In 1914, Carl Th.Dreyer"Nordisk Film Kompagni, contributed the script to Down With Your Weapons (Ned Med Vaabne, Holger Madsen), photographed by Marius Clausen and starring Augusta Blad. Motography reviewed the film with War Film a Plea for Peace. It saw the film as "a most unsual feature." It continued, "It depicts the great battle scenes with such remarkable realism and treats modern warefare comprehensively, but although primarily a war picture, it is really an anti-war picture, the underlying purpose of which is to create a hatred for war and advance the cause of peace...The picture is a mute testimony that war is merely a series of horrors and miseries for non-combatants as well as the combatants...The battle scenes are stupendous and spectacular." What is stirring about the Motography review is the accompanying still photograph of a "realistic hospital scene" 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 arrived 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. Pro Patria was reviewed in the United States by Motion Picture New during 1915, "Recent developments have made war pictures more timely than ever, but such pictures must be good to meet with real success. Pro Patria is a film which, so far as one can judge from the newspaper accounts, must depict military operations much as they have been during the past winter in Europe. There is a convincing atmosphere which makes many of the battle scenes and views of the troops on march seem to be portrayals of actual warfare..The scenic effects of the film are of unusual beauty and power." 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). Anne Bachmann sees this as a strategic supplement to the studio's need to produce remakes and sequels, "A more immediate one was to continue the string of films promoting lofty ideals, in particular pacificism." She includes Pax Aeterna (1917) as an "idealist film" directed by Holger-Madsen,one of those also "advocating concord [that] typified this strategy, which combined internationalism with literary connotations."

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. Actresses Lily Frederiksen and Augusta Blad star in the film.

August Blom's 1916 film The Spider's Prey (Rovedderkoppen), starring Rita Sacchetto, had been written by Carl Dreyer and Sven Elverstad. Scholar Casper Tybjerg has related the plot line of the film as having involved "a spider woman who resorts to kidnapping" 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. While during 1918 Carl Dreyer was given one film script, it being for director August Blom with Valdemar Psilander again starring together with Ebba Thomsen and title Lydia (Der Flammentanz, The Music Hall Star), 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 HemmeliI'm at ghed, 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 films Gold from the Gutter (Guldmonten, August Blom, 1913), starring Ebba Thomsen, Murder Will Out (Morderen, Sofus Wolder)Misunderstood (En Aeresprejsning, Holger-Madsen, 1916). Nordisk Film Komapgni founder Ole Olsen is credited with having co-written the script to Peace on Earth (Pax aeterna, Holger-Madsen) with Otto Rung in 1917, as well as his having co-written the films A Friend of the People (Folkets Ven, Holger-Madsen, 1918) and Himmelskibet (A Trip to Mars, 1918) with screenwriter Sophus Michaelis. The Danish writer Carl Gandrup sold two scripts to Svenska Bio in 1916, Envar sin egen lykas smed, directed by Egil Eide and photographed by Swedish Silent Film cinematographer Hugo Edlund, and Skuggan av ett brett, directed by Konrad Tallroth. Gandrup had been primarily a screenwriter for the director Hjalmar Davidsen, writing the photoplays to Likken Suunden of genuunden (1914), Alone with the Devil (Expressens Mysterium 1914), Dishonored (Den Van erede, 1915) and Det evige Had (1915) before penning the scrip to Mysteriet Paa Duncan Slot, directed by George Schneevoigt in 1916.

The novelist Laurids Bruun became a scriptwriter during 1916 for Nordisk, his co-scripting the screenplay for the adaptation of his novel The Midnight Sun (Midnatssolen) with screenwriter Axel Garde, who had written the script for the film Atlantis. It was adapted for director Robert Dinesen who instructed photographer Sophus Wangoe during the making of the film, which starred actress Else Frolich. Among the scriptwriters that had worked with Robert Dinesen that year was Harriet Bloch, who wrote the screenplay to the film Wages of Folly (Letsindigheders Lon), photographed by Sophus Wangoe and starring Agnate Bon Pragen and Gerda Chrisophersen.The writer Harriet Bloch has a particularly prolific portfolio built in Denmark while Dreyer was a script writer, among her scripts that were filmed between 1911 and 1923 being The Guestless Dinner Party (Den Store Middag) directed by August Blom and The Spectre of the Deep (En Karer lighedsprove).

