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mystery mystery silent film

mystery mystery silent film

mystery mystery silent film

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mystery mystery silent film

mystery mystery silent film

mystery mystery silent film

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Swedish Silent Film director John W. Brunius during 1923 directed actresses Karin Alexandersson and Linnea Hillberg with beautiful Norwegian actress Lilla Bye in her only Swedish Fim "Iron Wills" (Harda Viljor). Cowritten by Brunius and Sam Ask, the film was photographed by cinematographer Hugo Edlund. Silent Film Swedish Silent Film: John Brunius

Anthony Slide, as part of his complete list of the films made by Vitagraph concluding his volume The Big V, A History of the Vitagraph Company, chronicles "The Deluge" with no director credited as having been released during February of 1911,
Most films made by the Vitagraph Company can be listed as Lost Silent Film.
Silent FIlm
Silent Film Adam and Eve (Vitagraph, 1911) The Deluge

Silent Film actor and actress Maurice Costello and Florence Turner star in the 1911 filming of "A Tale of Two Cities" (three reels), directed by Charles Kent. Among several later adaptations was "A Tale of Two Cities directed by Frank Lloyd in 1917.
Anthony Slide, in his volume The Big V, A History of The Vitagraph Company writes that "A Tale of Two Cities" and "Vanity Fair" (three reels) were the two major productions of 1911, with "A Tale of Two Cities" having recieved "lavish praise".
In regard to Lost Films, Found Magazines and the many lost silent films that were released by Vitagraph and the extratextural discourse that accompanied audience reception, Anthony Slide, in the chapter on Fan Magazines in his volume The Idols of Silence, explains that the approximation yellow journalism (the British Museum notes that Vitagraph had passed off studio reenactments as documentary footage) had quickly progressed to corporate, rather entrepenuer, exploitation, J. Stuart Blackton having founded Motion Picture Magazine with Motion Picture Story Magazine as "publicity organs" for Vitagraph. "The magazine was to publish fictionalized versions of the film releases of the various companies with each company being alotted equal space." The companies that later were in need of film preservation, through Lost Films Found Magazines, left film detectives an approximation of how photoplays were visualized through publicity stills and descriptive narrative. Both "Tale of Two Cities" and "Vanity Fair" were serialized in the periodical during their first theatrical run for Vitagraph.
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It seems odd that the periodical The Film Review and Moving Picture News during 1922 included "Samson and Delilah" in a series of "one reel pictures based on dramatic incidents in well known opera", a publicity still from the film being the only still featured in its article titled "Tense Moments From Opera Filmed", in which it hailed it to be the best of the "unduly hurried" productions from either Gaumont or Masters studios, or both. The magazine printed the opinion that "the artificiality of such a performance is more noticeable perhaps in the screen version of a stage success owing to the character of the dress, the make up of the performers and the background in which they work."
Director Edwin J Collins that year also directed a screen version of "Don Juan" included in the "Tense Moments in Opera" series starring actresses Lillian Douglas, Pauline Peters and Kathleen Vaughn.
Silent Film

DAnish Silent Film Silent Film

While writing about the film "Wild Strawberries", Jorn Donner notes that Ingmar Bergman's film is in part a tribute to Victor Sjostrom the director. "Many scenes have a tie-in with Victor Sjostrom's work. A smashed watch plays a part in 'Karin Ingmarsdotter'." Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, points out the danger involved in the hazardous stunts, notably plunging into an icy river, that Victor Sjostrom employed while shooting the film.
Author Forsyth Hardy again defines the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film by describing the several adaptations of the novel "Jerusalem", written by Selma Lagerlof, "These stories of peasant life had the qualities which had come to be expected in the Swedish films: a stern and exacting moral code, an expressive use of landscape, and a consciousness of the power of the elements...Her novels had their roots deep in the counntry's culture and in this, and in the breadth and sweep of their treatment they gave the directors what they needed."
With a photoplay scripted by director Victor Sjostrom, the six reel film was photographed by Julius Jaenzon. It had been Victor Sjostrom that had visited Selma Lagerlof in Dalecarli to discuss the filming of adaptations of the novel. Sjostrom had in fact hoped to film Liljecrona's Home rather than Jerusalem. Scholar Ulla Britta Lagerroth, University of California, chronicles Selma Lagerlof and Victor Sjostrom having corresponded at legnth, Lagerroth particularly noting that Sjostrom had turned down adapting a short story about the symbolic relationship between men an trolls, The Changeling, written by Lagerlof during 1908.
Actress Tora Teje costars in the film "Karin Ingmarsdottar" as the title character of the film with director Victor Sjostrom. Harriet Bosse, who was married to playwright August Strindberg between 1901-1904 and then actor Gunnar Wingard between 1908-1911, appears in a breif appearance during the film. She had previously appeared in the film "Ingmarssonerna", written and directed by Victor Sjostrom and photographed by Julius Jaenzon during 1919. Victor Sjostrom Silent Film

