Scott Lord on the Silent Film of Greta Garbo, Mauritz Stiller, Victor Sjostrom as Victor Seastrom, John Brunius, Gustaf Molander - the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film........Lost Films in Found Magazines, among them Victor Seastrom directing John Gilbert and Lon Chaney, the printed word offering clues to deteriorated celluloid, extratextual discourse illustrating how novels were adapted to the screen; the photoplay as a literature;how it was reviewed, audience reception perhaps actor to actor.
During 1921 Wallace Worsley directed Lon Chaney with actress Leatrice Joy. "The Ace of Hearts" was photographed by cameraman Don Short.
Lon Chaney appeared in two six reels films during 1921, both presumed to be lost with no existing known copies, "For Those We Love", directed by Arthur Rossen and starring Betty Compson, and "Bits of Life", directed by Marshall Neilan and starring Anna May Wong. Lon Chaney
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 FilmDouglas FairbanksDouglas FairbanksSILENT FILM
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.
In 1918, the first feature films directed by Sidney Franklin appeared in theaters, among them those that were to star actress Norma Talmadge, "The Safety Curtain" (five reels), "Her Only Way" (six reels) and "The Forbidden City" (five reels). Previsously Franklin had directed childrens film for the Triangle Film Corporation at the behest of D.W. Griffith. "Her Only Way", made for the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation is presumed to be a lost film, with no surviving copies. Sidney Franklin during 1919 directed Nornma Talmadge in the film "The Heart of Wetona" (six reels).
During 1918, Norma Talmadge had starred in the film "The Ghosts of Yesterday" directed by Charles Miller for the Norma Talmadge Film Corporation, a corporation active between 1917-1926. The film is presumed lost with no complete copies that have survivied. There is an account that the first four reels are housed in the Library of Congress as an incomplete film. Silent FilmSilent Film
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. silent Film
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 CompanySilent Film
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.
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.
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.
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 ChaneyLon ChaneyLon Chaney Movie Posters
In the United States, Photoplay magazine during 1919 included two still photographs, one of Mary Johnson and one of Gosta Ekman in Puss in Boots. The former was captioned," above is Miss Johnson and Carlo Kell-Moller in an exterior study. miss Johnson is an ingenue leading woman of a type that we make favorites of in america. location work in sweden hasn't become a bore, evidently, as both town and country people impressed by the novelty of the thing are heartily inclined to make the companies their guests instead of momentary and suspected tenants." it also happened to recapitulate its belief that the import of swedish films had previously been prohibited based on the premise that germany had been scrapping the films in order to produce high explosives before the armistice. The director of Puss and Boots ("Masterkattan I stovlar") John Brunius, the silent film director married to swedish film director Pauline Bruinius, is described by Forsyth Hardy in the volume Scandinavian Film as having been "the most considerable figure often linked with the major directors", his having gained renown for a series of historical dramas begun only a few years later. John Brunius had co-scripted his directorial debut "Puss and Boots" with writer Sam Ask. The film was also the first film in which actress Anna Carlsten was to appear. Author Tytti Solla notes that both John Brunius and Rune Carlsten had been trained as actors. Nils Bouveng, the manager of Skandia, had previously been the manager of Hasselblad studios where Rune Carlsten had also been under the producer's supervision.
During July of 1918, in the United States, Motion Picture World announced the formation of the new company of Filmaktiebolget Skandia, which would include the merging of Skandia Film. “The company expects to have under contract popular Scandinavian actors. The studio will be that of the Hasselblad company at Sodra Linden (Goteburg). The present structure will be enlarged and modernized so that there may be productions on a large scale. The new company will start producing in May.”
