User reviews

I'm familiar with concept of the story, but didn't know any of the details of the film, so I was left gripped by it, waiting to see how it would all unfold. Lillian Gish is the lead, and Lars Hanson is the pastor who she has an affair with. Both give great performances on par with their work in The Wind, and the film does a wonderful job at dealing with the complexity of the religious themes. The scene where a bunch of town kids pelt Gish's young daughter with mud simply for being the child of an unwed mother is one of the more harrowing sequences I've seen. It's just brutally grim. Without having read the original source material, I have no idea how accurate the film is, but regardless it was really compelling and complex exploration of religion and hypocrisy.

It was a novel Hollywood didn't want to touch in the mid-1920s, even though the 1850 classic was brought to the screen six times earlier. The recently-established Will Hays office had its censorship fangs out. A story about a married woman who gets pregnant by a lover was cause for alarm for most movie studios.

Lilian Gish, one of silent film's major star, had long wanted to bring Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter' in an updated version to the screen. Contracted to MGM in a three-picture deal, she convinced the studio's head of production, Irving Thalberg, she could deliver a tasteful version of Hawthorne's book without moralistic tongue-waggers complaining. With a script by Frances Marion, which follows the novel closely, MGM's August 1926's "The Scarlet Letter" has been praised as the best version of the book in a long-line of past and future movie adaptations.

Its success can be attributed to Gish herself, who portrays Hester Prynne. She hasn't heard from her husband who traveled overseas for several years from their Puritan Boston, Massachusetts, home in the mid-1600s. She becomes pregnant from a man whom she doesn't disclose the name. The Gish version departs from Hawthorne in a couple of major ways: the film begins a year earlier than the author's, showing her condemned to a stockade for leaping and dancing after her song bird escapes its cage. It's there where she meets the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale (Lars Hanson). Also, the films unveils the love relationship between the minister and Hester, not keeping secret of who's the father of the baby.

Another reason for the movie's overall financial popularity is Swedish director Victor Sjostrom's unique directing. He allowed Gish the freedom to display her attractiveness by literally letting her hair down in a clandestine meeting with Dimmesdale in the woods, reflecting Hester's modernistic independence. Gish had the choice in selecting the director, and she picked Sjostrom because she "felt the Swedes were closer to the feelings of New England Puritans than modern Americans." She also favored Hanson as Dimmesdale from his 1924 performance in "The Saga of Gosta Berling." Hanson, who knew very little English, elected to speak his lines (it was a silent movie after all) in Swedish while Gish spoke English in scenes where they're together. Homesick actress Greta Garbo, recently arriving in America from Sweden after signing a contract with MGM, was a near daily presence on the set since she was comfortable speaking her native language with Hanson.

With two weeks of filming to go, Lillian found out her mother suffered a stroke in London and reportedly dying. Dorothy, her sister, urged her to catch the first boat to England to attend to her. In a near impossible request, Lillian asked Sjostrom she needed to leave in three days to travel by train to New York City, then on to a liner to London. The director didn't flitch. He designed an almost around-the-clock schedule to film all of Gish's parts-as long as the crew agreed to the grueling sleepless itinerary. The workers heartedly agreed.

"The Scarlet Letter" is still admired for Sjostrom's creation of an environmental rise en scene that underscored the film's characters' emotion and psychology by its pastoral recreation of a 17th century village. Even though the residents of Salem, MA, where the story takes place, were insulted by their forefathers' portrayal in the film, the American Film Institute nominated it as one of the most passionate motion pictures ever made as well as nominated Hester Prynne as one of movie's most admired heroes.

Don't go by the smarmy, eye-rolling illustration on the old movie poster displayed on this site. I have no idea who painted that image, but it has nothing whatever in common with Lillian Gish's wonderful performance in this marvelous movie.

Although "The Scarlet Letter" hasn't been filmed very often, I don't believe it has ever been filmed any better than it was in this 1926 silent version. Apart from being mounted as a fully-rigged MGM production with all the trimmings, it is beautifully directed, acted and photographed. Above all, in "The Scarlet Letter", Lillian Gish demonstrated once again what a truly fine actress she really was, miles better than such contemporaries as Mary Pickford and Gloria Swanson. Lillian Gish's was real acting, not broad pantomime, as was so often the case in silent movies, and is the reason why some of the genre seem so dated today. "The Scarlet Letter is one silent film that doesn't seem dated and there is little doubt that is due in no small measure to Lillian Gish's performance.

