THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921)

A.K.A.: Korkarlen

Country: Sweden

Genre(s): Drama / Fantasy

Director: Victor Sjostrom

Cast: Victor Sjostrom / Astrid Holm / Hilda Borgstrom

Plot

Drunken vagrant David Holm is visited by the Grim Reaper on New Year’s Eve and made to repent for his wasted life.

What I Liked

I really want to like “The Phantom Carriage,” because there’s a great deal to admire in this dark fantasy film.  Most obvious is the effect described in the film’s title.  Through the use of double-exposure, director/star Victor Sjostrom pioneered the now standard look of spirits and ghosts in motion pictures.  The Grim Reaper, his horse, his carriage, and his passenger are all partially transparent images who pass unseen down city streets and through building walls in search of souls.  Though the technique has been copied and imitated countless times since and though it has now been replaced by the use of CGI, somehow the ghostly images in “The Phantom Carriage” remain chilling, even enhanced by silence and graininess of the faded black and white images of silent film, which can be unsettling for the modern viewer.

Also interesting is the low-key, realistic performances by the actors, at least in comparison with the flamboyant theatrics coming out of early Hollywood at about the same time.  European silent cinema seems to focus more on the subtleties of human body movement and facial expressions than its American counterpart, for the acting here is not all that different from the famously understated performances found in the films of Sjostrom’s Danish contemporary, Carl Theodor Dreyer (“Vampyr,” “The Passion of Joan of Arc”).  I imagine –though I don’t know – that Dreyer would have admired “The Phantom Carriage” very much.  Unfortunately, that same restraint I admire also got in the way of my truly enjoying the movie.

What I Didn’t Like

It took me a very long time to get through this movie.  Weeks.  It’s not that it’s very long, clocking in at just over an hour and a half in length.  It’s just that it felt so unbearably long.  When the Grim Reaper is not present, most of the film is spent on a lengthy backstory telling of David Holm’s descent into loneliness, sin, and poverty and of the idealistic young woman who tries to redeem him.  The problem is that the story is far too long and uninteresting, particularly when it is presented as a series of silent conversations interrupted by constant title cards.  With the exception of a few nail-biting moments toward the end, the film is made up almost entirely of these conversations.  They probably played much better to a 1921 crowd but this desensitized twenty-first century viewer was frustrated and disappointed.

Most Memorable Scene

The first appearance of the phantom carriage and its driver is easily the image that will most often pop up in the memory whenever the film is mentioned and for good reason.  The effect is what really makes the film unique.  Incidentally, there is also a scene where an enraged Holm, uses an axe to chop his way through a locked wooden door to get at his terrified wife.  I was waiting for the “Heeeeere’s Johnny!” title card but was again disappointed.

My Rating: 2 out of 5