While with Filmindustri Skandia, John Brunius directed the film "Oh Tommorow Night" ("Ah I Morron Kvall"), which he co-scripted with writer Sam Ask. Photographed by Hugo Edlund, the film stars actresses Eva Eriksson, Mary Graber, Hulda Malmstrom and Gucken Cederborg. John Brunius during 1919 directed “The Girl from Solbakken/The Fairy from Solbaken” (”Synnove Solbakken”), based on the novel written by Bjornstjerne in 1857. The assistant director to the film was Einar Brunn, it having been filmed in both Sweden and Norway by photographers Hugo Edlund and Arthur Thorell. Starring Lars Hanson and Karin Molander, it was the first film in which actresses Ellen Dall, Ingrid Sundall and Solvieg Hedengran would appear. The film reunited Sam Ask with John Bruinius, they both having co-written the script, as with the film Masterkattan I Stovlar. Tytti Soila, in regard to the film’s editing writes, “The film’s conflict of ideas is condensed in a sequence when there’s cross-cutting between a religious revival meeting at Synnove’s home and young people celebrating Midsummer by dancing in a meadow.” This seems to be the same sequence that Bo Florin credits Brunius with cutting across the 180 degree line. Scholar Bo Florin, in an article entitled “Norwegian Tableaux: A Norway Lass” writes that “The plot of the film faithfully follows Bjornson’s story.” Florin goes further to look at the adaptation of the visual narrative of the novel, alighting upon observations by both Leif Furhammar and Rune Waldecranz that Bruinius replicates tableau like compositions by the painter Tidemand, showing bruinius’s acurracy in reproduction and adds that he also uses the painting Swedish painter Killian Zoll. This was at a time when Skandia specifically was in competition with Svenska Bio over Nordic Literature on the screen.
Actor Einar Hanson is listed among the cast of the 1919 film People of Hemso (Hemsoborna) directed by Carl Barclind for Scandia. The film was adapted from the work of August Strindberg by Sam Ask and photographed by Hugo Edlund. Hilma Barklind and Mathilda Casper appear in the film.
Filmindustri Inc. Skandia had begun in 1918; two years later Skandia merged with Svenska Bio to form a partnership between Charles Magnusson and Nils Bourevy to run Svensk Filmindustri. In the United States, Photoplay magazine recorded, "The Skandia Film Corporation has just finished the construction of a great glass studio, modeled after and lighted by American methods, near Langangen, north of Stockholm." Jon Wengstrom, in Sweden during this century, has noted that John Brunius not only continued to direct with Svensk Filmindustri after the merger, but produced "period pieces" for his own company.
Actor Lars Hanson appeared on screen for Scandia Film under the direction of Rune Carlsten in the film A Dangerous Proposal (Etta fanlight firer, 1919), starring with Gun Cronvall, Hilda Categren and actress Uno Henning in what was to be her first on screen appearance.
Photoplay, during 1919, noted, "The Skandia Film Corporation, the employer of these young stars is doing some really big plays on the screen. Among them are several pieces of Bjornsterne Bjornson and a modern drama of social conditions by Danish playwright Pontoppidan. The title of this is The Bomb." Bomben (1920) was directed by Rune Carlsten, written by Sam Ask and photographed by Rauol Reynolds. The film starred Karin Molander and Gosta Ekman. Rune Carlsten would call upon scriptwriter Sam Ask and photographer Raoul Reynolds again during 1920 when directing Snows of Destiny (Familjens Traditioner), based on a play by Einar Froberg and starring Gosta Ekman Tora Teje and Mary Johnson.
During 1920, the Swedish director John Brunius wrote and directed two notable films, the first of which, Thora van Deken, starred Gosta Ekman, Ellen Dall and Edvin Adolphson, which Pauline Brunius in the title role. The film was an adaptation of a novel written by Henrik K. Pontoppidan. The second, Gycrksviscarna, photographed by Hugo Edlind, starred Pauline Brunius with Nils Asther and Ragnar Arvedson. Both films were produced by Filmindustri Scandia Stockholm.
Give Me My Son (En villages), directed by John Brunius during 1921 in which he himself starred with Pauline Brunius, Tore Svennberg, Edvin Adolphson, Mona Geiffer Falkner and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson, was revised in the United States shortly after its release by The Film Daily during early 1922. It summarized the film by claiming it was, "a new angle on the mother love theme presented in foreign dramatic offering..Handles dramatic moments effectively, but otherwise average...Pauline Bruinius plays mother role with considerable feeling, suitable cast." before it provided nearly a half page of synopsis, the periodical reported that the film, "gets away from the conventional happy ending. It is not tragic, but unexpected, and not what you think it will be. The denouement is particularly handled, aPnd there are no humorous incidents whatever, so the atmosphere becomes 'heavy' occaisionally.,,the more dramatic moments Re quite effectively handled in a manner that increases the interest to a proper pitch. It is accumulating." Screenwriter Sam Ask appears on screen in the film The Wild Bird (En Vindfagel), which was an adaptation of a play written by S.A. Duse.
