Scott Lord

During 1917, Swedish Silent Film director George af Klerker directed actress Mary Johnson in the film "The Suburban Vicar" ("Forstudprasten"), in which she starred with Corcordia Selander and Lilly Graber. Photographed by Carl Gustaf Florin, the film was scripted by Harriet Bloch. Victor Sjostrom Victor Sjostrom Silent Film

Directed by Swedish Silent Film director George af Klercker for Hasselblads Fotografiska during 1917, "I Morkets Borje" was phtotgraphed by Swedish cinematographer Carl Gustav Florin and starred Sybil Smolawa with Helge Kihilberg. That year George af Klercker also directed the film "The Suburban Vicar". Silent Film Swedish Silent Film

"The Last Performance" (The Death Knell under the Circus Dome", directed by George af Klercker in 1912 was thought to be a lost film, with no surviving copies untill researcher Gosta Werner discovered a copy in the archive at Rochester, New York. The film was scripted by Svenska Bio production head Charles Magnusson. Like the first film directed by Victor Sjostrom, "The Gardner", the first film directed by George af Klercker, "Two Brothers" (Tva Broder) starring Tollie Zellman and Ingeborg Nilsson, was banned for public exhibition by the Swedish Censorship Board. "The Last Scream" (Sista Skriket, 1995) depicts a fictional assignation between silent film director George af Klercker and Charles Magnusson, who appointed Klercker studio manager- Klercker during 1915 had left for the Hasselblad studio in Gotenburg only to face Magnusson again after several company mergers. Directed by Ingmar Bergman from his own play, the film stars Ingvar Kjellison, Bjorn Granath and Anna von Rosen, the cinematographer to the film Per Noren. The play was published by New Press in the volume The Fifth Act. Actor Bjorn Granath portrays George af Klercker in the film "Jag ar nyfiken, film" (Stig Bjorkman, 1995), narrated by, of course, Lena Nyman, who appears in the film with Stefan Jarl, Erland Jospehsen, Sven Nykvist, Eva Isaksen and Liv Ullmann. George af Klercker also appears as an actor in the film "The Last Performance" with his wife, Selma Wiklund by Klercker. It was filmed in Lindingo, where George af Klercker had costarred with Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller under the direction of Paul Garbagni in the film "In the Spring of Life". George af Klercker that year also directed the films "Musiken makt" (The Power of Music), in which Klercker appeared on screen with Lilly Jacobsson, "Jupiter pa Jorden", which he also wrote, and "Tva Broder" with Birger Lundstedt and Eugen Nilsson. The following year, in 1913, George af Klercker directed "The Scandal" (Skandalen) for Svenska Biographtearterns, in which the director also appeared with his wife, Selma Wickland by Klercker. Silent Film Silent Film Silent Circus Movie

Swedish Silent Film director John W. Brunius during 1921 directed acresses Pauline Brunius, Renee Bjorling and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson in the film "The Wild Bird" ("En Vindfagel"). Photographed by Hugo Edlund, the film was co-scripted by Brunius with screenwriter Sam Ask. The film was shown in the United States as "Give Me My Son". During its first run the periodical Moving Picture World subtitled its review with "Feature That Will Please Whenever Naturalness Is Appreciated". It provided the "exploitation angle" of "Get interest in it chiefly because it is foreign." The periodical The Film Daily wrote, "Its gets away from the conventional happy ending. It is not tragic, but unexpected, and not what you think it will be. The denoument is particularly well handled." Under the "story" section, it wrote, "Involved, but maintains the quality of coherence and stands out as unusual" and under the "direction" section it wrote, "handles more dramatic moments effectively but otherwise is average." Scandinavian Silent Film Silent Film

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Scandinavian Silent Film

John Brunius

Directed by John Brunius and photographed by Swedish cinematographers Hugo Edlund snd Karl Andersson during 1928, "Gustaf Wasa" was the only film produced by Wasa Film, Stockholm. It was the first film in which actress Elsa Burnett was to appear on screen and the second onscreen appearance of Sickan Castegren. Actresses Pauline Brunius and Karen Swanstrom also appear in the film.
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John Brunius

