Silent Film, Swedish Silent Film: Biograph and Svenska Bio; D.W. Griffith and Victor Sjostrom

Sunday, October 25, 2026

Scott Lord Silent Film: The Golem, How He Came into the World (Paul Wegener, 1920)

Exhibitor's Herald during 1921 praised the film "The Golem" (Der Golem) for its "ingenious handling of the masses engaged in many of the scenes, persons numbering in the thousands", claiming, "the point of direction and composition" was a "splendid piece of work". It also added, "The lighting, photography and general detail is lacking, and the characters, many of them, are over done in make-up."

Author Lotte H. Eisner, in his volume "The Haunted Screen", explains the contemporaneity of "The Golem", "Paul Wegener always denied having had the intention of making an Expressionist film with his Golem. But that has not stopped people from calling it Expressionist." Seeing the film as an import, or "art film"- an idea particularly important to Scandinavian film companies during that decade almost up to the departure of Charles Magnusson from Swedish Biograph, and therefore an idea frequent in the extratextural film discourse of film critics and reviewers- Picture Play Magazine during 1921 also compared "THe Golem" to "Doctor Caligari" and the theater of Max Reinhardt in its having translated to the screen "the immense imaginative possiblities of the futurist school of dramatic expression". That year periodical highlighted the film with a two page photo dislay, each photo taking up half a page, explaining that "sensational success is predicted" while introducing the "foeign made film", "one of the most important European productions". The photocaptions pointed out the films "curious haunting beauty." The British peridical Pictures and Picturegoer during 1923 did in fact approach genre theory by combining then recent early examples of the mystery thriller, including John Barrymore in his appearance in Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, in the article Macabre Movies, distinguishing "The Golem" as a "picturization of a mediaeval legend" but comparing its "Cubist scenery" with that of "Doctor Caligari" with its half-lit ineteriors.

Wegener had given a lecture during 1916 entitled "The Artistic Possibilities of Cinema" as a proponent of "cinematic lyricism" where lines would appear then change as moving surfaces.

Motion Picture World, rather, during 1921 chose to begin with the film's "subject matter" and its "preposteruous story". "He has grasped the most essential fact about his duties as a director- to tell a story in action and develop characters at the same time. Every foot of film advances the progress of the story. There are no cutbacks, no halts for bits of local color or parenthetical description of any of the characters. He knows the meaning of the word drama."

The periodical Motion Picture News during 1921 noted, "Wegener deserves double credit for he also plays the tile role and makes it an unforgettable figure."

Paul Wegener wrote,directed and starred in the his first adaptation of the novel "The Golem" in 1915, presumed to be almost entirely lost with only fragments surviving. Henri Galeen co-wrote and co-directed the photoplay exhibited as "Monster of Fate" in the United States, where Wegener appeared in the 1926 film "The Magician", directed by Rex Ingram.

Silent Film Silent Film Lon Chaney

Friday, October 23, 2026

Cover Letter: Scott Lord on Silent Film. https://www.youtube.com/user/ScottLordnovelist

The channel Scott Lord on Silent Film (@ScottLordnovelist) is a dedicated archival and educational project focusing on early cinema history, rare film preservation, and silent-era scholarship.

Key Focus Areas & Content Highlights

The Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film
Detailed coverage and video uploads centered on foundational Scandinavian filmmakers, particularly Victor Sjöström (Victor Seastrom) and Mauritz Stiller, as well as stars like Greta Garbo, Lars Hanson, and Einar Hanson.
Early American Cinema & Biograph Shorts
Extensive preservation work and commentary on early American silent cinema, highlighting work by D.W. Griffith at Biograph, featuring actors like Lillian Gish, Blanche Sweet, Linda Arvidson, and Mary Pickford.
"Lost Films in Found Magazines" & Archival Research
Beyond video uploads, the project reconstructs lost or heavily deteriorated silent films by analyzing extratextual sources—such as 1910s–1920s trade journals, vintage fan magazines (Photoplay, Motion Picture Classic), contemporary reviews, production stills, and serialized screenplay adaptations.
Literary Adaptations & Film History
Examines the transformation of literature (e.g., works by Selma Lagerlöf, Henrik Ibsen) into photoplays, alongside analyses of early stardom, Art Deco visual design, and the transition from silent film to sound.