Directed for Filmindustri Scandia, Stockholm during 1920, the first three films directed by Pauline Brunius, “De lackra skaldjuren”, “Ombytta Roller” and “Trollslanden” were also to be the first three films in which Frida Winnerstrand was to appear. All three films were photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin. All three films were co-scripted by Pauline Brunius and Lars Tessing.
The Mill (Kvarnen), directed by John Brunius during 1921 had starred Helene Olsson, Klara Kjellblad and Ellen Dall, it having been photographed by Hugo Edlund. The screenwriter Sam Ask also appears in the film, which was an adaptation of a novel penned by Karl Gjellerup. Author Tommy Gustafsson imparts the thematic structure to the film in Swedish Film during a chapter titled Travellers as a Threat in Swedish film during the 1920's. "Kvarnen's rendering of good and evil takes place on two levels. First with an overt symbolism, the filmmakers let a black cat name Pilatus follow Lise wherever she goes, while Amraenta, on the other hand is followed by a tame roe deer. Second, the dark haired Lise is portrayed as a sexually alluring woman with earrings and unbuttoned blouses where we are even able to get a glimpse of seductively bare shoulders and even cleavage. The blond Amrante on the other hand is portrayed as a fairy tale like and innocent character throughout the film." Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, writes, " 'The Mill' proved a greater critical success in France than it did in Sweden."
Pauline Brunius during 1921 wrote and directed the films Lev Livet lee de and Ryggskott, both films of shorter legnth, running under a half hour and both starring Frida Winnerstrand, the photographer for both films having been Carl Gustav.
The author of Greta Garbo: A Divine Star, David Bret, claims that two films directed by John Brunius that are lost, there being no surviving print of either film, both were films in which Greta Garbo under the name of Greta Gustaffson, had appeared as an extra, whereas, previously, the present author would have only thought to credit her as being in the first film, Soldier of Fortune (En lyckoriddare, 1921), in which she appeared on the set with her sister, Alva. Interestingly enough, Robert Payne, author of The Great Garbo is also among the modern biographers that attribute an uncredited contribution on the part of Greta Garbo to the film, his having noted that she can be seen in the film for well over a full minute.
Author Jan Olsson recently noted that when Skandia had merged with Swedish Biograph during 1919, one business consideration had been increasing its international market, which would stand to reason as the Danish film industry which had exported was then at a standstill. Olsson advances that it was with an interest in exporting film too foreign markets that the film Karleckens Ogen (Eyes of Love, A Scarlet Angel), directed by Brunius in 1922, had been given a script with a story that transpired in Russia, "Brunius's film featured luxurious cosmopolitan nightclub settings and an intrigue brimming with crimes and passions leading up to redemption of sorts." Brunius co-wrote the film with Sam Ask and it started Pauline Brunius, Karen Winther and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson. The cinematographer to the film was Hugo Edlund. David Bret, author of Greta Garbo: Divine Star, lists Greta Garbo as having appeared in the film Scarlet Angel as an extra and that the film itself is lost, there being no surviving prints of the work. Writing about the global distribution of Swedish silent film, Sweden as transnational, or reluctantly transnational cinema, scholar Laura Horak chronicles the efforts of producer Nils Bouveng, "While some Swedes blamed international audiences for their lack of sophistication, SF was determined to win these audiences over. The company responded to these reports by making a spate of urban, cosmopolitan films, including 'Erotikon', 'The Eyes of Love' ('Karlekens Ogen' ('The Eyes of Love', John Brunius, 1922) and 'Karusellan' ('The Carousel', Dimitri Buchowetski, 1923)." In light of The exterior silent scene of the the Golden Age of Swedish Film quickly having transferred to the interior dialogue scene of Gustaf Molander after the advent of sound, Horak endearingly adds that during that period, before traveling to the United States, silent director Victor Sjostrom starred well known British actors to make his audiences more international.
Forsyth Hardy evaluated the directing of John Brunius in his volume Scandinavian Film, "Inside the studio, Brunius was less successful, but his broadly handled spectacles made a contribution to the Swedish cinema which was noted with respect abroad."
