The Wind ***** (1928, Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming, Edward Earle) – Classic Movie Review 2489

Swedish director Victor Sjöström’s [Seastrom] most famous and finest work, based on the novel by Dorothy Scarborough, is now recognised and hailed as one of the all-time great silent movies. However time is on its side: the film opened to reviews that were less than kind and it recorded a loss of $87,000.

Beautifully shot in the Mojave Desert, California, by ace cameraman John Arnold, it is the story of an innocent and naive young woman, Letty Mason (Lillian Gish), who ventures out West from Virginia, to Sweet Water on the western prairies to live on the ranch of her cousin Beverly (Edward Earle), his wife Cora (Dorothy Cumming) and their three children.

The jealous Cora believes Letty has come to steal Beverly away from her and orders Letty out of the house. Letty is forced to accept a marriage proposal from a ranching neighbour, Lige Hightower (Lars Hanson), a man she does not love, eventually settling for a loveless marriage with Lige on his farm in Texas.

Letty begins to have affection for Lige, who wants to do right by her, and who promises to send her back to Virginia. However, this promise of improvement in fortunes is short lived. She picks up a revolver to defend herself and kills attempted rapist Wirt Roddy (Montagu Love) and buries his body in the sand, only to have it exposed by the ever-blowing wind.

The elements – the wind, the sand and the storm – play a truly metaphysical role in the film’s extended dramatic climax featuring a brilliantly staged sandstorm. And there, in the middle of it all suffering for her art, is the redoubtable Gish, acting up a storm.

It was restored  to its original glory in the nineties as a Channel 4 Silent, revived by producer/director Kevin Brownlow, with a superlative new score by Carl Davis.

Also in the cast are William Orlamond as Sourdough, and Carmencita Johnson, Leon Janney and Billy Kent Schaefer as Cora’s children.

Gish chose the project and Sjöström to film it after he had directed her before in the 1926 movie The Scarlet Letter.

[Spoiler alert] The film’s off-key happy ending, reuniting husband and wife, was added at the insistence of MGM Studios.

The great Gish died on February 27 1993, just a little short of her 100th birthday.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2489

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com