Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Calles New Clothes (Calles Nya Klader, G...

During 1916, George af Klercker wrote and directed the films "Calle's New Clothes" (Calles Nya Klader), starring Mary Johnson and Teckla Sjoblom, and "Calle as a Millionaire" (Calle som Miljonar), starring Maja Cassel and actress Helge Kihlberg in the first film in which she was to appear.Both films were photographed by Gustaf A. Gustafsson and Carl Gustaf Florin. Silent Film Swedish Silent Film Georg af Klercker

Scott Lord Silent Film: Gosta Ekman in Faust (F.W. Murnau, 1926)

The immanent departure of director F.W. Murnau for America had already been announced by the periodical Motion Picture News during late 1925 while Murnau was readying the film "Faust". It was to star Gosta Ekman, "a young Swedish actor who has the title role. He has been a star on the legitimate stage and is now making his first appearance in pictures." Scholar Janet Bergstrom, University of California notes that F.W Murnau had recieced a letter from William Fox during 1925 prompted by the success of "The Last Laugh" (Der Letze Mann) and had already signed a contract to leave for America while filming "Faust" and "Tartuffe".

Janet Bergstrom, University of California , writes that with the film "Faust", among others, Murnau had "unchained the camera" with moving shots that seemed unique...sweeping the audience's emotions with them". Of these moving shots, Bergstrom brings to our attention tracking shots that were photographed above their subject by having rails mounted on the ceiling of the studio.

The use of a mobile camera by Murnau is clearly referred to by Robert Herlth, a designer of sets on the film "Faust", who wrote on the lighting of the film in a chapter entitled "With Murnau on the Set" included in the volume Murnau, published by Lotte H. Eisner. The set designer quotes Murnau as having said, " 'Now how are we going to get the effect of the design? This is too light. Everything must be made much more shadowy.' And so all four of us set about to trying to cut the light...We used them (screens) to define space and create shadows on the wall and in the air. For Murnau, the lighting became part of the actual directing of the film.'"

The periodical Photoplay Magazine during 1927 explained that F.W. Murnau had again resorted to literary adaptation for subject matter, "Goethe's panaoramic poem has been used as its basis and the adaptation was folowed, in the main, as closely as the screen permits...Murnau has caught the medieval atmosphere with suprising success." F.W. Murnau had actually jotted Goethe's name on one of his shootingscripts. Lotte H. Eisner, in his volume Murnau, writes that the script for "Faust", written by poet Hans Kyser, had originally contained a Walpurgisnacht, which may have only reluctantly have been elimanted from a script annotated by the director Murnau in order to "translate the text into visual terms and give directions to actors in terms ofimages."

In regard to whether F.W. Murnau was only on the peripheral of German Expression by definition due to its origins, one idea that supports that if anything F.W. Murnau held that peripheral is the adverse reaction of author Paul Rotha to the subsquent films Murnau made after haveing come to the United States to film. Rotha, in his volume The Film till Now: survey of world cinema, writes, "I find it impossible to accept that the Murnau who made 'Faust' and 'The Last Laugh' are the same man who made 'Sunrise' and 'Four Devils'. Some link between the two pairs of films is sought in vain. They seem the work of seperate persons: the first of an artist working with sincerity among harmonious surroundings; the second of a psuedo artist muddling under extreme difficulties of superabundance." There is a similar discorse concerning the films Swedish silent film director Victor Sjostrom made in Hollywood after having left Svenska Bio, yet it is one that recognizes the film technique od Sjostrom, including the use of ciematic devices such as cutting across the line to a reverse angle and flashbacks.

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Silent Horror Film

Silent Horror

Scott Lord Scandinavian Silent Film: The Gardner (Tradgardsmastanen, Vic...

Banned in Sweden during 1912, "The Gardner", written by Mauritz Stiller and directed by Victor Sjostrom was thought to be lost untill a surviving copy was found sixty eight years later in the Library of Congress. The film stars Victor Sjostrom with Lilli Bech, Muaritz Stiller, Gosta Ekman and John Ekman. It was the directorial debut of Victor Sjostrom, unscreened during his lifetime. Actress Karin Alexandersson who appears in the film that year also appeared in the film "Froken Julie", directed by Anna Hofman Uddgren.