Actress Mary Johnson, who had previously acted under the direction of George af Klerker and Mauritz Stiller, returned to the screen to act under the direction of John Brunius in 1923 for the film "Johan Ulfstjerna", photographed by Hugo Edlund, in which she starred with Einar Hanson, Anna Olin and Berta Hilbert. The film included scenes shot on location in Finland. The screenplay had been adapted by Carlo Keil-Moller from a play by Tor Hedberg. To lend a sense of the film as a vehicle for the actress author Forsyth Hardy has written, "Brunius could work effectively on a large canvass." Peter Cowie echoes this by noting that director John Brunius used six cameras to film crowd scenes in Helsinki. John Wengstrom, of the Swedish Film Institute, found that the sentiment was echoed by Gosta Werner, whom he quotes as having claimed the film by John Bruinius, “When first theatrically released, was one of his earliest and strongest cinematic experiences”. John W. Bruinius also directed the film "Best of All" in 1923.
John Brunius during 1924 brought the film Maid Among Maids (En piga bland Piga) to Swedish film audiences. Photographed by cinematographer Hugo Edlund it starred Margit Manstad, Magda Holm, Esther Halling and Halling Lennartsson. During 1924 John Brunius was on stage as an actor at the Svenska Teatern under the direction of Pauline Brunius in a production of “Charites Portratt”, written by Einar Christiansen. John Brunius has begun acting on stage at the Svenska Teatern in 1907 in a production of “Johannes” written by Hemann Suderman. He continued under the direction of Karl Hedberg and Victor Castlegren untill 1910 and under the direction of Gunnar Klintberg untill 1917. Included in his performances were plays written by August Strindberg and Hjalmer Bergman.
John Brunius in 1925 directed the film Charles XII (Karl II) starring Mona Martenson and Pauline Bruinius. Photographed by Hugo Edlund, it's screenplay was written by Hjalmar Bergman and Ivar Johansson. Many of the scenes of Bruinius's film were shot on the actual historical locations and battle sites. It is in fact listed as having been produced by Historik Film. As is reflected in the list of actor and actresses in the credits of the film, it was one of the most expensive films to have been made in Sweden up until that time. It was a year during which screenwriter Hjalmar Bergman was still corresponding with Victor Sjostrom and during which he had written to Mauritz Stiller, to whom he mentions Sjostrom, Sjostrom's wife, Edith Erastoff and the actress Greta Garbo, or "Garbo" rather. During that year's correspondence he only briefly mentions Mona Martenson, but does in fact more than twice. Although he attributes Hjalmar Bergman with an "imaginatively written screenplay", A. Kwaikauski, author of Swedish Film Classics gives an estimation of the content, and the thematic narrative, or thematic distribution perhaps, of the film, "Brunius did not overcome the danger of excessive trappings. The spectacular and vigorous battle scenes are not matched by the intimate sequences, which are conventional scenes of court intrigue. The film is impressive in size, but essentially illustrative and lifeless." John Brunius again collaborated with screenwriter Ivar Johansson during 1926 to bring the film Tales of Ensign Stal (Fredrick stalls Sanger) to the screen. Hugo Edlund was the cameraman to the film. Appearing in the film Gosta Ekman, Edvin Adolphson, Pauline Brunius, Elsa Lundqvist and Karin Swanstron. Silent film director John Brunius directed the film Gusta Wasa from a screenplay by Ivar Johansson in 1928. Although these last two films, "Tales of Ensign Stals" and "Gusta Wasa" were "mammoth costume dramas", author Peter Cowie notes that John Brunius left no mark on the films of the 1930's as a decade as a director, the scepter having been passed to Gustav Molander as the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film had already reached an anti-climactic close.
After the advent of sound, John Brunius sought to continue the tradition of Swedish filmmaking by turning to the writing of Norwegian novelist Bjornstjerne Bjornson and an adaptation of the 1860 work "En Gald Gut", photographed in Norway for National Film by Gunnar Nilsen-Vig. The film featured actors Hauk Aabel, Goril Havervold and Tore Foss. John Brunius directed two films during 1930, “The Doctor’s Secret” (“Doktorns Hemlighet”), written by Per Stille and starring Pauline Bruinius, Anne-Marie Bruinius and Marta Ekstrom, and “The Two of Us” (“Vi Tva”), in which Edvin Adolsphson appeared as an actor with Margit Manstad and Marta Ekstrom. “The Two of Us” is the first film in which Lisa Froberg appears on screen as an actress. Silent Film
Recently I was suprised to notice that I was listed as one of the "sources" on a beautiful webpage on European Film Star Postcards. The postcards themselves are priceless masterpieces and are not available for this page and the author is informative and professional. The particular page, which is more than worth visiting, was on the Swedish Silent Film director John Bruinius. Allow me to thank one of my readers.