Banned in Sweden during 1912, "The Gardner", written by Mauritz Stiller and directed by Victor Sjostrom was thought to be lost untill a surviving copy was found sixty eight years later in the Library of Congress. The film stars Victor Sjostrom with Lilli Bech, Muaritz Stiller, Gosta Ekman and John Ekman. It was the directorial debut of Victor Sjostrom, unscreened during his lifetime. Actress Karin Alexandersson who appears in the film that year also appeared in the film "Froken Julie", directed by Anna Hofmann-Uddgren..
Was the film Scandinavian sensationalism made in response to Asta Neilsen starring in the film "The Abyss"? The film did successfully premiere in Denmark and Norway, during 1912 and 1913 respectively. (To modern auiences the film's theme of incest/seduction is depicted before both the Suffragete movement for women's voting rights and before much of Frued's writing on the Electra Complex- there remains an ostensible theme of Seduction, or perhaps an element of exploitation in the film.) Marina Dahlquist, in her article "The Best-Known Woman in the World", chronicles, "Charles Magnusson published the booklet "Nagra om Biografcensuren (A few remarks on film censorship) in the name of Svenska Bio regarding its appeal of the ban against three films, among them "Tradgardsmastaren/Varldensgrymhet" (The Broken Springrose/The Gardner [1912]). Even though the importance of censorship was acknowledged by Magnusson and others, the over zealous ambition to protect even an adult audience met with irony."

Also that year Victor Sjostrom directed the film "A Ruined Life" (Ett hemligt giftermal) co-scipted with Charles Magnusson and starring Hilda Bjorgstrom, Einar Froberg, Anna Norrie, and Greta Almroth in the first film in which she was to appear.
Author Peter Cowie, in his volume Swedish Cinema, Ingeborg Holm to Fanny Alexander notes the numerous location shots employed to showcase Victor Sjostrom's future wife, Lilli Beck during the film. Peter Cowie quickly references that Lilli Bech and Victor Sjostrom were formerly married between 1914-1916. The actress starred with Victor Sjostrom onscreen under the direction of Mauritz Stiller the following year, during 1913 with a script written by Stiller and photographed by Julius Jaenzon with "Vampyren", a film presently presumed to be lost, with no existing surviving copies. That year Victor Sjostrom and Lilli Bech were also paired onscreen by Mauritz Stiller in the film "Barnet", with Einar Froberg and Anna Norrie, photographed again by Julius Jaenzon. The film is also presumed lost with no existing surviving copies.

