Bio before  Stiller and Sjostrom had gained renown internationally for films of longer running length. The director Geroge af Klerker is portrayed by actor Bjorn Granath in the film "The Last Scream" ("The Last Gasp", Stig Bjornman, 1995), a two character play in one act lasting almost an hour which depicts a fictional, ie. Imaginary, meeting between the director Klercker and Charles Magnussion, founder of Svensk Filmindustri and which was written by Ingmar Bergman. Actress Anna Von Rossen stars as Miss Holm. The play was published by New Press in the volume, The Fifth Act, in which also appeared Monologue, After the Rehearsal and Presence of a Clown. Stig Bjorkman, noted for his interviews of Ingmar Bergman is also the director of I Am Curious Film, and But Film is My Mistress. It should be noted that Bjorn Granath portrays George af Klercker in the film "Jag ar nyfiken, film" (1999) in which he appears with, of course, Lena Nyman, who interviews Sven Nykvist, Eva Isaksen, Stefan Jarl and Liv Ullman, but it should also be noted that Victor Sjostrom and Ingmar Bergman are listed in the cast of players in the film "Images from the Playground" (Bilder fran Lekstugan,2009), written and directed by Stig Bjorkman, which appeared in the 2022 Cannes film festival- while many noted scholars have chosen to appraise Swedish film through the form of the essay, Stig Bjorkman has brought the interview into the onscreen literature of the documentary.

It is clear that Astrid Soderberg Widding outlines the ostensible difference between the director George af Klercker and his contemporaries Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller by accurately placing him as a director of "melodrama and sensational adventures" made in Denmark, those which had established the director Viggo Larsen ; he is also apart from the type of film made in Kristianstad before he had began with Svenska Bio at Lindingo. As academic writing among film historians can be cumulative, each seminal text nodding to what is salient in each of its predecessors, it is certain that Soderberg Widding will not only contribute to film history research, but will springboard later film theory. She describes the directing of Af Klercker with, "A purely film-theoretical aspect that becomes evident when looking at Af Klercker's production deserves to be highlighted. it has to do with the relationship between the visual and narrative elements: phenomena which in film-theoretical historiography are not infrequently regarded as counterpoints......Af Klercker's films are in their narratives quite conventional and typical of their time. They provide thrilling stories while expressing a supreme control over film as a medium." In describing this, Astrid Soderberg Widding articulates the interrelationship between content and form while praising the films of Af Klercker for their "stylistic stability and visual extravagance, if only to reiterate that characters are developed within the miss en scene context of their created environment in the narrative plots of both Danish and Swedish silent film "Here one encounters a driven visual narrator   who demands a high degree of focus. many of the different narrative devices and stylistic features are noteworthy: his utilization of a qualified depth-of-focus cinematography aw well as the effect of advanced lighting." The author notes that one instance of this was Klerker's use of door frames within the image. In no academic papers already copyrighted, Soderberg Widding looks intricately at technique including the element of editing, so as not to neglect shot structure being in tandem with composition, by distinguishing a signature of Af Klercker's composition, "to use an undivided screen space where dissectons and doubling so takes place within a general frame rather than the introduction of several frames."

Swedish Silent Film director George af Klercker had been the head of the studios of Svenska Bio, Stockhom, his wife, Selma af Klercker often appearing on screen in his films. He was joined there by actorMauritz Stiler and Victor Sjostrom, who was then also leaving the theater. It has been noted that there were aprroximately 325 movie theaters open in Sweden during 1912.

Dodsritten under cirkuskupolen (1912) had been written by Charles Magnusson and photographed by Henrik Jaenzon. George Af Klercker had written his own screenplay to the 1912 film Jupiter pa Jorden, also filmed by Henrik Jaenzon. Although Af Klerker directed a short film photographed by Sven Petterson and starring actress Tyra Leijman Uppstrom during 1913, he that year also directed The Scandal (Skandalen) for Svenska Biographteatern, his photographer again Henrik Jaenzon, as was the case with the film Med Vapen I Hand that year,actress Selma Wiklund Af Klerker also returning for both films. As director, Klercker appeared on screen on camera in front of the lens of cameraman Henrik Jaenzon during "Med Vapen hand", which he did again while directing "For faderneslandent" with Jaenzon as camera man. Ragnar Ring codirected the film and wrote it's screenplay and actress Lilly Jacobsen starred in the film.

It has been noted that George af Klercker had spent time in Copenhagen and Paris after leaving Svenska Bio.

