Danish Silent Film: Sherlock Holmes at Elsinore/Sherlock Holmes pa Marienlyst; Asta Nielsen, Ebba Thompsen, Betty Nansen, Valda Valkyrien and the Nordisk Film Kompagni, Great Northern Film and Carl Th. Dreyer
Silent Swedish Film
Swedish Silent Film
Sherlock Holmes pa Marienlyst/Sherlock Holmes at Elsinore
Basil Rathbone, who co-starred with Greta Garbo, under the direction of Clarence Brown, in the sound version of Anna Karenina, wrote of his aquaintance with her in his autobiography, In and Out of Character. "I first met Miss Garbo in 1928 when Ouida and I were invited to lunch with Jack Gilbert one Sunday." Rathbone and his wife had been present at the premiere of the film Flesh and the Devil. Of his starring in film with her, he wrote, "And so upon the morning previously arranged I called upon Miss Garbo. The house, a small one, was as silent as the grave. There was no indication it might be occupied." Rathbone had also appeared in silent films- Trouping with Ellen (T. Hayes Hunter, seven reels) in 1924, The Masked Bride (Christy Cabanne, six reels), starring Mae Murray, in 1925 and The Great Deception (Howard Higgin, six reels) in 1926. Rathbone and his wife had been present at the premiere of Flesh and the Devil. Anna Karenina (1914), filmed by J. Gordon Edwards, had starred Betty Nansen. On learning that Greta Garbo had already had the film Mata Hari in production, Pola Negri deciding between scripts that were in her studio's story department chose A Woman Commands as her first sound film, in which she starred with Basil Rathbone. Of Rathbone she wrote in her autobiography, 'As an actor, I suspected Rathbone might be a little stiff and unromantic for the role, but he made a test that was suprisingly good.' Directed by Paul L.Stein, the film also stars Reginald Owen and Roland Young.
And like Rathbone, another Sherlock Holmes, Clive Brook who appeared in the 1929 film The Return of Sherlock Holmes (Basil Dean) and in the title role of Sherlock Holmes (Howard) in the film of 1930, was appearing in silent films during the early 1920's, including Woman to Woman (Cutts 1923) and Out to Win (Clift, 1923). As part of an interesting study, Clive Brook had appeared in the mysteries Trent's Last Case (1920), directed by Richard Garrick and based on the novel by E.C. Bentley and The Loudwater Mystery (1921), based on the novel by Edgar Jepson, before his appearing with Isobel Elsom in the 1923 film A Debt of Honor directed by Maurice Elvey. One of the most sought after lost, or missing films, listed by the British Film Institute as having been filmed but not surviving today in an existing print is The Mystery of the Red Barn (Maria Marton) dircted by Maurice Elvey in 1913. The following year Elvey was to direct the mysteries The Cup Final Mystery and Her Luck in London. One of the first directors Philip St John Basil Rathbone had appeared in front of the camera for had been Maurice Elvey, who had directed the 1921 film, The Fruitful Vine, adapted for the screen from the novel. Sherlock Holmes (Arthur Berthelet, 1916) starring William Gillette, a silent film that if found in magazines has been reported as a lost film in regard to being seen on the movie projection screen, according to Photoplay magazine although not remade was the basis for the film Sherlock Holmes (nine reels) of 1922, starring John Barrymore, John Barrymore not only in the title role but also in a dual role as Moriarty. Photoplay magazine claimed that it was Barrymore's acting ability that was worth seeing, not so much the character itself being portrayed, but added that followers of the Arthur Conan Doyles stories were recommended to see the film, "You should see this film if you are a devotee of John the Barrymore...Albert Parker, the director, has not been afraid to follow his imaginative impulses, with interesting results." As the stories of Edgar Wallace were beginning to appear serialized in The Stand Magazine, alongside a Sherlock Holmes rejuvenated by its creator after the death of illustrator Sidney Paget, a Sherlock Holmes created by John Barrymore appeared in The Strand Magazine in the interview The Youth of Sherlock Holmes, conducted by Hayden Church during 1922. A photocaption read, "A well known incident from 'A Scandal in Bohemia', the first of the famous Sherlock Holmes stories. John Barrymore's wonderful makeup as the old clergyman is seen to better advantage in the small photograph." Jounalist Hayden church divulged to The Strand, "It was in a bedroom of the Ritz that I discovered Mr. Barrymore, who arrayed in flowered silk pajamas was at that very moment engaged in making up as the great Sherlock." The article explained that there was a prolouge to the film that provided biographical information on the fictional character and his youth that had been left out in the cannon. In the interview, Barrymore explains that the film was shot on location not in Baker Street or Gower Street, but in Torrington Square, for authenticity. "Our film will bring out the romantic side of Holmes...'At the beginning of the hour,' says Holmes in our script, 'I met love and it passed me by. At the end of the hour, I met mysterious evil'" To complement these, in a series shown in the United States almost on the coattails of the Holmes portrayed by Barrymore, Maurice Elvey in 1921 directed actor Eille Norwood in the first 15 of 45 shorts in which he would star as Sherlock Holmes to begin with The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Published in The Strand Magazine by Hayden Church was his perception, "Almost simultaneously we have had a Sherlock Holmes in the person of Mr. Ellie Norwood, who, in "movie versions" of some of the most renown of the Adventures has revealed a genius of disguise worthy to rank with that possessed by Holmes himself." The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes would include The Empty House, which was reviewed by Film Daily Magazine, "This time the criminal takes a pot shot at the famous detective and for a moment you think all is lost. The suspense is great...While no women enter into the story it is well up to the standard of the series and holds the attention throghout." Elvey would also direct Norwood in the film The Man With The Twisted Lip, "Instead of opening in the usual manner of these stories in Holmes's office with a visitor describing the case in question, The Man With the Twisted Lip opens in an opium den with the well known detective is nowhere in evidence. However after a little while, you will begin to see him through his disguise. How the case is unravelled with a most unexpected kick at the end makes very good entertainment." The Beryl Coronet was reviewed with, "How Sherlock Holmes, the great detective, very well played by Ellie Norwood, unravels the mystery makes very good entertainment. The suspense is well held and though you are comparatively sure of the villian, the way in which the case is slowly drawn aournd him by the detective holds the interest closely.". Of The Priory School it was esteemed by Film Daily that "Ellie Norwood who plays the part of the famous detective has a most pleasing personality and gives an enjoyable performance.". To Film Daily, "The Resident Patient follows closely the Conan Doyle story of the same name." Also included in the series were A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red Headed League, The Yellow Face, The Copper Beeches, The Solitary Cyclist and The Dying Detective. Seperate from the two reel adventures, Maurice Elvey that year directed Norwood in the feature films The Sign of the Four and in the silent Sherlock Holmes film The Hound of the Baskervilles. Of Maurice Elvey's direction of The Hound of the Baskervilles Film Daily wrote that there was an exingency of "telling the story rather than in production values; some good effects." It