Victor Sjostrom's (1879-1960) name was changed to Seastrom so that Americans may be spared the rotundities of Swedish pronunciation and he directed nine features which included one with Greta Garbo (The Divine Woman,1928) - during his six-year stay in Hollywood. From this point of view, Sjostrom proved much more successful than Mauritz Stiller before him, Stiller only having working on five films, three of which were taken out of his hands and finished by journeymen directors.
Few of the American films of either man have survived but He Who Gets Slapped (1924) is an outstanding achievement, in which Sjostrom not only masters the more sophisticated technical apparatus available to him in Hollywood, but brings to this story of humiliation and revenge a blistering irony quite absent from his Swedish pictures.
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| The three wise clowns (He Who Gets Slapped.1924) |
Two films starring Lillian Gish assured the success of Sjostrom's career in Hollywood, The Scarlet Letter (1926) was based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel, a stern tale of New England puritan intolerance. The Wind (1928) marks perhaps the peak of both Sjostrom and Gish's careers. Although inspired by a book by Dorothy Scarborough, set in a desolate stretch of Texas, the film exemplifies a particular theme of Sjostorm's - the man drifts ultimately at the mercy of the environment and the elements. As Letty the demure young woman forced to murder a mysterious assailant during a storm. Lillian Gish gives as convincing a portrayal of raw-nerved hysteria as she had done in Broken Blossoms (1919). Few scenes in silent cinema are so gripping as the climax of The Wind, with the gale whipping the sand inexorably away from the shallow grave where Letty has buried her victim.
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| Stig Olin and Maj-Britt Nilsson making beautiful music together (To Joy,1950) |
In April, 1930, Victor Sjostrom returned permanently to Sweden, where he made the odd picture but turned increasingly to acting, becoming a father-figure to many a new Swedish director. Among those directors was Ingmar Bergman, who paid homage to the master by starring him in both Till Gladje (To Joy, 1950) and Wild Strawberries (1957).