Lilly Beck starred in over ten films made by Mauritz Stiller during the first four years of Svenska Biografteatern and almost ten films directed then by Victor Sjsotrom. Before that, Charles Magnusson had directed her in the 1911 film "The Talsiman" (Amuletten). By 1912 she was married to Erik Magnusson and starred in the film "The Fying Circus" as Lilli Beck Magnusson. Actress Stella Lind, who died in 1919 at the age of 26, also appears in the film. During 1912 Beck also appeared in the sequel to the film, entitled "The Bear Tamer from the Flying Cicus", her having been billed as Lilli Beck , as well as having that year costarred with Rasmus Ottesen in the film "The Strong Power". She was married to Victor Sjostrom, whom she also divorcd, from 1914-1916. Alfred Lind had begun as a photogtapher on the film "The Little Hornblower" for director Eduard Schnedler-Sornensen in 1019. He is listed as having been cinematographer to the film "The Flying Circus" as well as having coscripted the photoplay with Carl Dumreicher. Silent Film Swedish Silent Film

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

Motion Picture News during 1922 provided biographical information about the director of the film, Frank Lloyd, "Having been raised in London, Mr. Lloyd early became a Dickens entusiast...He has, many and many a time, walked in spirit with the immortal Dickens through the London that Dickens decsribed and glimpsed suggestions of the evils which the great author did much to reduce and destroy through the vigor of his marvelous and living prose."
"Oliver Twist" was photographed by cameramen Glenn McWilliams and Rober Martin. In addition to starring in the film “Oliver Twist” (eight reels), during 1922 Lon Chaney appeared in two films that are now lost, “Blind Bargain” (Wallace Worsley) in which he starred with Jacqueline Logan and “Quincy Adams Sawyer” (Clarence G. Badger, eight reels), in which he starred with Blanche Sweet and Barbara LaMar. That year Lon Chaney also starred in "Shadows" (Tom Forman) with actress Margueritte De Le Motte and "A Light in the Dark" (Clarence Brown) with actress Hope Hampton.

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Lon Chaney

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 silent film 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.
"For Those We Love" was reviewed during 1921 in Wid's Daily. "Once more Betty Compson and Lon Chaney play opposite each other. While the parts they create are entirely different from those in 'The Miracle Man', the heart appeal is quite similar....Each character has been given plenty of room for development and each at one time or another, is allowed to hold the center of the stage."

"Bits of Life", a Lost Silent Film directed by Marshall Neilan in 1921 is a Quartet with Lon Chaney in a tragic chinese story about a man and his first born daughter. The periodical Wid's Daily reviewed the film as being part of a letter signed by the director explaining the film's narrative structure. "Marshall Neilan has given a novelty to the screen in 'Bits of Life' which might well proove the forerunner of more entertainment of this description. He has taken four short stories and by very cleverly tying them together has given an excellant piece of screen entertainment....All the stories are different. They have no relation whatsoever to each other....Very interesting novelty, which,while episodic, proves very fine screen material."

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Picture Play Magazine in a photo caption wrote that actress Aileen Pringle "abandoned some of her impressive dignity" to portray the "hoydenish" fake travelling mystic in Tod Browning's film, "The Mystic" (1926 seven reels). Silent Film Lon Chaney Silent Horror Film Movie Posters

"The Trap" (six reels) by directed by Robert Thorby featured both actors Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney Jr. The scenario of "The Trap" was written by George C. Hull from a story by Lon Chaney. The film was photographed by cameraman Virgil Miller. Lon Chaney.

Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney Movie Posters

"Outside the Law" (eight reels), directed by Tod Browning during 1920, was coscripted by Browning with Gardner Bradford and Lucien Hubbard and photographed by William Fildew. The films stars Lon Chaney and actress Priscilla Dean. Advertisements placed in the periodical Motion Picture News annouced Leo McCarey as first executive assistant to Tod Browning, whom it credited with not only being the film's director but its "Author". The Film Daily reviewed its direction as being "uniformly excellent" but its story as lacking stregnth although lifted by its actors Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean.
Motion PIcture News reintroduced Tod Browning to its readers during 1921 as one of the youngest directors, then still in his thirties, whom D.W.Griffith had brought to Hollywood while with Mutual, which led to Browning directing two-reelers at Majestic. While reviewing "Outside the Law" the periodical credited Tod Browning, "master of melodrama" with priviledged knowledge of "underworld haunts". It reminded readers that they had seen Lon Chaney and Priscilla Dean together in the film "The Wicked Darling."
The later film, "Outside the Law" was directed by Tod Browning during 1930 but has different characters than the earlier film, his having coscripted the film with Garret Fort. The film was photographed by Roy Overbaugh and starred actress Mary Nolan. Lon Chaney Lon Chaney Silent Film