continued, "Ellie Norwood looks the part of Holmes but has little to do" and noted that he was "not given much prominence as Holmes...Betty Cambell is a poor choice of leading lady." Photoplay Magazine in 1922 reviewed the work of Ellie Norwood as "the real Sherlock Holmes", declaring, "There is no sticky love interest to be upheld-this is the cool detective of the test tubes and the many clues- who walks, step by step, toward a solution." After his having directed Matheson Long in the Stoll Film Company's 1919 production of the film Mr. Wu, Maurice Elvey had been earlier teamed with Eille Norwood in 1920 for two silent films before their having entered into the Sherlock Holmes series, The Hundreth Chance, adapted from the novel, and The Tavern Knight, also adapted from the novel. George Ridgewell would direct Eille Norwood in 30 short films in which he would star as the consulting detective, The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1922) and The Last Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1923), among them being The Boscome Valley Mystery (1922), The Six Napoleons (1922), The Golden Pince-Nez (1922), The Reigate Squires (1922), The Musgrave Ritual (1922), Black Peter, The Norwood Builder, The Red Circle, The Stockbrokers Clerk, The Abbey Grange, The Engineer's Thumb (1923), The Dancing Men (1923), The Mystery of Thor Bridge (1923) , The Cardboard Box, Silver Blaze (1923) , Lady Frances Carfax, The Gloria Scott, The Crooked Man, The Mazarin Stone and The Final Problem (1923). George Ridgewell during 1922 also directed the mystery The Crimson Circle with Clifton Boyne. In regard to Maurice Elvey, there still lies the possibility that modern detective of lost film could find any conceivable treasure; in 1926 the director filmed several films in a series entitled Haunted Houses and Castles of Great Britain. Like Holmes, counterpart Nyland Smith, portrayed Fred Paul, was extended into a second series of films, the British studio and director A. E. Coleby, after having completed The Mystery of Dr. Fu Man Chu (1923), which when completed ran to fifteen individual short stories, having added The Further Mysteries of Dr. Fu Man Chu to make the number of adventures twenty two. During 1924, the studio added a series of silent adventures entitled Thrilling Stories from the Strand Magazine.
By all sccounts, Sherlock Holmes at Elsinore Sherlock Holmes pa Marienlyst, written by Danish author Carl Muusmann during 1906 and republished by the Baker Street Irregulars on the fiftieth anniversay of its first appearance, has not been translated into filmic form and on to the screen, it detailing the pariculars to a visit Holmes made to a seaside hotel. Nor has The Vanished Footman, published in the Danish magazine Maaneds-Magisinet in 1910 by Severin Christensen. Sherlock Holmes in a New Light, an anthology of short stories published in Sweden by Sture Stig and the New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which he followed with two years later, also seem missing. What Carl Muusmann had in fact written in 1903 that was to find its way into Danish cinema was a novel that Carl Th Dreyer had adapted while a scriptwriter for Nordisk, Fange no 113, directed by Holger-Madsen in 1917 and he had contributed to a script Dreyer had been involved with in 1917 entitled Herregaards Mysteriet. Carl Muusmann had written the background material that went to three films directed by Hjalmer Davidson during 1915 and 1916, Manegens Born, Grevide Clara and Filmens Datter (The Films Datter, adapted from a novel published in 1914. Denmark had had its own early silent cinema with the Nordisk Film Kompagni, founded in 1906, and Swedish film historian Forsyth Hardy can be quoted as having written, "The Danes claim to have made the first dramatic film, in 1903." Most of its early narrative films having had been being directed by Viggo Larsen, they were for the most part "thrillers, tragedies and love stories" (Astrid Soderberg Widding) or "the social melodarama and dime novel that made a hit from 1910 onwards" (Bengt Forslund). Anna Strauss, while examining Danish silent film as an international cinema, cinema that was exported, writes that, "Danish film was associated with 'social drama' and 'erotic melodrama', so much so that she examines the alternative endings that were filmed in order to export narrative films (not films that are lost, but seperately filmed final acts to conclude their respective feature films). Mysteries like Pat Corner (Masterdetektiven) and Nat Pinkerton, The Anarchists Plot (Det Mislykkede attentat), both in which the director Viggo Larsen appeared on screen with Elith Pio, had appeared in Denmark not as early as 1909 but earlier, the Danish photographer Axel Graatjaer Sorensen having begun filming for Larsen in 1906 and having had continued solely for Larsen untill 1911, when he then began photographing first for Danish silent film director August Blom and then for danish silent film director Urban Gad under the name Axel Graatjkjae. Viggo Larsen by 1910, was in Germany, where he directed and starred with Wanda Treumann in Arsene Lupin Against Sherlock Holmes (Arsene Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes), which appears to have been a series consisting of The Old Secretaire, The Blue Diamond, The Fake Rembrandts, Arsene Lupin Escapes, and The Finish of Arsene Lupin. In 1911 he directed the more successful Sherlock Holmes contra Professor Moriarty, which having been filmed by Vitascope, was two reels in length. It has been reported from Norway that Viggo Larsen had resigned from Nordisk Film in 1909 due to a financial disagreement with Ole Olsen that had also include concerns about his artistic integrity. During 1908 Great Northern, The Nordisk Film Company, advertised "Next Issue: Sherlock Holmes the Noted Detective's Capture of the King of Criminals. An Absorbing Subject, the interest of which is enhanced by novel stage effects. The fight in the moving train is the Perfection of Realism. Undoubtedly this season's biggest feature." Moving Picture World wrote about the film, "a detective story by Great Northern Film Co. to be issued next week is a masterly production in every respect. The plot in itself is interesting and well worked out. The staging is splendid and introduces some novel effects, not claptrap contraptions, but very realistic in all details. The action throughout is natural and spirited in some parts." In Denmark, Larsen had played Holmesin one reel films to Holger-Madsen's Raffles in both Sherlock Holmes Risks His Life (Sherlock Holmes in Danger of His Life/ Sherlock Holmes i livsfare,1908), a film running seventeen minutes on screen in which Otto Dethefsen appeared as Moriarty and Sherlock Holmes Two, both films photographed by Axel Sorensen, the latter having a running time of ten minutes. Great Northern during 1909 advertised, "Among Many Headliners to go on the market in the very near future is Sherlock Holmes: Series II and III. Series I issued recently is crowding every theater in which it is exhibited." Moving Picture World reviewed the film, "It is quite as much of a thriller as the first. The audience will watch with the most intense interest as they see Raffles escape and afterward see Holmes enticed into a lonely place and into a sewer. But he escapes and captures Raffles in the act of shooting at an image in Holmes' window which Raffles takes to be Holmes himself...The cleverness of the film and the success of Holmes compensates for any shortcomings in other directions." Moving Picture World, surrounding with its text a photograph from the film caption, "The Capture of Raffles by Sherlock Holmes", wrote, "Once free, Raffles' first thought is to revenge himself on Sherlock Holmes and for this he enlists the services of a pretty, but depraved girl to decoy