The Phantom Carriage - 1921

I had never heard of this film until I saw it in a list of important movies. Apparently, this movie uses early special effects. The movie is also based on a book, Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! by Selma Lagerlöf. I found it interesting she was commissioned to write this to raise awareness for tuberculosis, and we're left with this tale. She was originally asked to write an essay, but she preferred to write in a narrative style. Most of the time, that keeps people's attention better anyway.

Ok, so we're talking about 1921. This is a silent movie, but it's also in Swedish (the title cards). But, since it's silent, we get to rely on music to set the mood. Well...it seems there are two "accepted" soundtracks. One is supposedly more time-period appropriate. But, I didn't get that one. So, I listened to the strange music for a while and eventually just took off my headphones and watched.

A woman is dying. She asks for a man named David Holm. He refuses to come, but his friends don't agree with that decision. They smack him on the head and run off. Death's carriage then pulls up and tells him since he's the last man to die this year, he's in charge of driving the cart for the next year.

What follows is a Christmas Carol scenario. It's not exactly a past, present, future thing, but it gives me that feeling when I watch it. I really didn't feel pity for David. He may have reformed at the end, but it wasn't quite like Ebenezer, where he had sparks of humanity here and there. This man was just WRONG.

What I want to mention is the special effects (major shout out to Julius Jaenzon and Eugén Hellman). For 1921, I feel like they were better than some of the hilarious green screens I've seen in a couple Hallmark movies. The carriage was really cool, and I like how they had it go over water and even made sure it would go up and down with the landscape. And the characters that were ghosts and walked through walls, etc. were pretty cool. Overall, I liked this movie, but since I had so many issues with the music, I don't think I'd go out of my way to watch it again. I am glad I watched it, though.