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: Douglas Fairbanks in When the Clouds Roll By (V...

Victor Fleming, who appeared onscreen in the film as himself, directed Douglas Fairbanks with actress Kathleen Clifford in the film ""When the Clouds Roll BY" (six reels) during 1919 from a photoplay written by Thomas J Geraghty. Fleming had began as a cinematographer for director Alan Dwan. Victor Flemming the following year directed Douglas Fairbanks in the film "The Mollycoddle".

During 1919 Douglas Fairbanks starred with Marjorie Daw in the five reel film "Knickerbocker Buckaroo", which he wrote under the pseudonym Elton Thomas (Elton Banks). Directed by Albert Parker the film is presumed lost, with no existing surviving copies.

Silent Film

Douglas Fairbanks in Reaching for the Moon

Douglas Fairbanks

Lost Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Reaching for the Moon (Emerson, Loos, 1917)

Anita Loos coscripted the 1917 film "Reaching for the Moon" (five reels) with its director John Emerson. John Emerson also that year directed Douglas Fairbanks in the film "Down to Earth", which Fairbanks co-wrote with Emerson andAnita Loos. Douglas Fairbanks is paired in the both films with actress Eileen Percy.

Doulgas Fairbanks appeared in several films during 1918, among those having been directed by Alan Dwan having been the lost five reel films "He Comes Up Smiling" with Marjorie Daw, "Mr. Fix It" with Marjorie Daw and Wanda Hawley, and "Bound in Morrocco" with Pauline Curley. Fairbanks also that year starred in the five reel films "Arizona" (Alan Parker) and "Heading South" (Arthur Rosen).

Silent Film Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Fairbanks 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

Scott Lord Silent Film: Mary Pickford in The Mender of Nets (Biograph Film Company, D.W. Griffith, 1912)

During 1912 D.W. Griffith directed Mary Pickford, Mabel Normand and Maugeritte Marsh in "The Mender of Nets", photographed by G.W. Bittzer. "The Mender of Nets" was the first film in which Mary Pickford had appeared at the studios of the Biograph Film Company. She had previously starred under the direction of Thomas Ince at Independent Motion Picture Company, where she appeared in twenty eight films that are now presumed lost, with no surviving copies existing, and at Majestic Studios, where four out if the five films that she appeared in are presumed to be presently lost.

Biograph Film Company Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Lon Chaney in While the City Sleeps (Jack Conway...

Biographer Robert G. Anderson, in his his volume Faces, Forms and Films, the artistry of Lon Chaney, describes the portrayals made by the Man of A Thousand Faces, including thos in which he used little or no make up. "For roles in which Lon Chaney appeared without make up are as intersting as those in which he appeared with it. He was always in character; his own personality was subordinated. His mannerisms, guestures, expressions belonged to the character; as did the dress, the detective in 'While the City Sleeps' though neatly dressed, was probably too absorbed in his job to notice the spot on his vest, probably the result of a hurried breakfast." Still, the diegetic world being visual, one might ask if the spot had merely been placed the by the director as a reference for the cameraman.

Advertisements placed in magazines by M.G.M promoted the film as being "Rated by trade consensus as the best Lon Chaney draw of past few years."

Lon Chaney Lon Chaney Lon Chaney Movie Posters

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

Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: In the Fetters of Darkness (Morket I Boj...

Directed by Swedish Silent Film director George af Klercker for Hasselblads Fotografiska during 1917, "I Morkets Borje" was phtotgraphed by Swedish cinematographer Carl Gustav Florin and starred Sybil Smolawa with Helge Kihilberg. That year George af Klercker also directed the film "The Suburban Vicar". Silent Film Swedish Silent Film

Greta Garbo in The Single Standard (1929, Marsh)