the detective to an old house, where he is met by Raffles under the disguise of an old woman. Sherlock Holmes, taken by suprise is thrown through a masked opening in the wall into an old sewer. When Raffles and his associates discover that Sherlock Holmes has been rescued they plan a second attempt on his life. Raffles takes lodgings opposite the detective's home and watches for a good chance to fire his gun...Sherlock Holmes guessing the intention of the criminal, pulls down the window blinds and arranges a dummy at the window." Raffles shoots, only to "find himself face to face with Sherlock Holmes in the flesh....In Sherlock Holmes II, you will find the same quiet, cool and possessed detective." Einar Zangenberg played the armchair detective in Larsen's Sherlock Holmes Three (The Secret Document/Det Hemmelige), a film with a running time of fourteen mintues, and in Hotel Thieves (Hotelmystierne/Sherlock Holme's Last Exploit) in 1911. Hotel Theives was screened that year in the United States as a Great Northern Film, its advertisement reading, "Another of our celebrated detective productions. A brimful of of exciting and sensational incidents." It shared its advertising space with the "exceedingly well-staged drama" Ghost of the Vaults. One of those productions from Great Northern that year was The Conspirators, "A sensational drama of the Sherlock Holmes type." Einar Zangerberg then stepped behind the camera as director in 1912 to bring the photography of Poul Eibye to the screen in the films Kvindhjerter and Efter Dodsspriset, both with Edith Psilander, The Last Hurdle (Den Sidste Hurdle), in which he appeared on screen with Edith Psilander, and The Marconi-Operater (The Marconi Telegrafisten). Viggo Larsen would also direct the Sherlock Holmes films The Singer's Diamond (Sangerindens daiamanter (1908), starring Holger Madsen with Aage Brandt as the singer: int the case of Margaret Hayes, Sherlock Holmes returns the necklace after having climbed to the roof and then on to a balcony for a duel with revolvers near the chimney. Along with the synopsis of the film, Moving Picture World explained that it was often invited to visit Mr. Oes for advanced screenings of forthcoming releases and praised his for their photographic quality and variety of subject matter. It reviewed Theft of Diamonds, "This firm has made an attraction feature of films of this type in the past, its Sherlock Holmes series being graphic representations of this fact. In this film some very dramatic situations are reproduced and the acting is so sympathetic, and the actors develop so much capability in developing their parts that the audience becomes absorbed in the picture and regrets when it closes." The running time of the film was seventeen minutes. The Great Northern Film Company incidently would during 1910 run an advertisement for a film titled The Theft of the Diamonds crediting it only as "a stirring detective story" without identifying it as a Sherlock Holmes mystery. To follow were the films The Gray Lady (Den Graa Dame, 1909) with a running time of seventeen minutes and Cab Number 519 (Drokes 519), in which Larsen would play the consulting detective with co-star August Blom. Moving Picture World described Sherlock Holmes in the film, "Holmes, after all, is only a clever man of the world with highly developed reasoning powers. he is not a mere stage detective looking preternaturally wise and relying only upon time-worn expedients. No, he goes about his work in an ordinary matter of fact style, plus, of course, a little permissible exaggeration of acumen...The picture is full of excitement from start to finish...Melodrama such as Cab Number 519 does not call for subtlety of dramatic interpretation; it all has to be plain, decisive and incisive...Holmes works on very slender materials; he also works rationally." The Baker Street Journal mentions that the Nordisk Film The Gray Lady is often held to be the first film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles despite that it "does not feature a hound at all, but rather a phantom lady used for much the same purpose." Great Northern advetised the film in 1909 as "From Sherlock Holmes' Memoirs" while it was reviewed mostly as a synopsis outline, "There is a legend in a noble English family that when the Gray Dame, a respectable family ghost, appears then the eldest son of the house dies...In this dilemma, Sherlock Holmes is sent for and he discovers the secret doors...Disguising himself as the son of the house he awaits the next appearance of the Gray Dame...The story is full of exciting movements and the plot is worked out with decision. There is not a lingering moment in the story, which moves rapidly, tensely and convincingly, as all detective stories should". In Cab Number 519, "The only clue in the case is the number of the cab but this is quite sufficient to the intelligent detective. In less than an hour the cab is found and Sherlock Holmes is on the box dressed as a driver." Before becoming one of the finest, and most prolific, of Danish silent film directors, August Blom also starred as an actor with Viggo Larsen in front of the camera of Axel Sorensen in the film A Father's Grief (Fadern (1909), directed by Larsen. Ole Olsen in 1910 produced Sherlock Holmes in the Claws of the Confidence Men (Sherlock Holmes i Bondefangerkler) for Nordisk Films Kompagni, in which Otto Langoni starred as Holmes with the actress Ellen Kornbech. Langoni appeared as Holmes in the 1911 films Den Sorte A Haand (Mordet id Bakerstreet with the actress Ingeborg Rasmussen and in The Bogus Governess Den forklaedete Barnepige, both listed by the Danish Film Institute as being photographed by an unknown director-a pastiche titled Den Sorte Haand was filmed by William Augustinus. Great Northern advertised the film The Bogus Governess in Motion Picture World magazine with "One of the best Sherlock Holmes detective films ever produced." It shared advertising space with The Love of a Gypsy Girl, "feature drama". Translators had added the tiltles Night of Terror and Who is She to the films produced by Nordisk Film chronicling the adventures Sherlock Holmes. During 1911 magazine readers in the United States were introduced to Alwin Nuess- Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the film, directed by August Blom co-starring Emilie Sannom and Einar Zangenberg. Produced in the grounds of the original Castle Cronenberg (Elsinore) Denmark, the Great Northern film, "surpasses any previous Shakespearean productionin acting, natural scenery and ensemble. Although a classical subject appeals forcibly to every class of audience." Underneath the advertisement for Hamlet was mystery: A Confidence Trick, "A detective story full of exciting situations" and The Stolen Legacy,.Alwin Nuess would portray Sherlock Holmes in the films The One Million Dollar Bond (Millionobilgationen) in 1911 and in The Hound of the Baskervilles (Rudolf Meinert) in 1914. The Baker Street Journal attributes the photography of The Hound of The Baskervilles to Karl Fruend; it also adds a sequel that was sped off under the title The Isolated House (Das einsarne Haus), Alwin Nuess continued playing Holmes in in the 1915 films William Voss and A Scream in the Night., reviewed in Motion Picture World during 1916. "A Sherlock Holmes drama, was written by Paul Rosenhayn and arranged by Alwin Nuess, who has won great popularity through his numerous interpretations of the world famous detective, chief among which as Holmes in Hound of the Baskerville...Contrary to a recent American criticism of the European depiction of the famous detective, this Sherlock Holmes neglected appearing at a soiree in his checkered cap with the inevitable pipe in mouth...That Mr. Nuess has made a careful study of American films is plainly evident in A Scream in the Night.