Actor John Eckman, who appeared on screen in a score of films between 1912 and 1950 before his appearing with Victor Sjostrom in the Ingmar Bergman film "Till Joy" (Till gladje,1950), directed only one film, it also being the first film in which he was to appear. Before having appeared during 1912 in the film "Tradgardsmasteren", under the direction of Victor Sjostrom and during 1912 in the film "De Svarta Maskerna" under the direction of Mauritz Stiller, Ekman directed the film "The Shepherd Girl" (Saterjantan,1912), starring actress Greta Almroth, Carlo Weith and Stina Berg in her first onscreen appearance, the film having had been photographed by Hugo Edlund for Svenska Biographteatern. Victor Sjostrom would direct John Ekman, Lilli Bech and himself from his own script during 1914, adding the actress Greta Almroth in the film "Daughter of the High Mountain" (Hogfallets dotter), photographed by Julius Jaenzon. The film is presumed to be lost, presently there being no surviving existing copies.
Apparently the film "Den Svarte Doktorn" filmed for Stora Biografteatern by Frans Lundberg is not only a lost film, with no surviving copies exusting, but was also banned at the time of production by Swedish Censorship. The film starred actress Olivia Norrie, Einar Zangenberg, and Holger-Madsen. "Anfortrodda medel", also made by Frans Lundberg in 1911 is also presumed to be a lost film with no surviving copies existing and was also banned by Swedish censorship. The film starred actresses Phillipa Fredricksen and Agnes Nyrup Christensen.
Interestingly enough, Swedish Silent Film cinematographer camerman Julius Jaenzon brought his equipment aboard the S.S. Lusitania during 1912 to make the film "Tva Svenska Emigranters Afventyr i Amerika", starring actresses Lisa Holm and Lilly Jacobsson under the direction of Eric Malmberg. It might be worth noting before continuing to the dynamic between the four horsemen of Swedish Silent Film, Victor Sjostrom, Mauritz Stiller, Julius Jaenson and Charles Magnusson, that another director was there at Svenska Biografteatern during 1912, director Eric Malmberg. Seemingly overlooked, Malmberg directed six films for Svenska Biografteatern during 1912, including films presumed to be lost with no surving copies photographed by Julius Jaenzon and starring actress Lilly Jacobsson, among them "Det Grona Halsbandet", "Stolen Happiness" (Oceanbreakers, Branniger eller Stulen lycka), "Agaton and Fina", "Kolingens Galoscher", in which Jacobsson starred with Erika Tornberg, and "Samhallets Drom", in which Jacobsson starred with actresses Agda Helin,Tollie Zellman and Lisa Holm in her first on screen appearance in film. It is only conjecture as to whether Malmberg at Svenska Bio would have belonged to the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film as it had not properly begun, even were the lost films to be found. After leaving Svenska Bio, Eric Malmberg went to Hasselblad to apeear on screen as an actor under the direction of Georg af Klercker.
Peter Cowie, in his golume Swedish Cinema, documents that after having moved to Lidingo, near Stockholm, Charles Magnusson produced a total of twenty five films during the year of 1912, only nine of which were directed by either Mauritz Stiller or Victor Sjostrom. Taken into account that George af Klercker directed only four that year, one is hard pressed to complete the filmography without the six directed by Eric Malmberg, author Peter Cowie alluding to six films that seem to be missing, or on the peripheral, with marginal importance. If looking for orphaned film, Julius Jaenson photographed the lost film "Leban Oetterkvist is training fot the Olympics", and Jaenzon or Magnusson might be credited as director, while a lost film directed by Algot Sandberg, "Uncle Johannes Arrival in Stockholm" was also filmed by Julius Jaenson during 1912.
It is clear that the enivitable crash between the theater of August Strindberg and the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Frued would manifest itself in a similarity of themes, here specifically the Electra Complex and the repression of the Id soon to be summarized and synthesized in Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, although it is difficult to find a historiography of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film where man's relation to the elements and landscape is reviewed as symbolic of sublimation of the sexual instinct rather than a metaphysical symbolism of ontological location- nevertheless the era brought contemporaries of Selma Lagerlof that, within modernity, were proponents of the suffragete movement in Swedish Literature, notably Elin Wagner, Anna Lenah Maria Elgstrom and Ellen Key. In Stockholm bookstores, during 1910, Elin Wagner published the novel Penswoman (Pennskattet) and during 1913, Maria Sandel published the novel The Vortex (Virveln).
Silent Film Victor Sjostrom Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

"The Song of the Scarlet Flower" (Sangen och elroda blomman, 1919) was to star Lars Hanson, Greta Almroth, Lilebel Ibsen and Edith Erastoff. The film was directed by Mauritz Stiller with a photoplay written by Gustaf Molander. "Man's Way With Women" (Sangen och elroda Blommen, 1934) was to star Edvin Adolphson, Inga Tiblad, Aino Taube, Birgit Tengroth and Gull Maj-Nori . The film was directed by Per Axel Banner with the legendary photographer Julius Jaenzon with a script by the legendary photoplay dramatist Ragnar Hylten-Cavallius. "The Song of the Scarlet Flower" was with Gunnel Lindblom and Anita Bjork was directed by Gustaf Molander
The tinting of the first film provides contrast netween its individual scenes, moods and uses of nature as a background, its narrative creating a structure of seperate chapters.
Scholar Jaakko Seppalia attributes the rapid shooting of director Mauritz Stiller in "Song of the Scarlett Flower" as a direct influence on the film "The Logroller's Bride" (Koskenlaskijan marsian") directed by Finnish director Ekki Karu, particularly the use of several cameras and longshots during a rapid shooting sequence, both directors realizing that "heroic moments of action could be depicted in detail on film". Peter Cowie, in his volume Scandinavian Cinema, points out the "lyrical imagery of documentary realism" of the film while delineating the gap between the work of Mauritz Stiller and Victor Sjostrom as further narrowing into less of a contrast.
Mauritz Stiller

