Scott Lord Swedish Silent Film: Thomas Graal's Best Film (Mauritz Stille...

Bengt Forslund, in his article "Through a Glass Darkly, the silent era of Swedish Film", reminds us that Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller "made farces, comedies and melodramas, as well as medieval legends and romantic sagas, social films and realistic dramas." Interestingly enough Forslund tries to relate their affinity as having arisen not from a singleness of desire, or from a solidarity, but it having come rather from their disparity, from their having "little in common as individuals". This led to each learning the others technique of filmmaking. Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, sees the film as self-reflexive, writing "'Thomas Graal's Best Film' works primarily as a comedy of manners, but it also functions effectively as a satire on filmmaking, evene at this early stage of the industry's development. The implication is that cinema stands beyond reality, and as a medium attracts only the 'hammy' situation and the exagerrated personality." Peter Cowie notes that onscreen Victor Sjostrom and Karen Molander are the "ideal screen couple" and that Gustaf Molander, although only inevitably married to Karin Molander for eight years, wrote "scintillating" dialougue intertiles for her. Cowie points out that the film distinguishes Mauritz Stiller as one of the first directors to use a "film-within-a-film-format". Mauritz Stilleris particularly noted for having has directed Victor Sjostrom in two comedies for A.B Svenska, “Wanted A Film Actress” (“Thomas Graal’s Basta Film”, 1917) with actress Karin Molander and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson and “Marriage ala mode” [“Thomas Graal’s First Child/ Thomas Graal’s Basta Barn”, 1918) also starring Karin Molander and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson. The running time to the former, a film noted by Forsyth Hardy as one of the first comedies about filmmaking, was ninety minutes, the latter eighty nine minutes. Rune Carlsten and Henrik Jaenzon both appeared on screen in the film Thomas Graal’s Best Film, which was written under a pseudonym by Gustaf Molander. Molander continued as writer and director of “Thomas Graal’s Ward/ Thomas Graal’s mindling”, photographed by Adrian Bjurnman.

Louise Wallenberg, in her article Woman on Screen I, 1910's-1960's, feautured in the volume Now About All Those Women in the Swedish Film Industry, alludes to the director as spectator while evaluating Mauritz Stiller's view of his characters with his estimation of the while an invisible observer, his early comedies to "depict modern women who try to put an end to their as ribed position as wife and mother only to end up going ack to being docile and loving partners, they clearly express a desire to break free from conventional marital relations and gender roles. In this manner Stiller's comedies are indeed profeminist as they engage with public discourses and notions about women's societal positioning and personal subjecthood, and freedom in a society that is (still) strongly formed by patriarchal values."

Silent Film

Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom

Mauritz Stiller

Scott Lord Scandinavian Film: Lars Hanson in A Dangerous Proposal (Ett Farlit Frieri, Rune Carlsten, 1919)

The first film directed by Rune Carlsten, an adaptation of a story by Bjornestejerne Bjornson which Carlsten coscripted with Sam Ask, was for Filmindustri Skandia, a short lived merger which shortly thereafter merged again, other directors for the company having been Elis Ellis and John Brunius. "A Dangerous Wooing/A Dangerous Courtshipt" (Ett Farlit Frieri) was the first of five films directed by Rune Carlsten to be photographed by Raol Reynolds. The film stars actress Gun Cronvall in her only on screen performance. Actor Lars Hanson also during 1919 starred underthe direction of Mauritz Stiller with actress Greta Almroth in the film "The Song of the Scarlet Flower" as well as under the direction of Swedish Silent Film director John Brunius in the 1919 film "Synnove Solbakken", with actress Karen Molander, who, then married to director Gustaf Molander, was later to become Lars Hanson's wife. Silent Film Lars Hanson Victor Sjostrom

Swedish Silent Film Stars on the Theater Stage

Gustaf Molander

Gustaf Molander had in fact been at the Intima Teatern from 1911-13.