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During 1914, Charles Gibson directed Lon Chaney and actress Agnes Vernon in the film "By the Sun's Rays". That year Lon Chaney and Agnes Vernon also starred together in the film "The Old Cobbler" directed by Murdock MacQuarie. The film is presumed to be lost, with no surviving copies. Lon Chaney Lon Chaney Movie Posters

Directed by Joseph de Grasse during 1917, "The Scarlet Claw" starred Lon Chaney, Franklin Farnum and Edith Johnson.
During 1917, Joseph de Grasse also directed Franklin Farnum and Lon Chaney in the film "Anything Once", with actress Marjorie Lawrence. Although the film is not yet presumed to be lost, it is unknown if any copies now survive.
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Lon Chaney

Lon Chaney

Scholar Bo Florin points out that a famiar image in "He Who Gets Slapped" (seven reels), directed by Victor Sjostrom is referred to in the cutting continuity script as the "Symbolic Clown", the isolated character dressed in white recurrently appearing spinning his ball. Florin looks at the function of this image within the narrative as bookending sequences with a direct adress to the audience. Albeit while blogging David Bordwell notes that the film was a great success, mostly due to the emerging talent of Lon Chaney, he does in fact give the film only a brief mention when looking at Scandinavia's Golden Age of Silent Film Drawing to a Close, which can very much be attributed to Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller both coming to America.
Begnt Forslund compares Sjostrom's direction of "He Who Gets Slapped" with the direction of "The Scarlet Letter", the former being 'more personal, and also more cinematically exciting' while the latter can be recognized as a return to the type of film that Sjostrom made in Sweden, to which he returned. Not incidentally, it was the Swedish actor Gosta Ekmann who had portrayed the Lon Chaney character in "Han som far orilarna" on stage during 1926 in Stockholm at the Oscateatern.
As film criticism often inludes audience reception on the part of the journalist-spectator, it may be worth looking at fan magazines from the first-run of the film, not so much for the public sphere of reception, which perhaps includes the art house, but for the public dimension. Picture Play Magazine wrote of Lon Chaney, "As the loveable clown in the Metro-Goldwyn feature 'He Who Gets Slapped' he gives a achara terization of rare qualities and when he dies he pulls your heart strings untill the really break."
Norma Shearer and John Gilbert starred in a second film together for the Metro-Goldwyn Picture Corporation during 1924 with Conrad Nagel, "The Snob" (seven reels), directed by Monta Bell. The film is a lost silent film, with no surviving copies existing. Also presumed lost is the six reel film "The Wolf Man" in which Norma Shearer and John Gilbert starred together under the direction of Edmund Mortimer for the Fox Film Corporation during 1923. John Gilbert and Lon Chaney had starred together under the direction of Maurice Tourneur in the 1923 six reel film "While Paris Sleeps".The film is presumed lost with no surviving copies existing.
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Silent Film

Lon Chaney

Lon Chaney

Robert Sherwood, editor of the volume The Best Moving Pictures of 1922-23, wrote, "In the direction of 'Shadows' by Tom Forman, and in the acting by Lon Chaney, Harrison Ford, Marguerite de La Motte, and John Sainpolis, there was a fine sincerity. They all seemed to realize they were working on a picture that was destined to be a part from the regular run of machine made products." The periodical Exhibitors Trade Review during 1922 entitled their rebiew of the film "Chaney a Master of Characterization". It read, "Most stars stand for a definite type of pwrformance, while Chaney is never the same except perhaps in the degree of sincerity and finish that he gives to the characetrizations he undertakes." To add authenticity, authority and credibitlity, Exhibitors Trade Review quoted snippets from the periodicals Motion Picture News, The Film Daily, and Motion Picture World, apparently unperturbed by the competition. Lon Chaney