Was the film Scandinavian sensationalism made in response to Asta Neilsen starring in the film "The Abyss"? The film did successfully premiere in Denmark and Norway, during 1912 and 1913 respectively. (To modern auiences the film's theme of incest/seduction is depicted before both the Suffragete movement for women's voting rights and before much of Frued's writing on the Electra Complex- there remains an ostensible theme of Seduction, or perhaps an element of exploitation in the film.) Marina Dahlquist, in her article "The Best-Known Woman in the World", chronicles, "Charles Magnusson published the booklet "Nagra om Biografcensuren (A few remarks on film censorship) in the name of Svenska Bio regarding its appeal of the ban against three films, among them "Tradgardsmastaren/Varldensgrymhet" (The Broken Springrose/The Gardner [1912]). Even though the importance of censorship was acknowledged by Magnusson and others, the over zealous ambition to protect even an adult audience met with irony."


Also that year Victor Sjostrom directed the film "A Ruined Life" (Ett hemligt giftermal) co-scipted with Charles Magnusson and starring Hilda Bjorgstrom, Einar Froberg, Anna Norrie, and Greta Almroth in the first film in which she was to appear.

Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Swedish Cinema, Ingeborg Holm to Fanny Alexander notes the numerous location shots employed to showcase Victor Sjostrom's future wife, Lilli Beck during the film. Peter Cowie quickly references that Lilli Bech and Victor Sjostrom were formerly married between 1914-1916. The actress starred with Victor Sjostrom onscreen under the direction of Mauritz Stiller the following year, during 1913 with a script written by Stiller and photographed by Julius Jaenzon with "Vampyren", a film presently presumed to be lost, with no existing surviving copies. That year Victor Sjostrom and Lilli Bech were also paired onscreen by Mauritz Stiller in the h "Barnet", with Einar Froberg and Anna Norrie, photographed again by Julius Jaenzon. The film is also presumed lost with no existing surviving copies.



Actor John Eckman, who appeared on screen in a score of films between 1912 and 1950 before his appearing with Victor Sjostrom in the Ingmar Bergman film "Till Joy" (Till gladje,1950), directed only one film, it also being the first film in which he was to appear. Before having appeared during 1912 in the film "Tradgardsmasteren", under the direction of Victor Sjostrom and during 1912 in the film "De Svarta Maskerna" under the direction of Mauritz Stiller, Ekman directed the film "The Shepherd Girl" (Saterjantan,1912), starring actress Greta Almroth, Carlo Weith and Stina Berg in her first onscreen appearance, the film having had been photographed by Hugo Edlund for Svenska Biographteatern. Victor Sjostrom would direct John Ekman, Lilli Bech and himself from his own script during 1914, adding the actress Greta Almroth in the film "Daughter of the High Mountain" (Hogfallets dotter), photographed by Julius Jaenzon. The film is presumed to be lost, presently there being no surviving existing copies.
Silent Film Victor Sjostrom Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

Scott Lord Silent Film: Pearl White in The Perils of Pauline, The Shatter...

Silent Film

The Swedish censorship of 1911 prevented "The Perils of Pauline from becoming familiar to audieneces in Sweden. Marina Dahlquist, in her article "The Best Known Woman in the World" writes that the cliffhanger "constituted precisely the type of films that the Swedish national censorship body was ser up to weed out from the market, aside from sexually tinged Danish melodrama." Dahlquist adds that there had also been a lack of publicity for the film, a lack of dvertising, or "newspaper-magazine tie ins".

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Perils of Pauline, Silent Cliffhanger

Scott Lord Silent Film: Pearl White in The Perils of Pauline, The Tragic...

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Silent Film Perils of Pauline, Silent Cliffhanger

Scott Lord Silent Film: Pearl White in The Perils of Pauline, The Serpen...