Scandinavian Silent Film

In Sweden, during 1922, Victor Sjostrom directed Jenny Hasselqvist in “Love’s Crucible”, co-scripted by Hjalmer Bergman and photographed by Julius Jaenzon. Nils Asther and Gosta Emmanuel appear on screen in the filmf. Author Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian Film notes that the film was "an elaborate and spectacular historical film". Forsyth Hardy implies that "Vem Dormer" was not only an example of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film but an overwhelming attempt to save it, it having been an expensive film to make in hope of regaining an overseas audience that had begun to lose interest in serious Swedish Films. "All the resources of the newly completed Rasunda Studios were mobilized to make the spectacular Vem Dormer."
While interviewing Victor Sjostrom the periodical Picturegoer noted that his then most recent film, "Love's Crucible" had taken three months to film, to which Sjostrom replied,"But fully a year was spent in preparatory work. It is a love story of Renaisannce times." When asked where the story took place Sjostrom had replied "The Kingdom of Romance".
Vito Adriaensens, in his paper, "A Swedish Renaissance: Art and Passion in Victor Sjostrom's 'Vem Dommer' (1922)" explains the connection between the title and theme and the use of symbolic imagery in the films of VictorSjostrom, "The statue of Christ adorns the local church and is the first and last thing we see in the film. Christ is pivotal for the narrative and for the title, as 'Vem Dommer' literally translates to 'who judges', implicating that only Christ can, not the community that tries to judge Ursula."
During the following year, 1923, Jenny Hassellquist starred in another collaboration between Victor Sjostrom and Hjalmer Bergman, the Film “Eld Ombord” (“The Hellship”)in which she appeared on screen with Victor Sjostrom, while under his direction. Actor Matheson Lang stars with actress Julia Cederblad in the first film in which she was to appear. The cinematographer to the film was Julius Jaenzon.



Victor Sjostrom

Victor Sjostrom Playlist

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, there being no surviving copies of the film. Scandinavian Silent Film Silent Film Silent Film

When I wrote to Bo Florin, Stockholm University, author of the volume Transition and Transformation: Victor Sjostrom in Hollywood 1923-1930, asking him if he had a favorite film directed by Victor Sjostrom he responded with, "Concerning favourites. I guess my favourite Sjostrom is the same as was Bergman's ("the film he saw at least once a year") 'The Phantom Carriage'."
With the subtitles Sweden Strikes a Lyrical Note, Garbo is Lost and Found, and Sweden Studio is Re-Born, in 1947 author Leslie Wood, in her book Miracle of the Movies, noted the contribution of Victor Sjostrom and his Film “The Phantom Carriage” to the aesthetic of silent filmmaking at a time when both he and Mauritz Stiller saw film mostly as an artistic expression rather than a money-making machine consisting of “angles” and formulas. “Made In 1920, the film was instrumental in making countries outside of Sweden aware of the artistic scope of the Svenska Biograph organization. Their screen work was particularly brilliant. Natural light, even on interior settings was far ahead of the work achieved on open air stages elsewhere. Their technicians had the happy thought of building the sets on locations which would provide fine vistas of natural scenery when glimpses through open doors and windows and the shafts of sunlight falling into a room would be the real thing. With motes and breathtakingly beautiful because of its naturalness. Seastrom’s direction sometimes strained a little too much to include the beautifully simple and the simply beautiful- slow sheep toddling away at the approach of lovers, or the graceful movements making a servant in performing the everyday, ordinary rites of preparing breakfast in a sunlit kitchen.” Wood provides a thematic synopsis of the film with, "with an eerie forcefulness and an abscence of the macabre, an unconscious man sees the misery he has wrought".
The Victor Sjostrom film “The Phantom Carriage” was the first movie made at the Filmstaden studios at Rasunda, Sweden and it is evident that the Studio was designed for filming; the Little Studio, newly renovated and open to the public for tours, was comprised of rehearsal rooms and filmstudios, one on the top floor having a roof and walls made of glass to use daylight when filming, as well as a rotatating stage. A small cinema on the bottom floor has been named after Ingmar Bergman and has been kept as a screening room. Leslie Wood notes, "The Svensk studio, beside a lake at Rasunda and twenty minutes by train from Stockholm, was a large but simply arranged wooden building set amongst pine trees, its cloistered atmosphere."