Swedish Silent Film: Sjostrom and Stiller
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
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
Directed for Hasselblads Fotografiska by Swedish Silent Film director Georg af Klercker in 1917, the film "Revelj" starred actresses Mary Johnson, Lily Croswin and both Gertie Lowestrom and Gerda Bjorne in the first film in which either were to appear onscreen. The film was photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin and the screenplay was written by Carl Svensson-Graner.
That year Swedish silent film director George af Klerker also directed actress Mary Johnson in the film "The Suburban Vicar" (Forstadprasten), in which she starred with Concordia Selander and Lilly Graber. During 1917 George af Klercker also directed the film "I Morkets Bojor" one of the only two films in which actress Sybil Smolova had appeared. "Vagen Utter", in which George af Klercker had a year earlier during 1916 had directed Sybil Smolova, is presumed to be lost, therebeing no surviving copies of the film.
Scandinavian Silent FilmSilent FilmSilent Film
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."
Photoplay Magazine in 1929 published an account of Nils Asther's performance in "The Single Standard". It ran, "Nils Asther measures up to the requirements of a Garbo lover. Greta gives a splendid interpretation of the woman of today at war with herself." The publication that year whispered that "Anna Chrisitie" would be Greta Garbo's first sound film, but that Garbo would still be making "The Kiss" first and that Lon Chaney was then still waiting for a dialogue director, it claiming that sound film had stopped the career of Nils Asther, it praised the voice of Ronald Colman in the film "Bulldog Drummond".
In an article for Screenland Magazine during 1931, journalist Paul Hawkins promised a more accurate portrait of Greta Garbogleaned from interviews of actors and directors rather than movie critics. It was a technique used less successfully by biographer John Bainbridge, to give Bainbridge credit, although the earlier Hawkins in one brief article uses a variety of interviews without employing anonymous sources. Screenland quoted actor Johnny Mack Brown, " 'Gee, she's a marvelous gift', sighed Johnny Mack Brown. 'I worked with Miss Garbo in "A Woman of Affairs" and "The Single Standard" and I'll never forget what a grand person she is...I worked hard, all right, but I never before or since enjoyed working hard as did in my two pictures with Greta...Miss Garbo is so conscientious that she inspires the best that is in her co-workers,,,,She was very active between shots on the set of "The Single Standard". We tossed the medicine ball around and chatted like school kids.' "
"The Single Standard" is the only screenplay written for Greta Garbo by Josephine Lovett. Starring in the film with her are Dorothy Sebastian and Kathlyn Williams.
Mordant Hall writing in 1929, recounts his purported assignation with the 'Hollywood Hermit', "Soon the door of Miss Garbo's apartment was flung open and the sinuous figure of the alluring actress appeared as if from a ray of sunlight. In a low-toned voice that suited her beauty, she greeted the caller, whose eyes fell from her face to a bouquet of flowers on a table, and then to a carpet. 'Won't you sit down?', she asked." He continues to describe her pink, silk sweater and black velvet skirt, claiming that of all her films, 'A Woman of Affairs' was Greta Garbo's favorite. She evidently recounted preparing for a role on the Stockholm stage and having had studied the part, but later having decided against appearing in the theater. "She repeated, 'Delighted to have met you.'"
Biographer Rita Page Palmborg, author of The Private Life of Greta Garbo, wrote,”Garbo was anxious to make ‘A Woman’s of Affairs’. It was to be her first portrayal of a modern American girl. While the story had romance running through it, it was not filled with the passionate, exotic type of love-making that had been seen all through her other pictures. Garbo and Gilbert had several scenes heavy with romance. But the fact that their own relations were in a perpetual state of turmoil seemed to detract from the glamour of their love-making. The public seemed to sense that the Garbo-Gilbert romance was coming to an end. Hollywood could not keep track of the affair.It was a case of ‘off-again, on-again’.”
The titles of movies that Greta Garbo had signed under contract to appear in were subject to change during the end of the the silent era. On March 31, 1928, Exhibitor's Herald World ran an announcement titled, "Clarence Brown's Next To be Greta Garbo Production", which read, "Clarence Brown will again direct Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. The picture that brings the two together again is 'The Sun of St. Moritz' by Oskar Houeker."