Sherlock Holmes in the Great Murder Mystery, a film produced by Crescent, was reviewed during 1908 as having a plot similar to The Murders in the Rue Morgue, Holmes returning to his study to play violin before proving his client innocent, but overall it seems like the film Miss Sherlock Holmes commanded just as much if not more publicity.There is in fact a film made in Hungary during 1908 and starring Bauman Karoly that is purportedly a synchronized sound film listed as Sherlock Hochmes, which is astonishingly early when compared to the Swedish Biophon synchronized sound film of that year He Who Catches a Crook (Hans som Klara Boven), a film which under the title He Who Takes Care of a Villian, produced by Franz G Wiberg in Kristianstad Sweden, is thought by film historians to be a film that was never released theatrically. More sensational may seem the Hungarian silent filming of Dracula, Dracula's Death (Drakula halala), which is believed to be a lost film of which there are no existant copies. More of a comedy than pastiche, Den firbende Sherlock Holmes directed by Lau Lauritzen for Nordisk in 1918 and starring Rasmus Christiansen, from its posters would seem to lack mystery, despite its being compared to the films made in the United States by Benjamin Christensen.
The one reel film The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or Held for Ransom directed in the United States by Stuart Blackton in 1905 and drawn from The Sign of Four, is thought to be a lost film. Harry Benham would later play Sherlock Holmes in in the two reeler Sherlock Holmes Solves the Sign of the Four, written and directed in the United States by Lloyd Lonergan. Thanhouser, during 1913 tucked away its advertisement for The Sign of the Four on the same page as its advertisement for the film The Ghost in Uniform as part of their Three-A-Week full page that seems to have relented after its mere brief announcement while Eclair had ran a full page advertisement with oval portraits of Conan Doyle, Longfellow, Poe and Washington Irving claiming that it had acquired the exclusive rights to film the Holmes stories, several of them having been filmed previously in England. The film listed by the Library of Congress as being from 1912 and titled The Stolen Papers, while being listed as being from the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur C. Doyle and having no director was in all probability directed by George Treville, with he himself starring in the role of Holmes. During 1913, Motion Picture World magazine carried an advertisement that read, "There was never but One Sherlock Holmes and that one Originated in the mastermind of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who personally supervised the only authorized Sherlock Holmes series of motion pictures on the market. This wonderful series consists of eight complete stories, each featuring the inimitable Sherlock Holmes." The Dead Man's Child was unmistakably a "sensational three reel detective drama", the full page advertisement ran by Great Northern in Moving Picture World Magazine showing stills of the detective Newton "on the trail" and his "daring leap from the bridge", as well as three players in the drama and "Edith in the family vault". It was later that year advertised as "a detective drama that will start them all talking." During 1913 while in the United States a diamond necklace had been the center of The Great Taxicab Mystery, among Nordisk Films that were being shown by Great Northern were The Man in the White Cloak, a "spectral and supernatural interest blend with Heart Throbs and thoroughly human thrills" and A Victim of Intrigue. In the United States during 1914 The Mystery of the Fatal Pearl with a plot premise reminiscent of The Moonstone was reviewed, of interest to the film detective being the mysteries of the photoplay, the secrets kept by the scenario. "It has beeen a generally accepted theory that the screen story must be told in chronological order-that events must be shown in a sequence- as opposed to the freedom of relation obtained in literature...there is a departure from the usual custom. The story is told in two sections, the first consisting of three parts, the second of two. The climax is reached at the end of the third part. We are deeply in doubt as to the situation of affairs-it is one that would give occaision for the consumption of many pipefuls of real strong tobbacco on the part of a most competent Sherlock Holmes." One could begin looking for The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes in the United States with the 1911 film King, the Detective, "introducing the scientific methods of the modern detective and weaving in a love story to maintain the love interest". Denmark and Great Northern during 1910 offered The Diamond Swindler, "This great feature is another of our famous detective stories. It is adapted from the adventures of Henry Taxon, a clever pupil of the celebrated Sherlock Holmes." Great Northern that year also offered the film The Somnambulist, "a well told and thrilling story that will strongly interest any audience." A synopsis was provided when reviewed, the film centering around a museum director that carried off valuable objects of art, bringing them back to his room. "The acting of the principal character is good and gives a good determination of what a person will do under such circumstances." The film was to be of interest to those audiences that had never seen examples of sleepwalking. Great Northern also that year distributed an adventure film titled The Hidden Treasure, the films The Jump to Death, The Duel, and The Captain's Wife, bringing audiences up to the midyear of summer. The film that is most haunting is the The Trunk Mystery- it seems unlisted as a Danish film and as a lost film, as though it disappeared, but there is also no mention of who the director or actor pictured in its advertisement was. There is only a photo of an actor smoking a pipe and wearing a plaid, or checkered, Scolley cap and underneath its the caption "The Trunk Mystery Detective". The advertisement from Great Northern during 1911 reviews the film as "A more thrilling, sensational and intensely interesting detective feature has never been released." Moving Picture World described the film as a detective story where a love story ensues, "The hiding of the man in the trunk is not novel. it is the keeping him alive after he has been hidden there that introduces a new element in a common enough story." In Denmark, Valdemar Psilander portrayed the detective Otto Berg during 1913 in the film At the Eleventh Hour (Hvem Var Forbryderen, directed by August Blom. Fictional detective Donald Brice, courtesy of Selig Polyscope in the United States, appeared in the two reel The Cipher Message during 1913. Motography magazine, whom provided an at length synopsis, wrote, "It must not be assumed that the detective tale is one of lurid or sensational type for such is far fromn being the case. The detective hero of the drama is a deliberate, methodical sort of chap, who goes steadily about solving the mystery without any bloodshed or pistol practice." In the film Brice outspeeds a locomotive in his automobile in an attempt to recover a stolen necklace. In the United States, Edison during 1913 ran a full page adverstisement for The Mystery of West Sedgwick with the announcement that there now would be "a two reel Edison feature released every Friday."