Filmstaden was used by director Ingmar Bergman to make the images of silent film, and their extratextual context, come to life while filming “The Imagemakers” (“Bildmarkarna”) for Swedish Television during 2000. Also included within the play is a screening of “The Phantom Carriage”, it being an adaption of the writing of Per Olaf Enquist that transpires as interaction between Victor Sjostrom, novelist Selma Lagerlof, cameraman Julius Jaenzon and actress Tora Teje during the making of the film. One theme of the film is artistic authenticity, a theme well articulated by Ingmar Bergman during his films of the 1950’s. Actress Anita Bjork starred as Selma Lagerlof and actress Elin Klinga starred as Swedish Silent Film actress Tora Teje.

Forsyth Hardy, in his volume Scandinavian film, praises the contribution of cameraman Julius Jaenzon to the film, "Julius Jaenzon's work for 'Korkarlen' helped both to enrich the director's expression of his theme and to bring international recognition to the technical achievement of the Swedish films."
Anthony Battalgia recently for Film Comment explained the spatio-temporal structure of the film directed by Victor Sjostrom ,”It is hard to overstate the storytelling sophistication at work here: flashbacks fork off from stories in the act of being told, mixing tenses untill all Time seems in The here and now.”, which is fitting for the re-enactment of what he labels to be “nominally, a ghost story”. Directed by Victor Sjostrom from his own screenplay, "The Phantom Chariot" has often been compared to the opening symbolic sequence of the film "Wild Strawberries", directed by Ingmar Bergman; Victor Sjostrom stars in both films.

Author Forsyth Hardy compliments director Victor Sjostrom own onscreen acting, its having been less historionic than in other films. “The exaggerated guestures of some of the early films had gone, but the intensity of feeling was still there.” Hardy characterizes the film as being "memorable".
The film stars actresses Hilda Borgstrom, whom had appeared in the films “Ingeborg Holm” (1913) and ”Domen Icke” (1914), both directed by Victor Sjostrom, Concordia Selander, who appeared in the film “Torsen Fran Stormyrtorpet” (1917), directed by Victor Sjostrom, Lisa Lundholm and actress Astrid Holm. Charles Magnusson produced the film. The multiple or layered double exposures were developed by cameraman Julius Jaenzon. On the film resulting from the dynamic between Julius Jaenzon and Victor Sjostrom, Bo Florin, Stockholm University, in his paper From Sjostrom to Seastrom, writes, "An important device in this respect is cutting across the 180 degree line to a completely reversed camera position, which occurs in most Swedish films of the period, but is particularly frequent in Sjostrom ; for example it may be found on eighteen different occaisions in 'The Phantom Chariot'." It is in fact a use of filmic spave that involves the spectator with a repeated similar image. Bo Florin adds that typical in the cannon of the Golden Age of Swedish Silent Film was the feature of staging in depth, "the use of tableau-like composition with static camera where frequent cuts have replaced mobility."
Author Lars Gronkvist notes that after taking eight days to finish the script, Director Victor Sjostrom delivered, read and performed the script for two hours in front of novelist Selma Lagerlof before the two of them had dinner.


The film having being remade twice, first by Julien Duvivier in 1939, and by Swedish Film director Arne Mattson in 1958, author Aleksander Kwiatkoski, in his volume Swedish Film Classics, compares the subsequent versions to Victor Sjostrom's original adaptation of "Korkarlen", "None of the subsequent screen versions of Selma Lagerlof's novel has reached the power of expression of this one. Sjostrom's film is not as inventive in its psychological stratum but his social and moral interests are curiously interwoven with his personal experiences."
Actress Hilda Borgstrom during 1920 returned to Dramaten to appear in Gudmunger Kambar's play Vi Modare Emellan. Actor Tore Svennberg, who appears in "The Phantom Carriage", went on to become manager of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten), Stockholm, between 1922-1928. Other managers have included Pauline Bruinius, Olof Molander, Ingmar Berman and Erland Josephson. Greta Garbo and Victor Seastrom


Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller

Victor Sjostrom Playlist

Scandinavian Silent Film playlist

During 1919, Victor Sjostrom directed the film “His Lord’s Will” (“His Grace’s Will” “Hans nads testamente”) from the writings of Hjalmer Bergman. Photographed by Henrik Jaenzon, it starred actresses Greta Almroth, Tyra Dorum and Augusta Lindberg. In bookstores during 1919, God’s Orchid, written by Hjalmer Bergman appeared published in its first edition, followed in 1921 by the novel Thy Rod, Thy Staff and in 1930 by Jac the Clown. The film was remade in 1940 by Per Lindgren, scripted by Stina Bergman and starring Barbra Kollberg and Alk Kjellin.

Scott Lord Scott Lord Victor Sjostrom

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