Photoplay Magazine announced, "Rumor has it that Clarence Brown and Dorothy Sebastian are married." Of her playing against Greta Garbo in A Woman of Affairs, Sebastian was thought to "present an interpretation, brief but classic." It reviewed the performance of John Gilbert as having played, "the difficult role of lover with dramatic repression." It went on, "Miss Garbo's interpretation is all the greater because she puts it all over without a single clinging dress or a single Garbo slink." Of the intertitles, or subtitles, Photoplay Magazine was exact in its estimation of their "devastating effect" as continuity- "When Miss Cummings wants to think of something sweet for John to murmur to Greta, she orders up a flock of chocolate sodas from the studio lunchroom. Miss Cummings wrote the titles for A Woman of Affairs and there wasn't a spoonful of ice cream left in Southern California." The magazine later reviewed the film with, "Why waste space urging you to drop everything to see this one." Film Daily credits Bess Meredyth as having written the scenario and Mariona Ainslee and Ruth Cunningham as having provided the titles, "Greta Garbo does her best work of her career in a part that all women will rave over. John Gilbert has a very secondary role....Director Clarence Brown has done a masterly job. He cunningly dodged the censor stuff by treating the many-lover episodes as a series of photos taken from a newspaper's files...Synchronized sound effects." Motion Picture Classic magazine favorably reviewed the film, "The picture has been carefully plotted, so much so that it is filled with subtle asides in its scenes and titles. This procedure was necessary to pass muster. But the original meaning is incorporated in the central ideas and it is fully emphasized by Garbo's finely shaded performance. There are some gorgeous settings. The atmosphere gives it quality, too...It is Greta Garbo's work that makes it enjoyable. John Gilbert is nothing much more than a figure-head here." Motion Picture magazine reviewed the film by viewing Garbo and Gilbert, "Perhaps I'm getting old. Or perhaps it is just that Jack Gilbert finds a full dress suit happening to his style of lovemaking. At any rate, something was missing in the high-powered scenes where he and Greta Garbo show what sex can be at its best...the tempo of the picture is decidedly slow and episodic."
Author Richard Corliss looked at the directing of the film, "Faced with a plot as convoluted and predestined as a Chinese ballet, what can Clarence Brown do but direct actors like traffic. He simply discards the flamboyant eroticism of Flesh and the Devil and concentrates as much as possible on elaborately paired shots, some half a film apart, which suddenly reinforce, or undedrcut, the story's plodding ironies." He, maybe importantly to the study of the photoplay, notes that one character dies "at the exact moment" when Greta Garbo and John Gilbert are consummating their love affair, illustrating the effect of pacing the action and timing in plot exposition during the photoplay- in fiction, in classical narrative, not only can plotlines structured on character development intersect and intertangle, as counterpunctal or counterpoint, but they can occur simultaneously, editing to serve a delineating purpose of narrative structure. Screenland Magazine offered to its readers Greta Garbo's neglgee, or her "boudoir gown" rather, which would be given to the contestant who wrote the best letter on the tragic roles of the actress. The Garbo Nile robe worn in A Woman of Affairs was to be sent to the writer of the most interesting letter along with a Christmas greeting from the actress herself. Screenland asked, "How do you feel after a sad ending?" It also, two pages earlier had offered to its readers John Gilbert's Gruen Swiss wristwatch for the most intelligent letter. "Write your opinion. Does a picturesque costume add to the glamour of romantic roles or is there more interest in a modern lover? Why?" It claimed, "The watch which John Gilbert has offerred for your Christmas is an exact duplicate of the one he wore in the scenes with Greta Garbo. We asked for his watch but he said he had given it very hard wear and the winner should have a new one."
