Lars Hanson

Two childhood friends, Leo and Ulrich, return from military service and fall for the same alluring woman, Felicitas, with destructive consequences. Greta Garbo and John Gilbert's on-screen chemistry was matched by a real-life romance that began during filming, and the picture made them one of Hollywood's first great celebrity couples. Clarence Brown directs with a fluid, intimate camera that was advanced for its time, and the film's sensual love scenes pushed the boundaries of what censorship would allow. Based on Hermann Sudermann's novel The Undying Past, the film was a sensation at New York's Capitol Theatre, where it ran longer than any picture before it. It was selected for the National Film Registry in 2006. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2022.

Romance · Drama · Silent

A faithful silent adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, directed by the Swedish filmmaker Victor Sjostrom (credited as Victor Seastrom) from a screenplay by Frances Marion. In 17th-century Puritan Boston, Hester Prynne is condemned to wear the scarlet letter for bearing a child out of wedlock, and she refuses to name the father, the Reverend Dimmesdale. Lillian Gish fought to make the picture at MGM and gives a restrained, dignified performance that is often cited as one of her finest. Lars Hanson plays the tortured minister, and Henry B. Walthall reprises the role of Chillingworth he had played in an earlier adaptation. Long considered the best screen version of the novel, the film entered the public domain in the United States in 2022.

Drama · Silent

A young woman from Virginia moves to her cousin's ranch on the western prairie, where the constant wind drives her to the edge of madness. Lillian Gish conceived the project herself, chose the novel, hired her leading man Lars Hanson, and assigned Victor Sjostrom (credited as Victor Seastrom) to direct, reuniting the team from The Scarlet Letter. The film was shot in the Mojave Desert with wind machines blasting the cast for days, and Gish's performance in the climactic sandstorm is one of the most physically committed in silent cinema. MGM forced a more hopeful ending than the novel's, but the film's power is in the imagery of a woman swallowed by an empty landscape. The Wind was selected for the National Film Registry in 1993. The film entered the public domain in the United States in 2024.

Drama · Western · Silent