Lon Chaney

Lon Chaney Lon Chaney

Author Mark A. Vieira, in Silent Prototypes, the first chapter of his volume “Hollywood Horror”, almost attributes an entire subgenre of “Gorilla movie”, or “man in a gorilla suit movies” to a 1912 novel written by Gaston Leroux entitled “Balaoo” which was filmed by Fox Studios during 1927, the creature being a “gorilla’s body and half a human head”. The film, which stars the very beautiful Leila Hyams, oddly enough is a lost film, of which the are presumed to be no surviving copies. It is interesting that author William Everson, in his volume Classics of the Horror Film, as early as 1974 wrote that "The Wizard" (six reels), directed by Richard Rossen, was in fact "the most fascinating, elusive and sought after of all 'lost' horror films." Everson includes a still phtotgraph of Edward Lowe being menaced by the ape, almost reminiscient of the many poliferated still photographs of Chaney from "London After Midnight" that seem to makes us feel the film is an apparition rather than the apparition is being filmed. Everson almost chides the studio's projectionist with , "the original film is probably gone beyond recall" and with the film being "sorely missed as a major gap in our knowledge".
Gaston Leroux created the fictional detective Joseph Rouletabile, who appeared in one of the earliest locked room mysteries, “The Mystery of the Yellow Room” (1907) and “The Perfume of the Lady in Black” (1908). Novelist Gaston Leroux had published “The Phantom of the Opera” in 1911.
Author Robert Gordon Anderson, in his volume Faces, forms, films; the artistry of Lon Chaney, chronicles the shooting of "The Phantom of the Opera" as having started in late 1924. "It had taken about ten weeks to do, although another eight months were spent in re-shooting some scenes, which were deleted in the final version."

During his early carrer at Universal Studios, Lon Chaney had most frequently appeared on screen under the direction of either Allan Dwan or Joseph De Grasse. Rupert Julian had not only directed but had also starred with Lon Chaney in the film "The Kaiser, The Beast of Berlin" (seven reels), made by the Universal Film Manufacturing Company during 1918. Apearing in the film with Julian and Chaney were actresses Betty Carpenter, Ruth Clifford and Gretchen Lederer. Lon Chaney


Lon Chaney
The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Silent Horror

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."
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Erika Lunding, Stockholm University, in her paper on Archives, Curatorship and Curatorship, writes, "The posters were made to advertise a movie, in order for it to attract as many moviegoers as possible. The poster's illustration was supposed to catch the essence of the film and to summarize the story....The large image format was overwhelming and initially attracted viewers, even though the image content appeared abstract from a distance." In regard to Lost Silent Film, Found Magazines, Erika Lunding explains the value of movie posters to Style and graphic design, as well as image and text content of the movie posters, provide large amounts of information to viewers, many years after the film's premiere. The majority of silent movies are lost, however, the posters survive and have become valuable historical documents." Swedish Silent Film Swedish Silent Film Gustaf Molander Swedish Silent Film Swedish Silent Film
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Swedish Silent Film

F.W. Murnau Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Silent Film: The Golem Silent Film Movie Posters Silent Film Lobby Cards

Norman Zierold, in Garbo, his autobiography of Greta Garbo, mentions the willingness of M.G.M. to increase its budget on the films of Greta Garbo now that she had previously starred in three earlier films. The studio had originally slated Dmitri Buchowetsky to direct and Richard Cortez to star in the film "Love". "On seeing the early rushes the studio heaads were dissatisfied. They decided to scrap the footage, replace Buchowetsky with Edmond Goulding and Cortez with John Gilbert....The cost of the shifting of forces was nearly a quarter of a million dollars."
The film was photographed by William Daniels.
John Gilbert during 1927 also appeared in the films "Twelve Miles Out" (eight reels) directed by Jack Conway and starring Eileen Percy and "Man, Woman and Sin" (seven reels), directed by Monta Bell and starring actress Jeanne Eagles. Greta Garbo in Love silent Film

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