John Bainbridge gives an account of Greta Garbo having returned from Sweden in which the studio and public had expected her to arrive in Los Angeles and her instead having gotten off the train early to rendezvois with John Gilbert. "He had thought that things would turn out as the do in the movies, with the screen's two great lovers united in holy matrimony...According to Gilbert, Garbo had told him, 'You are a very foolish boy, Yacky. You quarrel with me for nothing. I must do my way. But we need not part.' It was on location of the film The Single Standard (eight reels) that Greta Garbo had learned of the marriage of John Gilbert to Ina Claire, "an event that came as a considerable suprise to the entire movie colony" (Bainbridge). His account includes a reporter finding Garbo on the set between two scenes and his showing her the headline, "'Thank you', she said. The reporter began pressing her with questions about her reaction to the news. 'I hope Mr. Gilbert will be very happy,' she said, and walked away." Picture Play magazine reviewed The Single Standard with, "One of the most brilliantly searching moments of acting ever seen in my fifteen years' of observation of the screen occurs in The Single Standard. It is furnished by Greta Garbo. She washes her hands, then washes her hair...Only she could make the story matter, or give it even ephemeral conviction."
It seems apparent that M.G.M. Had avoided the publicity of full page magazine advertisements for the Greta Garbo film The Single Standard and preferred using full page advertisements advertisizing the studio and its vast array of stars, mostly in a more stars in the firmament fashion, one page in 1929 reading It's Just the Beginning of MGM's Deluge of Dialouge Delights and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Your Rock of Gilbralter. It was a full page age in which the photo caption beneath Greta Garboread,"Gorgeous Greta in The Kiss with Conrad Nagel, Greater by far than The Single Standard." This may have in fact been impelled by the quickly advancing coming of sound film, if at all by the fickle contacts of Garbo or Gilbert. During 1929, Exhibito's Herlad and Motion Pictur World listed The Single Standard in a paragraph of films designated as Synchronized Pictures with Sound Effects as differentiated with those listed as Pictures With Talking sequences or Entirely of Dialouge. An advertisement during 1929 in Exhibitor's Herald merely read M.G.M The Important Company while listing the actors and actresses only by name with the working title of their current production, their frequently being instances that the titles would be changed later. With the name of the company was merely the acknowledgement of Lon Chaney in While the City Sleeps, John Gilbert in The Devil's Mask, and Greta Garbo in The Single Standard. Fim Daily of 1929 appealed to exhibitors and its moviegoing readers before providing a synopsis of the film. "Garbo splendid and spends this in for big dough. Story trite and trashy. Greta deserves better." it concluded, "It sounds like a lot of blah in print. That's exactly what it is. Garbo is too fine to waste on such stuff."



Hollywood Filmograph reviewed Greta Garbo in The Single Standard during 1929, "Adele Rogers St. John takes a sort of languid jolt at social conventions in her Single Standard, using Greta Garbo and Nils Asther to propound the doctrine. The theme appears to have been built rather than created and should hardly carry far in the external fitness of things...The Garbo fans will surely like her in this new role- a role in which she shows a little more fervor (not of the bent back kind) than usual...The Single Standard should not be a tornado at the box office." Motion Picture News added, "the story by Adela St John Rogers is highly sophisticated and in the main only suited for the big city houses; in the smaller towns it will appeal to the younger generation but the elder will undoubtedly frown on its altogether too free an exposition of sex will the heroine maintaining the right that a single standard of conduct applies to women as well as men and proceeding to put her theory into effect....Greta Garbo appears a little too old to be the typical flapper that would tackle a sex problem of this sort in the earlier positions of picture." Picture Play Magazine waited until 1930, "Brilliant acting by Greta Garbo although the story is not an inspiration. Arden Stuart attempts to live her own life freely, but conventional mother love dispels her theories."

"The girls go into long trousers. For the sea scenes of 'The Single Standard', Greta Garbo wore flannel trousers with a plain, tuck in sweater and sea going canvas shoes."  Picture Play magazine in 1929 ran the caption "Only self-expression draws Greta Garbo, for she is indifferent to fame and to the luxury that comes with stardom." In regard to her being versatile, it added yet another photo caption,"Greta Garbo portrays the torments of love, and little else."

Greta Garbo in Wild Orchids (Sidney Franklin, 1929)