During 1914, The Great Northern Special Feature Film Company advertised, "The Must Baffling Mystery Ever Filmed", By Whose Hand? which promised "Interest and Thrills from Beginning to End". The Great Northern Film Company released "Preferred Feature Attractions". Nordisk Film decidedly advertised the film The Stolen Treaty in 1913, and Great Northern that year distributed the silent film The Stolen Secret (three reels); Great Northern in fact ran more than a dozen full page advertisements accompanied by numerous one or two inch "coming attraction" notices for Nordisk films during 1913 in the magazine Motion Picture World. The Stolent Treaty was advertised as "A Photo Drama that Deals with Dramatic Intrigue and Interational Plotting. In three parts, with 90 Powerful and Thrilling Scenes." Great Northern also included a full page for Theresa the Adventuress, "a startling feature photodrama in three parts having in it a strong blending of detective cleverness and criminal cunning; a thrilling and gripping dramatic subject with a tremendous final scene; a sensational feature throughout; how fate overtakes the transgression." That year it also announced the film The White Ghost (Den Hivide Dame, 1913) directed by Holger-Madsen and starring Rita Sacchetto. The cameraman to the film had been Maurius Clausen, who with Holger Madsen was particularly noted for continuing the lighting effects that were singular to early Danish Silent Film. Although Ingvald Oes, the director of Great Northern was quoted as having said that three fourths of the films shown in Scandinavia were filmed in the United States, despite whether his film had been widely seen in the United States as a Great Northern Film Company silent film, Forest Holger Madsen not only directed The White Ghost that year, but also directed the films The Mechanical Saw and During the Plauge for Nordisk Film. It was a year that Danish audiences were present while Vilhelm Gluckstadt brought the film Den Sorte Variete, starring Gudrun Houlberg to the screen. Author Ron Mottram recently published the article The Great Northern Film Company: Nordisk Film in the American Motion Picture Market, out lining the transactions between Ole Olsen and Oes, president of Great Northern, that transpired between 1908-1917. Olsen had originally agreed to send more than one hundred silent films to the United States. During 1913, Great Northern advertising in the United States promised, "One Feature Every Week Hereafter, All of Incomparable Superiority." 143 fiction films were filmed by Nordisk Film during 1914 according to the present company, one that as its continuous existence reached into the 21st century had celebrated 100 years of filmmaking in its present location, Valby, Denmark. Olsen took the position of managing director of Nordisk in 1911, a year during which Denmark had become the first country to make multi-reel films, bringing the running-time up to three quarters of an hour. It was for Nordisk Films Kompani that year that August Blom had directed Asta Neilsen in the film The Ballet Dancer (Balletdanserinden). Olsen had in fact entertained the view that the demand for film exceeded its production rate, which led him to export. Olsen require that aternative endings be fimed so that fims could be sent to foreign audiences, one of these being a different ending of August Blom's film Atlantis (1913) and another being Holger-Madsen's film Evangeliemanders Liv, the ending of both films having been changed suit Russian audiences. Ole Olsen had appeared as an actor in the film Isbjornejagt, directed in 1907 by Viggo Larsen.
.
The actress Asta Nielsen also during 1911 appeared with Valdemar Psilander in The Black Dream (Dem Sorte Drom), thought to be remarkable for the the use of silhouette, by Asta Neilsen's husband, Peter Urban Gad, the film's director. Even more startling to audiences that year was the Norwegian silent The Demon (Daemonen), directed by Jens Christian Gunderson, a film that quickly followed the subject matter of Nielsen's film The Abyss by including erotic dances between Per Krough and actress Carla Rasmussen. Photographed by Alfred Lind and starring Ellen Tenger, the film was almost responsible for an early rating system that would allow only adults into theaters. During 1912, an entire page of Moving Picture World magazine was devoted to the review of Gypsy Blood, "The First of a Series of Feature Films in which Miss Asta Nielsen appears. It in detail provides a synopsis to the film and on the opposite page there was a portrait of the actress with the caption "Miss Asta Nielsen Supreme Dramatic Artists 'Asta Nielsen Features'". The magazine briefly noted that they had reviewed her earlier- later that year there were advertisements for The Traitoress, "a Stupendous Military Drama". Great Northern during her absence from Denmark advertised the film Those Eyes, "a strong dramatic story enacted with an intensity which gives to every scene a semblence of reality. One of the most powerful stories which could be chosen for a moving picture drama." Great Northern also advertised the films Revenge is Blind, "a Splendid Dramtic Production and A Dream of Death, "a story certain to attract considerable attention."