In Goteborg, Sweden, the two films produced by Hasselblads Fotofraphiska during 1915 were both filmed by George af Klerker and Sve Petterson. That year George af Klercker contributed the film "The Rose of Thistle Island" ("Rosen pa Tistelon), the first film in which actress Elsa Carlsson and Anna Lofstrom were to appear. The novel had been filmed previously by director Mauritz Stiller as "Pa livets Odesvager".

Among the films directed by George Af Klercker during 1916 was The Gift of Health (Aktie bolaget Halsams gave), the first film photographed by cinematographer Gustav Gustafson and the first film in which actress Tekla Sjoblom was to appear. Carl Gustaf Florin also is credited as having photographed with Gustafson. One of only two photoplays to be scripted by Gustaf Berg, the film is presumed to be lost with no suviving copies. Also starring in the film were Mary Johnson and Anna Lofstrom.

During 1916 cinematographer Carl Gustav Florin photographed the film "The Road Down" (Vagen Utfor) under the direction of Georg af Klercker for Hasselblad Photography. The film, starring actresses Sybil Simelova and Tekla Sjoblom, is presumed lost, with no surviving cooies existing. The running time of the film was a little over a half hour. That year Swedish film director Af Klercker also appeared on screen in the film Under the Spell of Memories (I minnenasband), in which he directed Elsa Carlsson, Tora Carlsson and Elsa Berglund. The film was written and photographed by Sven Pettersson. The 1916 film Hogsta Vinsten, in which director George Af Klercker appeared on screen with actress Gerda Thome Mattsson lasted a brief running time of only sixteen minutes at a time when the average running time had been increased from four reels to six. The film was photographed by Sven Pettersson. Also among the film's directed by George af Klercker in 1916 were "Triumph of Love" ("Karleken segrar") photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin and starring Mary Johnson, Teklas Sjoblom, Selma Wikland Klercker and Lily Cronwin in the first film in which she was to appear and the film "Mother in Law Goes for a Stroll" ("Svar pa rift") photographed by Gustav A. Gustafson and starring Greta Johansson, Maja Cassell and Zara Backman. Peter Cowie contrasts the directing of George af Klercker with that of Mauritz Stiller, "Mood and composition, however, distinguish Klercker's work more than performances." Cowie writes that the deep focus photography used in "Victory of Love" foreshadows that used by Renoir. Cowie adds, "Klercker seems equally at ease with natural or artificial light."
Af Klercker had gained renown not only for his blending artificial and natural light, but while at Hasselblad he innovated the techniques involved with a lens system that was suited for filming objects at a distance, ranging from a focal length of a few feet to that of a mile.
The Swedish Film Institute credits George af Klercker for having made two films in which actress Olga Hallgren starred whereas databases in the United States credit her with three films, all produced in Sweden during 1917 by Hasselblad studios. Klercker directed the 1917 "Ett Konstnarsode" photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin, in which Hallgren starred with actress Greta Pfeil and Klercker directed the 1917 film "Brottmalsdomanen" ("The Judge"), photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin, also starring Olga Hallgren. Sources from the United States credit Klercker with the film "Det Finns Inga Gudar pa Jordan" ("There are no Gods on Earth") from 1917 in which Olga Hallgren again starred with Greta Pfeil.

It wasn't untill 2017 that there was an unearthed copy of the 1926 film "Flickorna pa Solvik", the last film to be directed by George af Klercker, when it was rediscovered in a private collection. One of only two photoplays scripted by John Larson, the film starred actress Wanda Rothgardt, Anna Wallin and a young director Alice O Fredericks appearing in the film as an actress.

During 1918, George af Klercker directed the films "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter" (Fryvaktarens Dottar), photographed by Gosta Staring and starring Mary Johnson and Agnes Obergsson, "Night Music" (Nattliga Toner), photographed by Gustaf A. Gustafson and starring Agda Helin, Helge Kihlberg and Tekla Sjoblom, and "Nobelpristagaren".

Klercker would appear on screen as an actor during 1925, at the helm Carl Barklind to man the ship's wheel for the film "Tre Lejon", his costars Edit Rolf and Marta Ottoson. The film was photographed by Carl Hilmers.

"Flickorna pa Solvik", which George af Klercker directed in 1926 was thought to be a lost film untill 2017, left unseen by audiences untill then with no surving copies presumed to exist. The film stars actress Wanda Rothgardt.

Danish Silent Film

Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

Swedish Silent Film

Swedish Sound Film

Greta Garbo Silent Film