Motion Picture News during 1929 quietly reported, "Clarence Brown will direct Greta Garbo in Heat for M. G.M.", later that month it adding, "Greta Garbo...has just completed The Divine Woman and will soon begin working on a new starring vehicle tentatively titled Heat adapted from an original story by John Colton. Richard Corliss has written, "Wild Orchids is a gorgeous excersize, with soft-focus sunstars glistening off the the actors' silhouettes, and countless tracking shots that give the impression of being an elegant if impotent nose-thumb in the face of the more earthbound talkies...and Wild Orchids is full of the frolicsome play of shadows. As Garbo stands indecisively outside Asther's bedroom door, light suddenly spills over her as the door is opened and his shadow crawls up her body; when he reaches her- and reaches for her, the shadow of his cupped hand falling over her breast- she retreats." Picture Play Magazine reviewed the film with, "Greta Garbo in her best role. Rather slow, but impelled by adult emotions." It later intimated that Greta Garbo was being watched, from no matter how far. In "You'd Never Know Them", A.L. Woodbridge claimed, "Greta Garbo is one of the few stars who looks so different in person, she needs no 'prop' disguise." Photoplay Magazine published, "Wild Orchids will do much for Nils Asther. Here is the role that will push the young Swedish actor up closer to stardom." It described the film with, "a story that proves tropical heat melts all conventions. The scene is java- the details are superb and the picture is a riot for audiences." Film Daily began following the film with the entry Asther Being Groomed, which read, "It looks as if Metro-Goldwyn Mayer are grooming Nils Asther to fill the vacancy that might be created by the departure of John Gilbert from the payroll of that organization. Rumor has it that Gilbert will go to United Artists..,Asther has been assigned the lead opposite Greta Garbo in her next picture Heat." A later entry followed reporting Garbo Title Change Again, "Wild Orchids and not Kiss of The East will be final title for Greta Garbo's new picture." It is not entirely marginal that there are accounts that Nils Asther had met Greta Garbo in 1924, at the Dramatiska Teatern and that he had proposed marriage to her, which she apparently declined- the autobiography of Nils Asther, Narrens jag (Fool's Way/The Way of the Jester was published in Swedish posthumously. If, in 1928, Ruth Bieiry was writing about Nils Asther in Photoplay magazine merely to obtain information about the secretive Greta Garbo, she does in fact show him in a favorable light and was genuinely interested in the actor, "Nils Asther, like Greta Garbo, was trained in the small studios of Sweden. He was accustomed to accept acting as an art rather than a short cut to wealth, fortune or position." 

   Rilla Page Palborg, in a biography titled "The Private Life of Greta Garbo" gave an account of meeting Greta Garbo on the set of "Wild Orchids". It soon become apparent that Greta Garbo would only film on a closed set, beyond anyone questioning whose voice distinctive voice accompanied the images. "A few days before she was to leave for Stockholm I talked to Greta Garbo. Our appointment on the set of 'Wild Orchids', then in process of production. She was acting a scene with Lewis Stone, who in the picture was her husband...Stealthily, she slipped out of bed, wrapped in a robe about her slender body, and stole from the room. The scene was taken over and over. Finally she came out and sat down beside me on an old couch that was standing on the edge of the set. 'I guess we can have a few minutes before I continue my struggle on that bed', she said wearily. 'It's almost impossible for me to keep my mind on all this. I did not want to make this picture before I went to Sweden. There is not enough enough time. My mind is running about the shops buying clothes and presents for this one and that one. But the studio made me do it.' " Greta Garbo continued the interview after decling anything for warmth, her denying that the she was cold in the M.G.M studio. "Now that I am really going home I can hardly wait to get there. I will be home for Christmas." Garbo apparently made her first reference to filming in sound in the United States, asking the journalist Palmborg if her accent was acceptable with a hopeful enthusiasm. Palmborg noted earlier that several actors had returned to Europe for just that reason, a heavy accent no matter how bilingual. Plamborg continued, "We talked about Lars Hanson and his wife, who had returned to Sweden. Her face saddened when I mentioned I mentioned her sister, who had died a year after Greta's arrival inHollywood. 'It has been hard to believe that she is really gone. When I go home I will find that it's is true."

     Clarence Sinclair Bull photographed the portrait of Nils Asther that appeared in Motion Picture Magazine. After their review of Wild Orchids there was included a page entitled Home is Where the Arts Is. It read, "It is Nils Asther's conviction that inspiration for his work is not so much to be got from constant mingling with other people as from a communion with himself." 