Gustaf Molander

Karen Molander

Actress Karen Molander appeared with the Intima Teatern between 1911-1920 while married to Swedish Silent Film screenwriter and director Gustaf Molander. She began filming under the direction of Victor Sjostrom during 1914.

Swedish Silent Film Stars Swedish Silent Film Stars

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Lesser Evil (D.W. Griffith, Biograph, 1912)

The Lesser of Evil starred actresses Blanche Sweet and Mae Marsh and was directed for Biograph by D.W. Griffithduring 1912. The film was photographed by G.W Bitzer. Silent Film Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: Lon Chaney in Oliver Twist (Frank Lloyd, 1922)

Frank Lloyd directed and co-scripted with Harry Weil the film "Oliver Twist" for First National during 1922. Lon Chaney stars in the film with child actor Jackie Coogan. Robert G. Anderson, in his volume Faces, Forms, Films, the artistry of Lon Chaney gives an account of Chaney having frightened the child star as The Man of a Thousand Faces. Anderson places a description of Lon Chaney's portrayal of Fagin in a section concerned with with Age and Make Up. "The make up must indicate age as well as the physical characteristics...The actor must determine how he can reveal the personality and background of the character." Anderson explains the use of combinations of aluminum powder for grey or white hair, a lining pencil to delineate wrinkles, grease paint and putty.

"Oliver Twist" was photographed by cameramen Glenn McWilliams and Rober Martin.
In addition to starring in the film “Oliver Twist” (eight reels), during 1922 Lon Chaney appeared in two films that are now lost, “Blind Bargain” (Wallace Worsley) in which he starred with Jacqueline Logan and “Quincy Adams Sawyer” (Clarence G. Badger, eight reels), in which he starred with Blanche Sweet and Barbara LaMar. That year Lon Chaney also starred in "Shadows" (Tom Forman) with actress Margueritte De Le Motte and "A Light in the Dark" (Clarence Brown) with actress Hope Hampton.

Lon Chaney


Lon Chaney

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Lonedale Operator (Griffith, 1912)

In her autobiography, Lillian Gish discusses D.W. Griffith's cutting between camera distances in "The Lonedale Operator" (one reel). The photoplay was written by Mack Sennett and photographed by G.W. Bitzer for the Biograph Film Company durin 1912. Linda Arvidson, writing as Mrs. D. W. Griffith, in her autobiography entitled "When the Movies Were Young" recounts the importance of "The Lonedale Operator" to the career of actress Blanche Sweet, "Mr. Griffith, as of yet unwilling to grant that she had any soul or feeling in her work, was using her for 'girl' parts. But he changed his opinion with 'The Lonedale Operator'. That was the picture in which he first recognized ability in Miss Sweet." Arvidson later phrases it as "screen acting that could be recognized as a portrayal of human conduct". In another account contained in the volume, Arvidson chronicles D.W. Griffith having met with Blanche Sweet "on the road" with an offer to film two reelers in Calfornia neccesitated by the departure of Mary Pickford to the IMP Studios.

Arthur Knight, in his volume The Liveliest Art, describes Griffith's use of the insert shot in "The Lonedale Operator" when Blanche Sweet uses a wrench that is thought to be a pistol. "It was the close up that let us in on the secret, when the director was ready to reveal it. Griffith discovered that one basic function of the close up was to emphasize the inanimate, to make tings a dynamic part of the worl through which the actors move. But the close up does more than emphasize what is in a scene, it elimantes everything else."

Magazine advertisements paid for by the Biograph Film Company described "The Londale Operator", reading: "With this Biograph subject is presented without a doubt the most thrilling melodramatic story ever produced." Silent Film

D.W. Griffith

Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Painted Lady (Griffith, Biograph, 1912)

Directed by D.W. Griffith for the Biograph Film Company during 1912, "The Painted Lady" starred actresses Blanche Sweet, Madge Kirby and Kate Bruce.