During the first run of the film appeared the article "There is a Style Trend Inspired by the Graceful Garbo. Can Every Woman Follow". The article was subtitle, "What the Garbo Girl should Wear", but the writer, Gilbert Adrian, as well as having included three costume sketches and an exclusive photograph of himself with Greta Garbo during a fashion conference, also added how the Garbo Girls present during 1928 in the circulation of Screenland Magazine should wear their hair, and should not wear their hair being a Garbo Girl type. Adrian wrote, "In following Miss Garbo, one realizes that simplicity is the key note to her smartness, as it should be of all women of taste. her natural aloofness and manner of bearing make it possible for her to put meaning into simple clothes. The girl who feels she is the Garbo type should be truthful and analyze her nature to find out whether the appearance is only skin deep, or if her mental qualities and manner can carry, with the same dignity and charm, the simplicity that Garbo knows how to handle. Garbo's flair for and understanding of drama is coupled closely with the clothes she wears...without being clothes conscious, the most conscious kind of clothes..The girl of the Garbo type should wear pajama ensembles; geometric designs in vivid colors; scarfs wrapped around the head...should NOT wear negligees of taffeta with ruffles or hand-made flowers, dainty pinks or blues, or bandea with ribbon streamers...I remember that I designed a two-piece sports costume in Boi de rose duvet even, made with a sleeveless jacket and a short skirt with roomy kick pleats for Miss Garbo to wear in A Woman of Affairs. A tucked in blouse with boyish collar and leather belt, further carried out the athletic type of costume in this instance. Topping this was a trench coat of the same material finished with a bright plaid tuxedo collar...One of Miss Garbo's favorite costumes is a two piece dress of dark green camel's hair jersey."
As soon as 1930, A Woman of Affairs was reported in hardcover as a film on which dramatic and thematic limitations were imposed. The volume Censored, The Private Life of the Movies directed it's scrutiny on the film and went so far as to imply there was a cutting of the film before release "in order to avoid showing a scene intimating that mePn and women love out of wedlock and cited other films that contained "information and dialouge infinitely more suggestive than the dropping of a ring from the hand of Greta Garbo" and yet it still went on to note that the aegis of the time period would only release the film, as with a rating, if the director was to "shorten to flash of five feet scene of Diana and Holderness on couch, embracing and kissing and eliminate view of Diana's hand except after she has dropped the ring." Close Up magazine during 1928 also referred to the film's reputation and the publicity that had preceded it, "Michael Arlen's The Greet Hat, done in celluloid, under the direction of Clarence Brown is M.G.M.'s latest vehicle for Greta Garbo. to placate the moralists who have registered objections to the screening of the story, the picture will be released under another name- A Woman of Affairs. This simple device will no doubt prove effective here as it did with the protested Rain, which under the film info into of Sadie Thompson, successfully satisfied the American puritanical conscience." Motion Picture News during 1928 addressed the quickly growing reputation of the film, as though there were something more sinister in the new sexuality of Garbo, rather than a young woman only immoral due the the inexperience of a vamp, or its new incarnation, vamping flapper, "A Woman of Affairs illustrates the fallacy of official bans on stage plays that are regarded in stage form as too daring or immoral for screen production. A Woman of Affairs proves that questionable or objectionable things in stage plays can be treated from other angles without the least offence to decency or good taste...A Woman of Affairs hasn't the slightest offensive situation."
The Film Spectator objected to the film. It’s reviewer thought to explicitly describe the mechanics of the licentious kissing of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert onscreen. “They could not call it ‘The Green Hat’ for it is supposed to be an immoral book, but they put things in the picture more filthy and disgusting than Arlen ever dreamed of.”
Recently, Scholar Carmen Guiralt, writing in Film History, an International Journal, has added what may be an important source to the distinctions of diegetic and non-diegetic discourse and of textural and extra-textural discourse involved in the thematic and metaphorical rendering of content within context and its exhibition in the public sphere, almost to where we might revisit the theory of a cinema of attractions and reconsider it within a pre-code public sphere. The author looks at the censored image with discourse- particularly when those images are used to transpose the discourse of the novel during its adaptation. Greta GarboThe central premise of the paper Self-Censorship in Hollywood during the Silent Era : A Woman of Affairs (1928), is almost too direct to not be stunning. An abstract reads," This article studies, from a historical view as well as an aesthetic point of view, the constraints placed... On the production and on Clarence Brown's use of visual images to convey the full content of the novel. As a result, A Woman of Affairs presents two contradictory story lines, the narrative revealed by the images and the difficult speech supervised by the censors and featured in the intertitles of the film." The film had been vastly altered by the censors in regard to its screenplay and a corresponding new plot had to be devised.
Scott Lord on Silent Film, Scott Lord on Swedish Silent Film, Scott Lord on Danish Silent Film