Before her having appeared in several films directed by August Blom, exceptionally pretty Danish film actress Ebba Thomsen first appeared on the screen under the direction of Robert Dinesen in two films, When Bacchus Reigns (Den glade Lojtnant) and Lystrallan. Ebba Thomsen was brought to the screen by director Robert Dinesen for two films during 1913, Under the Lighthouse Beam (Under Blinkfyrets Straaler/Out on the Deep) and Dovstymmelegatet. In the United States, it was unavoidable noticing that Ebba Thomsen was appearing in several films carrying full page magazine avertisements from Great Northern, one having been The Bank Run, another The Airship Fugatives in which she starred with Valdemar Psilander. This is indicative of how A Shot in the Dark, in which she was again paired with Psilander was reviewed, "This a dramatic offering has an appealing touch and in it are seen Miss Thompsen and Mr. Psilander in roles which are entirely suited to their personalities." Betty Nansen, before leaving Denmark to film in the United States, made two films advertised heavily in the United States as being from The Great Northern Film Company during 1913, A Paradise Lost (Bristet Lykke, August Blom) and Princess Elena (The Princesses' Dilema, Holger Madsen, her being introduced in the latter with "featuring the distinguished tragedienne Miss Betty Nansen in the title role." Two years later, while Betty Nansen was starring in a version of Tolstoy's novel Resurrection filmed in the United States directed by J. Gordon Edwards, Ebba Thomsen was starring in a version of the same novel, En Opstandelse, directed in Denmark by Holger-Madsen. The first filming of the novel, Opstandelse filmed by Nordisk had been produced by Ole Olsen in 1907 and had starred Viggo Larsen.
Moving Picture World magazine during 1913 reported, "One of the latest additions to the Great Northern acting forces is Ellen Aggerholm, a talented young actress who has won fame for herself along the lines of versatility. She has played many important parts in her profession...Her father is a prominent artist in Norway and the Great Northern Company is having prepared a splendid on sheet poster of the woman in a characteristic pose." Aggerholm appeared under the direction of Eduard Schnedler-Sorensen in the 1912 film A Drama on the Ocean (Dodsangstens makespil) and in the 1913 film Nelly's Forlovelse, in which she played the title character. During 1913 Great Northern found acknowledgement of its trade name as having commercial value with its advertisement of In the Bonds of Passion, "A sterling feature abounding in thrilling dramatic situations entwining a tale heart interest out of the ordinary. An unusual feature with an unusual theme and cast."; and yet in the United States the cast itself could still occasionally remain unidentified.Great Northern utilized a full page advertisement during 1916 to announce it had the release of the First Complete Episode of a "series" or "Chapter Play", The Man With the Missing Finger with actor Alfred Hertel in the installment The Tragedy in the Villa Falcon A Detective Story of Unusual Enthralling Interest and Baffling Mystery. 1917 was invested with a review for a new Sherlock Holmes film, "Sherlock Holmes again makes his appearance in the latest A. Conan Doyle's detective story The Valley of Fear...Sir A, Conan Doyle, the author, displayed the keenest interest in the scenario, and personally gave his attention to the cast and brought forth the Sherlock Holmes as he pictures and understands him to be." Howver accurate or misleading, Motography magazine, "the motion picture trade journal", announced Conan Doyle Writes Scenario. Reviewing The Valley of Fear, it wrote "The film, a six reel feature, like the story is full of action, mystery and deductions, and holds the audience tense from beginning to end. Sir A. Conan Doyle, the author, personally gave his attention to the cast." If only a footnote, Vitagraph in 1917 had brought the novel Arsen Lupin (Paul Scardon, five reels) to the screen with Earle Williams as the titular character; a year earlier George Loan Tucker had filmed a British rendering of the drama; far from being a footnote is the fact that there no existing print of what seems to be the first feature filming of Doyle's armchair detective, A Study in Scarlet, directed by George Pearson in 1914 being among one of the most sought after films listed as missing by the British Film Institute. W. Scott Darling, a favorite of the present author, was certainly writing mystery scripts in Hollywood during 1920, his scenario to 813 (Scott Sidney-Charles Christie), based on an Arsene Lupin story written by Maurice Leblanc, was reviewed under the title Mystery Novel Loses interest In Screen Adaptation. It purportedly lost "some of its excitement and suspense in the pictorization...There is a morbid element to the tale which becomes unneccesarily vivid in the picture form." Apparently, "Lupin falls in love with Delores Castlebank, widow of the murdered man." At the bottom of the page, the magazine offerred a "box office analysis for the exhibitor" with "The Name of Arsene Lupin and A Promise of Mystery, Your Best Bets" and prompted, "If you want a catchline, this will do: Added, subtracted, divided, the mysterious numbers gave the answer 813. What does it mean?" Perplexing to the readers of the present author is that. although there is no reason to qualify the film as being "lost" the fact that the title of the film is a number, 813 makes it missing from catalogues of film that are not lost as well as those that are.
Were I a projectionist in Denmark, due to the scarcity of early film available today and how seminal early Danish silent film may be to the study of the origins of the mystery and detective film, I would enthusiasticly arrange a screening of the silent film Dr Nicholson and the Blue Diamond (Dr. Nicholson og den blaa Diamant, starring Edith Psilander, recently donated by the Danish Film Institute for public internet screening. What seems remarkable about the film is its running time, which is an hour. During 1910, Great Northern advertised the "Magnificent Feature Production, The Season's Biggest Hit", The Mystery of the Lama Convent or Dr. Nicola in Tibet. It was reviewed in Moving Picture World, "Dr. Nicola, a man of great determination who knows no obstacles in his desire to intrude into the secrets of nature has made up his mind to discover, and make known to the world what is hidden behind the walls of the Lama Monastery." Among the early danish narrative films of Viggo Larsen were The Black Mask (Den Sorte Maske (1906), Revenge (1906), Anarkistens svigermor (1907), with actress Margrethe Jespersen, The Lion Hunt (Lovejaten (1906), The Bankruptcy (Falliten, 1907), and, The Magic Bed (Tryllesaekken (1907); it is thought that Viggo Larsen was quite possibly the first director to cut from one long shot of a scene to its reverse angle, a long shot of the scene from an opposite angle during the film The Robber's Sweetie (Rovens Brod, 1907), starring Clara Nebelong.