Silent Film D.W. Griffith Biograph Film Company

Scott Lord Silent Film: One is Buisness, the Other Is Crime (D.W. Griffi...

D.W Griffith directed "One is Buisness, the Other is Crime", photographed by G.W. Bitzer, for the Biograph Film Company during 1912 The film stars actresses Blanche Sweet and Kate Bruce. Authors Edward Wagenkneckt and Anthony Slide, in their volume The Films of D.W. Griffith, put the film's themes of "stockmarket manipulation and political corruption" with those from Griffith's other films on the moral problems of "Gangsterism". It could be that modern audiences eventually view many of Griffith's films as being "lofty sensationalism", perhaps there being no direct link from the muckraking of Thomas Nast and Tammany Hall or from Naturalism. Scholar Mark Sandberg has termed Griffith's dramas as being "uplift cinema".

During 1912 actress Blanche Sweet also appeared onscreen under the direction of D.W. Griffith for Biograph in the film "The Lesser Evil", co-starring with actress Mae Marsh. D. W. Griffith

Scott Lord Silent Film: Douglas Fairbanks in Flirting with Fate (Christy...

Robert M. Baker coscripted the 1916 film "Flirting with Fate" (five reels)with director Christy Cabanne for the Fine Arts Film Company.

Actress Dorothy Haydel appears with Douglas Fairbanks in the film. Silent Film Douglas Fairbanks

Scott Lord Silent Film: American Aristocracy (Ingraham, Triangle Film, 1...

Motion Picture Review reviewed “An American Aristocracy” (five reels)in 1916. “The exhibitor knows the value of Douglas Fairbanks...We sincerely believe that Mr. Fairbanks can put this picture over with any audience whatsoever. It mixes comedy and thrills superbly. However, in the matter of construction it is not up to the standard of the best of his former pictures. It starts off with such a bang and such a rattling selection of uproarious subtitles that it cannot keep up the pace and as a consequence the action slowly up for a while during the middle of the picture. In the end, however, the thrills start again and takes the picture through to a glorious finish.”

"American Aristocracy" was directed by Lloyd Ingraham and photographed by Victor Fleming. During 1916, LLyod Ingraham also directed the film "Stranded" with Bessie Love for the Triangle Film Corporation. The film is presumed to be lost, with no existing surviving copies.

During 1916 Douglas Fairbanks also appeared in the five reel film "The Matrimaniac" (Paul Powell) scripted by John Emerson and Anita Loos for the Triangle Film Corporation and costarring actress COnstance Talmadge, as well as several five reel films directed by Alan Dwan, among which were "Manhattan Madness", "The Habit of Happiness", "The Good Badman" costarring Bessie Love, and "Reggie Mixes In", costarring Bessie Love.

For those interested in the screenwriting behind the photo play, which for this film was penned by Anita Loos, below is a magazine short story version, or novelization, of the Douglas Fairbanks Film.

Douglas Fairbanks Silent Film

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 are actresses Barbara Del La Marr and Margueritte Del La Motte.

Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Fairbanks

Scott Lord Silent Film: Ben Hur, A Tale of Christ (Fred Niblo, 1925)

Ben Hur

Director Fred Niblo brought the running length of the silent film to twelve reels with the 1925 film "Ben Hur" bringing the adjective "epic" to the historiography of genre theory during the development of "religious drama", subtitling the film "A Tale of Christ". Hollywood was notorious for not allowing films to be made with visual images of the historical Jesus so as not to perturb religious organizations and delegated Ancient Civiizations to sensational, if not tawdry exploitation, archeologists falling in love in the film Made for Love.

Silent Film Silent Film

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.

     There is also every indication that there is no existing copy of "The Lady in Ermine" (seven reels, James Flood) in which Einar Hanson starred with Corinne Griffith during 1927.

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 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 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 Stillerand 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.

