The Phantom Carriage (1922)

the leading man is my tpye

Very best movie i ever watch

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is an astonishingly good silent movie, with shades of a Christmas Carol. A surprisingly sophisticated and layered story, strong and well restrained acting performances and outstanding special effects for its day make this one of the best silent pictures I've seen.This is highly recommended viewing for anyone looking to get into the captivating and addictive world of silent cinema!

. . . were blanketed with Blondes playing volleyball in the buff, the Salvation Army invaded Stockholm with a strident Prohibition agenda. Carry A. Nation may have succeeded in setting America awash with bathtub gin for about 15 years, but Sweden did Ms. Nation one better. As shown by this documentary PHANTOM CARRIAGE, the Swedes were "scared straight" by the power of celluloid, which is why they remain a virtually abstinent country this far into the 21st Century. As PHANTOM CARRIAGE illustrates, the Swedish chicks recruited by the Army were at least as effective as the volleying Nature Girls in using their feminine charms to score points. Sister Edit sweet talks Death into giving her a "reprieve" long enough to ensure a drunk and his family of four do not suffer Eternal Damnation. No one could watch this flick from beginning to end, and touch another drop of the hard stuff. That's why all those holier-than-thou public "tea-totallers" drinking on the sly are afraid to even view PHANTOM CARRIAGE.

I read a great deal of work on cinema and yet had never heard of this film. It is a remarkable example of the best the silent era had to offer. The acting is subdued and believable. More is done with the faces and postures of the characters than is done with most modern films. Sjostrom a the lead character has the marvelous ability to show a kind of kind exterior while suffering inside. There are times when we see him on the edge of salvation, but he thinks a moment and pulls back inside. He is so set on the revenge on his wife that it trumps everything, even the lives of his little children.It is the story of a Salvation Army worker, a young woman, who is dying of consumption. On her death bed, she calls for David Holm to be brought to her. The response from those around her is that of fear and disgust. Yet she persists and her cohorts start a search for him. It is unsuccessful since he has determined to have nothing to do with her. Even the wife is brought to the young woman. She is in incredible pain. We now get the story in a series of flashbacks, precipitated by the story of the Phantom Carriage which is driven by the last sinner to die on New Year's Eve. He must put in one year before he is released to his reward. David, instead to going to see Edit (the young woman), gets in a fight with his drinking buddies and is killed, just a few seconds before midnight.This is a story of reclamation, which is one of my favorite themes. It is rather Dickensian in some ways. The beauty of this is that we are treated to the incredible resistance to transformation that Sjostrom's character puts up. This is one of the better movies I've ever seen.

I first watched this about three months ago and was somewhat disappointed, but after watching it a couple more times I've started to appreciate it more, just not for the reasons I'd expected.The carriage and driver are a striking image and the multi-exposure effects are the best ever in a film of this age. Seeing one of these clips is what made me anticipate watching the entire film. Turns out this is a minor part of the movie. Think Hitchcock's magguffin; it isn't about the Death Carriage. It is, rather, a morality tale about a mean alcoholic reflecting on his life. The story could have been done with or without the carriage.And the story is certainly well done. I'm actually more impressed with Sjostrom's script and his acting than with the directing, which is stagnant, but no more so than most films of this era.So, I came for supernatural horror and got horrific drama instead. Slow pacing and staging keep this one from greatness but it is engrossing by the end of it.A couple quick notes on the Criterion DVD. Excellent commentary by Casper Tybjerg (who also does the commentary track on Haxan). Two scores that I would never listen to on their own; the KTL score does fit the movie though, the Bye score does not.