     Film Daily subtitled its review to the film, "Sexy Garbo Film with Strong Feminine Appeal. Finely Done. should Get Dough." It described the film's actors, " Greta Garbo; alluring and capable; Lewis Stone gives a fine performance and Nils Asther's a handsome Shiek. The three practically carry all the action." It went on to the scenario, Exploitation of Garbo's sex appeal." while crediting John Colton as author and Marion Ainslee and Rith Cummings as having written the titles. Photplay also announced, "This is Greta Garbo's last picture before she departed for Sweden" It claimed that the story created by writer John Colton as enacted by Garbo in Wild Orchids had previously been considered for Lillian Gish. motion Picture Magazpine listed the film as Synchronized (Sound) upon its release while lending it. Recommendation, "Lewis Stone gives his always distinguished performance. And Nils is an actor, and- but see Wild Orchids. To end 1928, Film Daily reported, Garbo Re-Signed, claiming that she had signed a new contract with M.G.M, one that would allow her to go on. vacation before going into effect and speculated with a fair amount of certainty that her first picture on her return would be an adaptation of a novel written by Elinor Glyn. John Bainbridge writes,"When she finished her current film, though, she was coming home for Christmas. Stiller, excited by this piece of news..." He provides an account of Garbo recieving a telegram from Victor Sjostrom, who had been with Mauritz Stiller the previous evening, announcing Stiller having passed away, an unnamed source describing that while on the set, her composure registered and became quiet for a brief moment and that she then continued the scene. "Lars Hanson, who spent untold hours with them in Sweden and in Hollywood, is of the opinion that there existed between them a bond of mutual affection, respect and dependency, but never the normal ties of love."
     Among the several advertisements published by M.G.M Studios which advertised the studio and included the film was on placed in Motion Picture News that reintroduced Greta Garbo. "The most talked about star in pictures! 'Woman in Affairs' built her fame bigger than ever. Next 'Wild Orchids' and it's a throbbing gold-getter." Typical of the studio advertising itself, John Gilbert, Lon Chaney, Norma Shearer and Roman Novorro were included in the multi-page ads, "John Gilbert follows with 'Desert Night'. What a star! They all wanted him! The Big Ones stay with M.G.M."
Well into 1932, as was typical with the fan magazines of the early sound period, Movie Classic provided one of the many published retrospectives, biographies or timelines of the career of Greta Garbo and her silent film, building up the glamour aspect of her having been the enigmatic Swedish Sphinx, which included a look at The Mysterious Lady, "still another leading man, Conrad Nagel. Being married, he is safe from Greta Garbo." The magazine overlooked the marriage of Lars Hanson to Karin Molander paragraphs earlier, "(Garbo) hailed in the title role of The Divine Woman with Lars Hanson as leading man. Romance with Lars Hanson rumored." If actress Greta Garbo remained eternally silent on the rumor of an affair with Hanson, it would not have seemed out of place, as by the time it had gone to print, Lars Hanson and Victor Sjostrom had both returned to their native country Sweden with their wives. Journalist Harriet Parsons of Modern Screen Magazine looked at the availability of Greta Garbo during 1931. "After her split with Gilbert, Garbo used to see Nils occasionally. They were countrymen and shared in common a moodiness and a love of solitude...There was never more than a casual friendship between them...Nils has since married the woman he loves." While describing the personal life between Greta Garbo and Niks Asther, Parson introduced Sorenson, a blond young Swede that was dating Garbo while in the United States, and "was in love with Garbo. But Garbo wasn't in love with him." She "liked him immensely. Liked not loved." Sorenson returned to Sweden when his pass port had expired.

     As Film Daily scurried for the latest information on the three tone technicolor process and the wiring of movie theaters for sound, Movie Makers making reviewed the cinematography of "Wild Orchids", "The picture opens with a skillful cinematic representation of the confusion and excitement at the departure of a steamer...scenes of the dock and boat dissolve into each other and a moving camera follows the leads...the emphasis on neutral colors helps convey...although there are very few shots with definite photographic contrasts."

It would appear that during 1929 Greta Garbo was included into what could be considered either the hard cover or the textbooks of that year, but only due to an author writing in a flurry; Hands of Hollywood was printed by Mary Eunice McCarthy and the Photoplay Research Bureau with the subtitle Copyright Applied For as the world waited for Greta Garbo and Lon Chaney to speak. After a brief chapter on The Talers, it discussed The Future of Pictures by paraphrasing the view of Irving  Thalberg, "He also announces that Greta Garbo and Nils Asther, both possessing decided foreign accents, have been resigned by his company under long term contracts. he says that a producer is foolish to release great public favorites in which he has invested millions of dollars for advertising and exploitation and to replace them with comparatively unknown stage players merely because of their trained voice...Greta Garbo's latest picture, "Wild Orchids" (silent) is making a tremendous amount of money and has played Broadway for two splendid weeks." Earlier in the volume, in a section that covered Continuity Writers the author had mentioned the film in regard to the qualifications and duties of writers of adaptations and the knowledge of censorship and their translating to the screen novels or plays that otherwise would be censored, A Woman of Affairs having been milder than its counterpart The Green Hat.

M.G.M placed advertisements in magazines for theater owners assuring them that projecting the film would be profitable, describing it as a "throbbing gold-getter".

Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

back to top- Greta Garbo in Wild Orchids