Lars Hanson as Reverend Dimmsdale and Henry B. Walthal as Roger Chillingworth are very good. However, the former's perpetual had- wringing anguish, and the latter's equally perpetual scowling, seem cartoonish compared with Gish's far more subtle characterization.

Unfortunately, this movie isn't shown very often anymore. Nevertheless, anyone interested in the Scarlet Letter ought to see this version. It will not only increase their appreciation of Hawthorne's story, but that of silent movies as well.

Victor Sjöström's The Scarlet Letter is a masterpiece. It should be put on DVD for all to enjoy, even if parts of the film have to be supplemented with 16mm dupes. TCM hasn't shown it in years, yet they show The Wind several times every year. It makes no sense. The Scarlet Letter is even better than The Wind. It should be shown in high school classes along with the required reading of the classic novel by Nathanial Hawthorne. It makes my head spin to think of how many thousands of children would fall in love with silent film if they were only exposed to this classic. I hate to think of them being exposed to that horrific Demi Moore version instead.

Lillian Gish is radiantly beautiful as the demure but sensual Hester Prynne. Lars Hanson makes an exceptionally wonderful minister Dimmesdale, fighting his romantic feelings for the lovely Hester. Henry B. Walthall makes a very believable and threatening Roger Prynne. Karl Dane adds some wonderful comic relief as Master Giles. The M-G-M production values here are exceptional and the cinematography by Henrik Sartov glows. I love the tracking shots of Hester and the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale walking together in the woods, and the lovely shot of their reflections in the lake as they confess their love for one another. Poetry on screen. The musical score for the film is quite beautiful, commissioned by TCM in 2000. The only parts that got on my nerves were the harpsichord sections. The flute, piano and violin parts were the best.

Your silent film viewing is not complete without seeing this classic. It's Lillian Gish's best film. Don't miss it.

A young mother is forced to wear THE SCARLET LETTER of adultery by her repressive society.

Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic novel is brought brilliantly to life in this excellent Silent film from MGM. Because the book was on the censored list, Lillian Gish, the era's finest actress, had to campaign vigorously with both the studio hierarchy and civic morality groups around the country to be allowed to make the film, causing her to ironically deal with the same sort of moral strictures her heroine would face in the film.

Her persistence paid off. She was able to obtain the services of director Victor Sjöström and actor Lars Hanson, both from Sweden. Sjöström instructed Miss Gish in the Scandinavian method of natural acting and he gave the film a blunt, no-nonsense look, crisp & clean, utilizing the Studio's excellent sets to the best of their advantage. Frances Marion, the most celebrated screenwriter of the day, was responsible for the literate script.

As the much harried Hester Prynne, Gish is beatific, her face radiating as if from an inner glow. She is playfully sweet as the community seamstress, wanting to cavort on the Sabbath or wear frilly clothing, only two of the actions proscribed & punishable by the Puritans' implacable rigidity. Later, with Hanson, she takes the viewer along as she delights in her new, hidden joy as he returns her love. Whether calmly standing on the scaffold to endure her shame, or fiercely protecting the unbaptized offspring of her forbidden passion, Gish never for an instant loses her grip on the pathetic character she's portraying.

Although he spoke no English, this was not a hindrance to Hanson. Playing the conflicted Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale, Boston's saintly parson, he paints the portrait of a good man literally dying of guilt, a weak man who dare not defend his wife & child. Hanson's face reflects his agony, his left hand twitching at his own breast where his secret symbol of shame is hidden. With Gish unobtainable in this world, he moves steadily towards the inevitable, and deeply poignant, conclusion.

Henry B. Walthall, Miss Lillian's costar in Griffith's THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), has the supporting role of a mysterious stranger whose arrival in Boston foreshadows a dire denouement for the wretched lovers.

Also in the cast are Karl Dane who acts out the viewers' dismay at the solemnity of the Puritans, most especially in the person of vindictive gossip Marcelle Corday; there is no love lost between this pair. Movie mavens will recognize diminutive Polly Moran & dour Nora Cecil as rigid Puritan matrons, both uncredited.