Interstingly, Julius Jaenzon had filmed The Dangers of a Fisherman's Life, An Ocean Drama (Fiskarliv ets farer et Drama paa havet as an early Norwegian silent film under the direction of Hugo Hermansen. Salsvinnapolttajet (The Moonshiners, directed in Finland during 1907 by Teuro Puro and Louis Sparre, is presently considered a lost film. The photographer is listed as having been Frans Engstrom. Interestingly enough, author Marguerite Engberg writes that photoplay dramatists were instructed to limit the use of inter-titles and thereby depict narrative as visual whenever possible. To parallel this, a steady number of guides on creative writing that can be found in the category of Photodrama or photodramatist appeared in the United State between 1912 and 1920, whether or not many seem more lurid than the films themselves- to arbitrarily look at them, to find a sense of meaning as to what early photo-drama plot was, there is Photodrama: the philosophy of its principles, the nature of its plot, its dramatic construction, from 1914, written by Henry Albert Phillips. It contains a chapter on Visualization: "Visualized action takes first and foremost place in the photoplay; all other matters are harmonious trappings and devices or illusion that decorate creaking machines with esthetic realities. Inserted matter, unless artisticlly used, becomes theatric instead of dramatic. The volume continues on to examine subjects like how characterization in the short story and photoplay differ and how there is a necessity within plot to create an "obstacle", the author striving to "analyze photo-drama, to embody it as a new and complete for of drama-literary art." Author Anna Strauss is of great assistance when writing about this, "In Nordisk, writers were instructed to compose 'simple stories, which were easily understood not only in Denmark, but everywhere', 'to use as few intertitles as possible' instead telling the story 'by means of the pictures shown.'" Her article includes that Nordisk films were rewritten with their endings shot twice for view in particular foriegn theaters, Strauus referring to the author Casper Tyberg in claiming that the changing of the films ending to an unhappy one was idiosyncratic to Ole Olsen and his view of exportation, or if you will, exploitation. The Danish Marguerite Engberg author sees a shift in Danish filmmaking during 1910 to a more sensational film with the work of August Blom (The Temptations of the Great City, Ved Faengslets Port, 1911;The Price of Beauty, Den Farliiege Alder, 1911), a shift that brought the subject of the camera from historical costume films to the more exciting modern period. With multi-reel films of longer running length, Fotorama, Kosmorama and Nordisk Film Kompagni added to film the erotic melodrama. Engberg notes that not only did early Danish cinema popularize the detective and mystery, it also addressed sex, "The woman of the erotic melodrama is as a rule an active partner in the lover story. It is often she who makes the decisions, she who is the sexually active one." She credits as August Blom creating the vamp with his The Vampire Dancer (Vampyrrdanserinden (1911) and she does in fact claim that chronologically, Vampyren (The Vampire, 1912), directed by Mauritz Stiller was a direct result of its influence. When showing a portrait of actress Ebba Thompsen in a full page advetisement in the United States, Great Northern had described its film The Temptations of the Great City as "An Absorbing Problem Photoplay in Four Stirring Acts." To begin 1910, the Great Northern Film Company had begun advertising "Quality Films", it providing a still from the film Vengence or The Forester's Sacrifice. A full page advertisement promised "One Quality Only- The Best" with the films Child as Benefactor and Death of the Brigand Chief, to which it shortly after added "a stirring dramatic production", Anarchist on Board. Its poster was described by Moving Picture World as "original and attractive", it not only including a still which there was depicted the discovery of a bomb and "type large enough to be read in the lobby", but also having a synopsis describing the plot of the film. It again lavished praise on Great Northern for its posters that year while looking at the film Madame Sans Gene, which was accompanied with "a gorgeous poster for this subject in which all the colors of the spectrum are utilized to produce a harmonious and rich effect, never before seen in a show poster." Great Northern that year urged exhibitors to "Ask for lithographs and large size descriptive posters" It exhorted, "The Great Northern Film is a film make by which others are judged." It continued in 1910 with Never Despair or From Misery to Happiness, reviewed with a plot synopsis and plot synopsis only, as was Ruined by His Son, "a realistic feature production of high standard". Doctor's Sacrifice, "a cleverly presented story of modern life. Photographic excellence superb", and A Father's Grief, "a powerful story of intense interest, splendidly enacted and superbly reproduced" were to follow. It was reported that "The Great Northern's new 'Time Table' is a neat trade bulletin, illustrated and printed in colors, containing much interesting news pertaining to the company's films of both past and future releases, Copies are sent to exhibitors free upon request."
1914-15 was seen as included in the brief period during which Dansk Filmfabrik, in Aarhus Denmark, produced the films of director Gunnar Helsengren, which included I dodens Brudeslor, starring Gerda Ring, Jenny Roelsgaard and Elisabeth Stub, Meneskeskaebner (1915), Elskovs Tornevej (1915), starring Jenny Roelsgaard, Gerda Ring and Elisabeth Stub and the film Sexton Blake, in which the director appeared with Elisabeth Stub. The character Sexton Blake reappeared in Greta Britain during 1928 with the films of the directors George A. Cooper and Leslie Everleigh, among them being Sexton Blake, The mystery of the Silent Death, Sexton Blake, The Clue of the Second Goblet, Sexton Blake, The Great office Mystery and Sexton Blake, Silken Threads. In 1914, Danish silent film director Wilhelm Gluckstadt directed the film Youthful Sin (Ungdom ssynd), starring Sigrid Neiidendam. In his biographical filmography, David Bordwell traces an early period where both A. W. Sandberg and Carl Th. Dreyer were journalists before enlisting with Nordisk Films Kompagni: the former in 1913, Sandberg in fact having photographed and directed Else Frolich in the film The Mysterious Flashlight (Det Gamle Fyrtaarn/Smuglersskibets Dodsfart), the latter part-time also in 1913 untill 1915, when Dreyer had apparently worked as though in a script departmartment and had contributed no fewer than seventeen scripts within two years, that, whether literary adaptations or not, had been either shelved unfilmed untill possibly reinterpreted by the director or filmed under a change of title. They include from 1915: The False Finger (De Falske Fingre), The Count of Oslo (Greven af Oslo), The Man in the Moon (Manden i manen), Adventure Ship (Eventyrskribet), The Dead Passenger (Den Dod Passager), The Secret Gifts (De hemmelighedsfude gaver), The Strandrobbers of Grimsby (Strandroverne it Grimby, The Rats (Rotterne); and from 1916: The Arm of the Law (Lovensarm), The Golden Plague (Den gulde pest), Stolen Happiness (Stjalen lykke), The Money or the Life (Penger eller livet), Dance of Death (Dodedanseren), The Financier, The Man Who Destroyed a Town (Manden der lagde byen ode).