After directing his first film, "The Hostage", with Benjamin Christiensen and August Falk in front of the camera in leading roles during 1914, Martinius Nielsen directed sixteen films in Denmark, beginning with "Gentlemansekretaenen" for Nordisk Film in 1916. The film was written by Valdemar Anderson and starred Else Frolich. Valdemar Anderson also wrote the screenplay to the film "Stakkels Meta", directed in 1916 by Martinius Nielsen and starring Agnes Anderson.

Not as prolific was screenwriter Palle Rosenkrantz who silimlarly wrote scripts filmed between 1911-1925, of particular interest being When Passion Binds Honesty (Dyrekobt Glimmer), a film in which Emilie Sannom appeared under the direction of Urban Gad during 1911. The first Danish manual for scriptwriting, How One Writes a Film (Hvorledes skriver man en film), was published in 1916 by Jens Locher- many instructional manuals on how to write the photo-play or photodrama, scenario writing, were printed in the United States between 1916-1922, the onset of their appearance coinciding with the beginning of the mutli-reel film, and although the may have directly addressed the guidelines involved in censorship or transnational audiences as much as the Nordisk Film script department, they involve content, particularly when a matter of plotline development. Locher gave the advice that screenplays should be built upon three main characters and no more and that while the interest of the audience should gain sympathy for one of those characters, denoument should be a plot twist arising from a straitforward development of plot.

Motion Picture News reported on Danish silent film actress Asta Nielsen and a visit she had made to the United States during 1917. "It is understood that it is not at all unlikely that the European star will be presented in an American-made screen production within the near future. She has not as of yet, it is said, decided whether she will establish a studio of her own or go with some established American film organization. It is known that she had had offers from various film companies but thus far she has not made any decision for the future." Motography magazine similarly reported on Nielsen visiting the United States, "Some of her films have been shown in this country, through Pathe, and created a sensation...In these plays, Miss Nielsen portrayed characters of widely different emotions and import...she holds us with the vivid reality of each one. She is one of the few actresses on the screen who seem to show us her innermost thoughts, almost, one might say, the workings of her mind. Miss Nielsen has with her a scenario made from Holger Drachman's 'Once Upon a Time', to which play she secured the film right some time ago, and George Brandes, the famous Danish author and philosopher, is now writing a new story for production in film."

Carl Th. Dreyer during 1920 directed the silent film The Witch Woman/The Parson's Wife.

By 1922 Danish silent film director Peter Urban Gad had finished directing what would be his last silent film produced in Germany The Ascension of Hannele Mattern (Hanneles Himmelfahrt), actress Margate Schlegelful filling the title role. By 1923 both Benjamin Christensen and Carl Th. Dreyer would travel to Germany; Christensen would star in Dreyer's 1924 film Mikail (Chained), a film which Paul Rotha had described as "slow moving, unfolded with careful deliberation of detail", the film noted for its depth of characterization and insight into human nature. Acting for Dreyer for Christensen was only in addition to directing His Mysterious Adventure (Seine Fiar de Ubekannte, 1924 and The Woman Who Did (Die Frau Mit den Schelechten ruf, 1925), based on the novel by Grant Allan, while there. Carl Dreyer would also direct Love One Another (Die Gezeichneten, 1921) and Once Upon a Time (Der Var Engang, 1924) with actress Clara Pontoppidan.

Dreyer's Once Upon a Time has been noted by Casper Tyjberg, a film scholar who has noted in his essay Forms of the Intangible that there were stylistic differences in Dreyer's films, stylistic variations from film to film, for it's being in keeping with the Swedish tradition under Charles Magnusson of shooting on location and to paraphrase Tyjberg, it's use of "landscape to create emotion around the characters."; the Journal of Film Preservation has reported the ending sequence of the film as still being entirely missing and that the screenplay, with Dreyer's notes, has been consulted to provide dialouge intertitles to accompany still photographs during a twenty first century restoration of the film. To be more specific, Carl Dreyer has adapted the screenplay from the stage and separated the two types of intertitles, dialogue and expository, while writing, the Danish Film Institute using the screenplay of Dreyer's film "Der var Engang" to combine them, and by providing descriptive intertitles that explain the plot and the proxemics patterns blocked by the action of the actors, it including explanatory description in the same intertitles as the dialogue that accompanied the silent Photoplay.