After years of desperately wanting to see this movie I finally got hold of a copy of it. I put the DVD in the machine and waited with baited breath, was the film going to be as wonderful as the other commenters(?)had rated it? was it going to be anywhere near as good as the other Gish/Hanson/Seastrom collaboration "The Wind"? Well, the answer was that it was everything I hoped for and more. The version I saw a recording of TCM's restoration so the quality of the print veered from superb to not quite so good, but, in all honesty that did not matter as I soon got caught up in the story of Hester Prynne and the Rev. Dimmesdale. The acting was superb by all the cast, the direction was excellent and the whole setting of the movie was outstanding. It still amazes me who there are those who will not watch a silent movie, are you crazy? This version is a million miles better than the Demi Moore/Gary Oldman version made 70 years later, the chemistry between Gish and Hanson is perfect, the child actress Joyce Coad who plays Pearl, the love child, is delightful and Henry Walthall is menacing as Roger Chillingworth, Karl Dane also deserves mentioning as Master Giles in a slightly comedic role. The only downside to the movie and it had nothing to do with the movie itself was that I bought it from a guy who contacted me via IMDb and led me to believe it was his own print, I paid $52 for a TV recording off TCM. He is contacting people concerning vintage movies so beware if someone offers to get a print of that vintage movie you want to see.

A seamstress in 17th-century Puritan Boston (Lillian Gish) conceives a child from the minister (Lars Hanson), whom she refuses to allow to stand up for her. She is pilloried and forced to wear a scarlet letter 'A' ('adulteress') on her clothing. Things come to a head when her unloved husband (Henry B. Walthall), who had gone missing shortly after the wedding, returns and vows to be revenged on her and the father of her child. 'The Scarlet Letter' is Gish's film. She brings exactly the kind of innocent delicacy to the role that it requires and is altogether outstanding: far superior to the other actors in this film, who are by no means bad either. It is just that her range of expressions is so much larger than that of for example Hanson, who looks perpetually worried, and Walthall, who keeps scowling and trying to look sinister and threatening. Karl Dane brings some welcome comic relief to this otherwise quite heartrending film. The story flows nicely, competently directed by Victor Sjöström. All in all a very good film, though not at the level of Gish and Sjöström's other collaboration, 'The Wind'.

Exactly what we've lost since the end of the silent era is magnificently on display in Victor Seastrom's THE SCARLET LETTER: shimmering black and white photography of superbly composed and paced scenes capturing the essence of the American classic novel by Hawthorne, though certain details of the story have been altered and may annoy literary purists. This is not the novel but a separate work, more than a perceptive and intelligent picturization. Here is the great, lost art of silent screen acting, with Lillian Gish, unforgettable as Hesther Prynne, leading an accomplished cast. The result is pure visual poetry.

An exquisitely shot and directed film from Victor Sjostrom, but its tale of puritanical bigotry in 18th Century Boston is so divorced from our own societal sensibilities that many may struggle to connect with it. Lillian Gish is sublime as the woman who faces the wrath of her community after giving birth out of wedlock, but Lars Hanson is too overwrought as the respected preacher who impregnated her before departing for England.

I watched this 1926 silent version and the 1934 sound version back to back, projected in a theater. The 1926 version was not only a more artfully shot film, but the depth of the characters and their relationships were immeasurably better. The story structure and additional focus on the developing relationship between Hester Prynne and Reverend Dimmesdale created enormous empathy, and the introduction of Roger Chillingworth was absolutely haunting and palpable. The 1934 sound version was deflated and unemotional by comparison. The 1926 film is very well cast, solidly structured, skillfully directed, and beautifully shot. The film's final scene will leave one almost breathless and wondering what will happen next in the lives of these settlers. It perfectly wraps this must see example of masterful storytelling. Anyone who considers silent film-making inferior to sound film-making needs to watch this film. You may be enlightened.

Scarlet Letter with Lillian Gish is a fine silent film, but hardly deserves the praise it is receiving from those who have commented on it here. The performance of Lillian Gish is a good one but nowhere near as memorable as The Wind,Broken Blossoms, Way Down East or Orphans of the Storm-not to mention some others. I also preferred the very different movie He Who Gets Slapped with Lon Chaney to this one also directed by Victor Seastrom as well as his masterpiece The Wind. It is probably the best version of this story but probably no other version was even passable-a hard novel to film well, perhaps. I give it 6 of a possible 10 and do think it is worth seeing and maybe even adding to your video collection but it is far from classic or great.

This is the definitive version of the classic:do yourself a favor and forget the Demi Moore one which was released a few years back.

Any actress who takes on the part will be fatally compared with Mrs Gish and the favorite thespian of MM Griffith and Sjostrom is so powerful that she would outshine anyone.At a time when an actor had to manage without words,every performance of Lilian Gish ("the wind" "orphans in the storm" ) is a tour de force in itself.Running the whole gamut of human feelings,her portrayal displays every nuance of her fragility,her desperation and her hope against hope .But I will not try to describe it:just watch yourself.

Sjostrom's directing stood the test of time hands down and the story is absorbing until the very end.