The Danish Film Institute and Lisabeth Richter Larsen have recently printed a short statement on Dreyer and what they hope to unearth during the study of his film and publication of his manuscripts, "So far, no radically new discovery has been made that will turn our image of Dreyer and his films upsidedown. We are not, after all, the first to work through the Dreyer collection. Many Dreyer scholars have trawled through it- Maurice Drouzy, Casper Tyberg, Edvin Kau, David Bordwell, Dale and Jean Drum." Added to these were also Morten Egholmand and Amanda Doxtater. There certainly is a consensus that Dreyer ha been given two seperate contracts from Nordisk, one in early 1913 and the other, a prologation that extendended there sphere of his responsibilities, in 1915. The second contract gives his the auspices of being a script consultant, as well as making him the head of literary adaptations at Nordisk, those to not only include the work of authors Harald Tandrup, Einar Rousthoj, but within Dreyer's new freedom during which he became a literary agent, his acquiring scripts before Nordisk had commissioned him to adapt them, also included were new writers, among them being Carl Muusman. And yet as a scriptwriter, Dreyer not only wrote intertitles and continuity, but worked on narrative in regard to its structure with the editors during the cutting- it may be that the cutting rate, or the average shot length may be invaluable to look at when bringing early narrative films into estimation when studying the photoplay. To put Dreyer's use of shot structure within narrative structure into context, during 1913, Great Northern had advertised that one of its three reel films contained "75 stirring and unusually attractive scenes", it then noting that its next film being two reels in length included "over 60 compelling scenes", only to in turn describe that was to follow as being "in three parts with 90 Powerful and thrilling scenes"- Nordisk finally gave way with its advance advertising for Atlantis, "Coming!! The talk of the World, Atlantis A Motion Picture Masterpiece in 9 reels." Danish silent film director Carl Th Dreyer was to write every screenplay he was to direct. Tom Milner, who begins his volume on Dreyer with an account of his having seen the director at a screening of Getrude, quotes him as having said, "I know that I am not a poet. I know that I am not a great playwright. That is why I prefer to collaborate with a true poet and with a true playwright." Forsyth Hardy recognized Carl Dreyer as having been a screenwriter at Nordisk during 1912 while a young journalist before his having directed, in that he was "One figure that links the Danish cinema of yesterday and today." The Danish Film Museum, now part of the Danish Film Institute, credits Dreyer with an acting role as an extra-supporting character in the film Leap to Death/Dodridet, which he wrote the screenplay to in 1912, the director of the film having been Rasmus Ottesen, and the principle actress having been Kate Hollborg. Dryer in 1913 wrote the screenplay to The Baloon Explosion (The Hidden Message/Balloneskplosionen, Kay van de Ala Kuhle), which again not only afforded a small role to Dreyer as actor but also to Rasmus Ottesen, it having starred Emilie Sannom. Also scripted by Dreyer, The Secret of the Old Cabinet (Chatollets hemmilighed, Hjalmar Davidsen) starring Ella Sprange and photographed by Louis Larsen, was very quickly shown in the United States, the full page advertisement from Great Northern reading "A Surpassing Photodrama Filled with Thrills". Dreyer also that year wrote the scripts to Hans og Grethe (Elkskovs-Opfindsomhed/Won By Waiting Sofus Wolder), starring Gerd Edgede Nissen and Ellen Aggerholm and The War Correspondent (Krigskorrespondent, William Gluckstadt) starring Grethe Ditlevsen, Ellen Tegner and Emilie Sannom. In 1914, Dreyer contributed the script to Down With Your Weapons (Ned Med Vaabne, Holger Madsen), photographed by Marius Clausen and starring Augusta Blad. Author Forsyth Hardy likened the film Lay Down Your Arms to the film Pro Patria by virtue of its timely subject matter theme, "In filmmaking and other matters Denmark took its posisiton as a neutral country and in several productions sought to press the cause of peace." In doing this, Hardy lightens upon that after peace had been arrive at, Denmark economiclly had brought its film production to a near standstill, reviving it with adaptations of the novel of Charles Dickens and Captain Matryat. It has been noted by the Danish Film Institute that other pacifist films from Denmark were The Flaming Sword (Verdens Undergag, August Blom 1916), A Trip to Mars (Himmelskibet 1918, Holger-Madsen) and A Friend to the People (Folkets Ven 1918 Holger Madsen).
The adaptation of Emile Zola's novel filmed as Money (Penge), written by Carl Th. Dreyer for the director Karl Mantzius is in fact a lost film.
August Blom's 1916 film The Spider's Prey (Rovedderkoppen), starring Rita Sacchetto, had been written by Carl Dreter and Sven Elverstad. That year Dreyer had also co-scripted with Viggo Carling the film Evelyn the Beautiful (Den Skonne Evelyn, directed by Anders Wilhelm Sandberg. Photographed by Einar Olsen, the film returned Rita Sacchetto to the screen.
Carl Dreyer wrote the screenplays to two films directed by Holger-Madsen during 1917, Fangre Nr 113, and Hans vigrige krone (Which is which/His Real Wife). It was a year during which Holger-Madsen directed the films Out of the Underworld (Nattevandreren) with Alma Hinding, and The Munition Conspiracy (Krigens fjede) with Valdemar Psilander, Ebba Thompsen and Marie Dinesen. Both films were photographed by Marius Clausen. During 1919, Dreyer was given two scripts for director August Blom. Lace (Grevindens Aere) was photographed by Paul L. Lindau and starred Agnes Rehni, Gundrun Houlberg and Ellen Jacobsen. Also in the script department at Nordisk during 1913 was Otto Rung, who wrote the script to the 1914 film Vasens Hemmelighed, directed by August Blom and starring Lili Beck. He wrote for Nordisk untill 1918 and during that time wrote the script to The Poisonous Arrow (Giftpilen), also directed by August Blom and starring Else Frolich. It wasn't untill 1925 that Valdemar Andersen went behind the camera to direct one of his own screenplays; he had began with Nordisk film in 1913 with the short film Privatdetektivens offer (Sofus Wolder) before writing longer screenplays in 1916, which included The Bowl of Sacrifice (Livets Genvordigheder (A. Christian), starring Alma Hinding, before his eventually writing and directing his first film, Minder frau Zunftens Dage. Screenwriter Laurids Skands began with Nordisk in 1913, writing the screenplays to the films A Venomous Bite (Giftslangen, Hjalmar Davidsen), starring Alma Hinding and The Steel King's Last Wish (Staalkongens Ville (Holger-Hadsen), starring Clara Wieth. Scriptwriter William Soelberg was only at Nordisk bewteen 1913 and 1916, writing the screenplays to the