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Greta Garbo

Danish Silent Film

Remade by Greta Garbo

Silent Film

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: Blood and Sand (Niblo, 1922)

With a photoplay by June Mathis, "Blood and Sand", directed in 1922 by Fred Niblo, showcased Rudolph Valentino with Lila Lee, Nita Naldi and Rose Rosanova. The nine reel film was photographed by cinematographer Alvin Wyckoff; Fred Niblo and photographer Alvin Wyckoff were teamed again the following year for a comedy starring Barbara La Marr and Enid Bennett titled "Strangers in the Night", a film which is presumed lost with no existing surviving copies.

Author Peter Cowie, in his volume EIghty Years of Cinema, described "Blood and Sand" as "Stagebound and tearjerking".

Swedish Silent Film

Silent Film

Silent Film Rudolph Valentino

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Woman In the Suitcase (Fred Niblo, 1920)

Fred Niblo directed the six reel film "The Woman in the Suitcase" during 1920 for Thomas H. Ince Productions. The photoplay was written by C. Gardner Sullivan. Actress Enid Bennett stars in the film.

That year Fred Niblo also directed Enid Bennett in the film "Silk Hosiery" (six reels), costarring actress Joan Standing and in the film "Her Husband's Friend"(five reels) co-starring Mae Busch.
Silent Film Fred Niblo

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Mark of Zorro (Niblo, 1920)

Toward the end of 1920, Wid's Daily titled its review of Douglas Fairbanks in "The Mark of Zorro" (eight reels) directed by Fred Niblo, with "Slow Starting But 'Doug' Gets This One Over Well". In regard to the film as a whole, it wrote, "Exceedingly entertaining romance with Doug doing a dual role and his usual acrobatics." Appearing in the film with Douglas Fairbanks is actress Margueritte Del La Motte.

Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Eighty Years of Cinema, described "The Mark of Zorro" as "a finely photographed swashbuckling romance".

Silent Film Douglas Fairbanks Douglas Fairbanks

Scott Lord Silent Film: Dorothy Gish in Nell Gwyn (Herbert Wilcox, 1926)

Herbert Wilcox in 1926 directed Dorothy Gish and Julliete Compton in the film "Nell Gwyn" (eight reels), photographed by Roy F. Overbaugh. During 1926, Herbert Wilcox also directed Dorothy Gish in the six reel film "London", in which she appeared with actress Elissa Landi and Gibb McLaughlin.
Silent Film

Silent Film

Scott Lord Silent Film: Black Oxen (Frank Lloyd, 1923)

Claimed to have been a "sensation" by writers of the period, "Black Oxen" (eight reels) was directed by Frank Lloyd, who co-wrote the script with Mary O'Hara as an adaptation of a then recent, then controversial novel by Gertrude Atherton. Atherton took the title from a phrase from poet William Butler Yeats. The film stars actresses Corinne Griffith and Clara Bow. Screenland magazine reviewed the film during November of 1923. "The passing years are like black oxen, wrote Gertrude Atherton, plodding on relentlessly. The heroine of 'Black Oxen' is a famous beauty who successfully renews her youth, thereby creating a new world for herself, far from her old loves and dreams." SILENT FILM SILENT FILM SILENT FILM

Scott Lord Silent Film: Made for Love (Sloane, 1926)

Paul Sloane directed actress Leatrice Joy in the 1926 silent film "Made for Love" (seven reels), the screenplay having been penned by Garret Fort. The periodical Motion Picture News printed its advice for Exploitation Angles to promote the film while screening its first run: "Refer to daily paper stories regarding excavations and discoveries in Egypt, mention King Tut. Stress the colorful epidsode in which tale of long dead lovers is told."

That year Paul Sloane directed actress Leatrice Joy in a second film for producer Cecil B. DeMille titled "Eve's Leaves" (seven reels) Silent Film

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

The immanent departure of Silent Horror Film 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.

silent film

Silent Horror Film

Silent Horror