Never forget that Mrs Gish made a great come back in the talkies which culminated in her sensational old lady in "the night of the hunter" (1955)

Hester Prynne and the Rev. Dimmesdale fall in love but their love cannot be, in a version of the old Hawthorne story. Gish is at her best as she unselfishly insists on taking blame for their sin by herself, her huge eyes brimming with tears. The screenplay almost reduces Puritanism to parody, a pastiche of grim-faced people hating every sort of joy and spontaneity, and Hester is made to embody the opposite sort of thing. This may be the reason she alone does not ever wear the Puritan costume of black and white; rather, she wears white and dove-grey, and lots of lace, too, which may be because she is supposed to be a seamstress. She has a pet bird in a cage and skips across the lawn in pursuit when it has the bad taste to escape on the sabbath. Hester's daughter Pearl wears ludicrously anachronistic outfits, a 1920s party dress, slightly old-fashioned, a ribbon in her hair, and smart pumps with ankle straps and bows. Oh, and the church bells ring in a stone endwall, more like a Spanish mission than a New England church. Still, the film comes across as a sort of emotion-laden puppet show, stripped of the novel's complexity and depth, and yet that's the way silent films often work best.

Victor Seastrom's magnificent retelling of Hawthorne's important novel is beautifully directed with an incredible performance by Lillian Gish. It is a disgrace that this film is not available in either VHS or DVD format (and especially so since the ludicrous version with Demi Moore is).

This is Lillian Gish at her best and this version of The Scarlet Letter is as good or better than every other version I have seen. It's old, black and white and silent, but if you don't hate those old movies you'll probably love this, it's practically a masterpiece and very overlooked. Gish shines!

Lillian Gish did her best movie work with director Victor Sjostrom. She might have done more pioneering work with DW Griffith, but to see her in Sjostrom's movies is to see her at her full power as an actress. THE WIND might be the meatier showcase of the two, but her work as Hester Prynne in THE SCARLET LETTER is a performance for the ages: sensual yet reserved, tragic yet lively and human.

Sjostrom's direction is also assured, translating this nineteenth-century classic to the screen with taste and style. I would love to own a copy of this film, but alas, it's still unavailable. But if you get the chance to see it, don't pass it up! THE SCARLET LETTER is truly a treasure of the late silent era, a compelling document of what Hollywood lost with the coming of sound.

"It would be pleasant, sir, to walk beside thee and hear thee condemn me for my sins." - What a come-on line, 1640's style.

First and foremost, this adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic book features the lithe, expressive, and simply radiant Lillian Gish. Any time she's on the screen, she's mesmerizing, and she delivers a marvelous performance. Director Victor Sjöström/Seastrom certainly turned out a well-made film here, but seeing it felt more like an academic exercise rather than one I'd leap to watch, even if he does play up the love story to make it more appealing.

How ironic is it that Gish got Seastrom to direct the film because she thought the Swedish people were closer in spirit to the characters in the story than modern-day Americans, even as she had to appeal to the puritanical (though not fully empowered) Production Code office and conservative clergymen across the country to get the film taken off the list of books banned for adaptation. The story has a Reverend getting a young woman pregnant, which was shocking in Hawthorne's day as well as Gish's. Perhaps just as importantly, it's a short leap from seeing the cruel, hypocritical, and patriarchal laws imposed by religion in the film (including the demand to take a baby from its mother) to thinking of the issues with modern religion (in 1926 or today) relative to controlling a woman's body and her sexuality.

Seastrom gets some of the tone right, but it didn't feel severe enough, perhaps because of the emphasis on Gish's natural charms. The bigger mistake in my mind was in revealing Reverend Dimmesdale's relationship to Hester Prynne early on, in contrast to the book, where it comes as a surprise. Why did he do that, I wondered. To avoid putting the sinister thought in audience member's minds that the devout Reverend had all the appearances of a holy man but was harboring such sin, making them wonder about possible skeletons in their own clergyman's closet? To allow scenes throughout the film showing the angst on his face (badly overplayed by Lars Hanson), thus softening the story to make it more palatable? Regardless, it loses dramatic power this way.

The film is also a bit too long for such a simple story. Seastrom gets in amusing little bits, like the guy having to talk to his girlfriend through a speaking tube until they're married, as well as breezy bits of modern romance, such as when Gish says "Why are we taught to be ashamed of love?" (both inventions of the film). The main reason to see it is Gish though; she's sublime.