Silent Film

Silent Film Perils of Pauline, Silent Cliffhanger

Scott Lord Silent Film: (The Hell Ship 1923, Victor Sjostrom)

"The Hellship" (Eld Omboard), directed by Victor Sjostrom and co-scripted by Victor Sjostrom and Hjalmer Bergman, starred actresses Jenny Hasselqvist, Julia Cederblad and Wanda Rothgardt.
Victor Seastrom


Victor Seastrom Victor Sjostrom

Scott Lord Silent Film: Greta Garbo in The Temptress (Fred Niblo)

The periodical Motion Picture News during 1926 the filming of "Temptress" with a review entitled "Greta Garbo in the Title Role of 'The Temptress'. It read,"Greta Garbo, Swedish actress, will have the title role in Cosmopolitan's production of 'The Temptress, which will be a Metro Goldwyn Mayer release directed by Mauritz Stiller. She is now working in 'Ibanez' The Torrent'." Greta Garbo had in fact signed to do the film on the condition that Stiller was to direct.

The periodical Motion Picture News during 1925 announced that Mauritz Stiller had been slated to direct "The Temptress" by imparting that he had been brought to the United States by Louis B. Mayer. "Stiller won wide reputation in Europe for his productions."

Author Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian Film, curtly, only briefly mentions that Mauritz Stiller was removed as director of the film after a disagreement with Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Biographer William Stewart, in The True Life Story of Greta Garbo gives an account purporting that Mauritz Stiller "had not yet mastered the American method of making pictures. Handling crowds gave him trouble and his lack of English made every move difficult." Hollywood writer Bosley Crowther, in his biography of Louis B. Mayer entitled The Hollywood Rajah writes that Mauritz Stiller "proved to be too finicky and slow" and "difficult", a type of director that "were now being got out of the studio", but adds that before the filming of "The Temptress" was completed, Greta Garbo had met and fallen in love with Jack Gilbert. Although Garbo and Gilbert met during 1926, it seems that Crowther is approximating and according to Clarence Brown, her director, Garbo and Gilbert met on the set of the third film Greta Garbo had made in the United States.

Ruth Biery, who writes "I have seldom met anyone more timid than Garbo' became known to readers of fan magazines as the first biographer to introduce Greta Garbo with an interview from New Year's Eve 1927 that resulted in her appearing in three issues during 1928, Garbo the May Photoplay cover. Ruth Biery returned to the subject of Stiller and Garbo four years later. "They cast her in 'The Temptress' because Mauritz Stiller insisted upon it. He was to direct it. He directed the production in a way that would work to the advantage of his protoge. Garbo was tall. Antonio Moreno, the actor, was not so tall. The directed insisted that he wear his hair pompador fashion to make him look taller. He put him into boots- undoubtedly to make Garbo's feet look smaller. Moreno resented his favoritism. There was a battle and Stiller lost. He was removed from the picture. This was Garbo' first experience with studio politics. Because of her, Stiller lost his job. Yet it was her friend Stiller who insisted on her being in the picture. She was bewildered, crushed." Biery continued, "She may have loved Stiller. I do not know. I do know she enshrined him. When she talked to me of Stiller her eyes filled with tears, her entire body trembled with emotion."

The True Life Story of Greta Garbo by William Stewart continues, "The second disaster to occur during the filming of 'The Temptress' was the death of Greta's sister."

Biographer William Stewart, in his volume The True Life Story of Greta Garbo claims that Greta Garbo had begun her living as a recluse and refusing to be seen in public as early as the film "The Torrent", excerpts from the biography reprinted in the periodical Modern Screen during 1937 quoting the actress as having turned journalists away with "I have nothing to wear." The biography gives an account that the young Garbo soon relented to the studio and its demands for publicity. It may be well known that journalists compared Greta Garbo to the Sphinx, naming her The Swedish Sphinx, thinking her enigmatic and secretive, but early in her carreer, Photoplay Magazine compared her to a snowstorm while questioning the mysterious arrival of the "Norse Goddess, aloof, silent, inscrutable" who was vying romanticly for John Gilbert in competition with Jeanne Eagles asking "Snow or Rain?", a comparison of the temperments of the two actresses hoping to become the lover of John Gilbert, "the angle of the triangle that needs a thermostat".

In The Private Life of Greta Garbo, journalist Rilla Page Palmborg wrote, "Garbo made even a greater sensation in The Temptress than in The Torrent....But Greta declared she knew nothing of the technique of acting. That for the time being she 'was' the person in the picture. She did not know how she got certain effects. She did not know why she did things the way she did them."

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Greta Garbo Victor Seastrom