Not only the movie but also the topic is too old for me. I am not religious, so it is hard for me to understand why outcasting a kid born out of adultery... Also, it took me a while to get used to the silent movie... I think seeing it when it came out, I would really like it. Now, .almost 100 years ago it still has some catchy things, which is admirable..

For anyone who thinks silent movies are dated and dull, have a look at this film from 1926 with Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson. The Scarlet Letter is a drama that still resonates with modern audiences because it depicts the good and the innocent being persecuted by the tyranny of mob justice. In this case, the majority in a New England town violates the dignity and freedom of individuals to enforce a strict moral code. The world of the Puritans in the early American Colonies was rigid and often unforgiving and for those whose lives strayed, stern retribution was the result.

Silent stars had to be great actors to convey emotion without words...the eyes, the expression and body language along with brilliant sets and crowd scenes. This film has these qualities as well as crisp captions to tell the story. I found both Lillian Gish and Lars Hanson convincing in their roles as the ill-starred lovers in a time when people seemed to put great stock on enforcing codes of conduct at the expense of transgressors. The expressions on faces in the crowd scenes showed the hearts of stone that would humiliate anyone who crossed the lines.

Movies like this one gave 1920's audiences a lesson to reflect upon in a world that was still quite harsh in its own customs and morals. I am no expert on silent films but the few I have seen convey great feelings and emotion. They are a separate category from modern cinema and involve audiences more directly. This view was reinforced for me by the recent movie The Artist. The Scarlet Letter is a brilliant example of the silent movie era.

MGM's 1926 adaption of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" is, quite possibly, the best motion picture to have been released in the silent screen era's latter days. It can, undoubtedly, be looked upon as the best that two of that era's best actors-Lillian Gish & Lars Hanson-were paired up in. And, too, one very talented child actress, by the name of Joyce Coads, deserves to be given big credit. (She made only 10 more films before taking a final bow from the limelight; in her 2nd to last-"Devotion" 1931-she didn't get billing.) "The Scarlet Letter" should also be noted as, perhaps, the very best that Victor Seastrom- whom Charlie Chaplain had called "the best director in all the world" ever delivered. Just don't make the mistake of seeing this film as a good adaption of Hawthorne's novel. Because it's not. The film is a total of an hour and 20 minutes. Had it been really true to the novel, it just might have been longer than "Gone With The Wind." (And, speaking of the wind, as fate would have it, Seastrom directed only one more film in the US, which also teamed up Gish and Hanson: namely, "The Wind" (1928). MGM gave Seastrom his walking papers because he'd refused to give "The Wind" a happy ending. "The Scarlet Letter" of 1926 should also be seen by anyone who just might be under the mistaken impression that silent films can't leave a lasting impression.

The Scarlet Letter is a literary masterpiece, and for me this 1926 silent film is the one to see both as an adaptation and on its own. It doesn't follow the book entirely by the letter, but the crux and the spirit of the book are there, and all the characters Hester Prynne in particular are incorporated and written with care. The story is still scintillating, there are some breathtakingly beautiful images on screen helped by the gorgeous cinematography and sumptuous production values. The score is stunning as well, the film is superbly directed and while the whole cast give solid to very, very good performances, Lillian Gish is superb, my favourite performance of hers after La Boheme I'd say. All in all, brilliant. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The film represents a "literalization" of Hawthorne's romance. Romance, for Hawthorne, occurs in shadows, so we cannot quite know what is real and what we imagine. Is Dimmesdale's scarlet letter real or psychological? In the film it is very real, carved into his chest, and the quick juxtaposition of his letter with Hester's is powerful, as, at last, they stand on the scaffold together. Great scenes include the one that culminates in Pearl's baptism, beautifully developed and based on the love of Hester and Dimmesdale and on the witnesses' belief that Dimmesdale acts out of piety, as opposed to some mingling of love and guilt. And the cross-cutting between Hester on the scaffold and an agonized Dimmesdale on the platform of judgment is superb. Gish conveys powerful emotions with subtle shifts in her expression, and Dimmesdale's pain is magnified by its being understood in one way by Hester and in quite another by the censorious crowd. A comic and non-Hawthornian subplot involves the revenge wrought by Giles against the gossip who has caused much of the trouble. She is dunked in the village's water supply. The film moves, as does the novel, with a deterministic inevitability. Gish's vulnerable Hester is at the heart of the story. We know that things will not go well for her when her bird has the temerity to sing on the Sabbath. And, of course, it escapes from its cage. Hester will not escape from hers.We may disapprove of the nasty Calvinists who make up the population of Hester's village, but they remain among us, all too many of them, today. By the way, the winter scenes are wonderful. How did they do the snow?