During 1926, Urban Gad returned to Denmark to make one film before ending his career, The Wheel of Fortune (Lykkehjulet, co-scripted with A. V. Olsen and starring Lili Lani. Morten Egholm depicts Carl Th. Dreyer by quoting him, "As early as 1920, Dreyer was discussing film film aesthetics with his famous Danish colleage Benjamin Christensen, He did that in an article called 'Nye Ideer om Filmen'. Christensen was in many ways an early spokesman for the auteur theory, as he said that the film director's most important task is to make poems out of pictures. Dryer replied to and contradicted this in his article:'the task of the cinema is and will be the same as the teater's: to interpret the thoughts of others.'" Motion Picture Magazine during 1923 wrote, Sigrid Holmquist has come to Lasky's to appear in The Gentleman of Leisure. She is the Swedish Mary Pickford." Holmquist had appeared under the direction of Lau Lauritzen in 1920 in the film Love and Bearhunting (Karleck och Bjornjakt before coming to the United States to appear in the film directed by Joseph Henaby and in an adapatation og the Kipling novel The Light that Failed (George Melford) with Jacqueline Logan. She had also starred in the earlier 1922 film The Prophet's Paradise, directed by Alan crosland. Danish actress Olga d'org starred in three films for Nordisk Film Kompagni, all of which were directed by A.W. Sandberg, including the 1923 film The Hill Park Mystery (Nedbrudite nerver).

Danish film director Carl Th. Dreyer in 1925 filmed Thou Shalt Honor Thy Wife (Master of the House, Den Skal Aere Din Hustru), which the director co-wrote with Sven Rindholm. Photographed by George Schneevoigt, the films stars Astrid Holm, Karin Nellemose and Mathilde Nielsen. Forsyth Hardy wrote, "Already Dreyer had developed that intensity which had become a feature of his methods as a director- an intensity which is communicated to his actors and permeates the entire film...In its naturalistic approach, The Master of the House (or Fall of the Tyrant) was considerably in advance of the period." In his book Transcendental Style in Film, the director Paul Schrader (Autofocus) characetrizes Dreyer's early film by their use of mise-en-scene, likening them, in their use of interiors and 'revelatory guesture', in particular to the Intimate Theater of Strindberg. Scholar Casper Tyjberg, rather, looks at the concept of a Transcendental style of film conveying an abstract meaning through its transparency and notes that he is of the opinion that Dreyer's film can be interpreted firstly as Art Films, his looking to the thematic content of Ordet and then inevitably to the highly, if not overly stylized film Gertrude. Scholar Morton Egholm summarizes a similar view by writing "The film style is invisible- yet it exists!" Egholm directs us to the writing of Ebbe Neergaard, who claimed that in Mater of the House Dreyer "regarded and formed his material in a pure cinematic way." Egholm draws upon exchanges between director Benjamin Christenson and Carl Dreyer discussed in New Ideas on Film, where Christenson advocated "that the film director's most important task is to make poems out of pictures. Dreyer replied to and contradicted this in his article: "the task of cinema is and will be the same as theater's: to interpret the thoughts of others." Scholar Morton Egholm elaborates, "When it comes to the discussion between being a real film artist (later called auteur) and an interpreter of others' thoughts Dreyer does not accept that the two categories are mutually exclusive. The style is something invisible, hidden behind the structure and idea of the literary source- but the style definitely has to be there and it has to be personal, otherwise there would be no film. At the same time, however, the literary source also dictates the style that will be developed during the process of adapting." Dreyer, in a foreward to a collection of four of his screenplays, writes, "I am convinced that presently a tragic poet of the cinema will appear, whose problem will be to find, within the structure of the cinema's framework, the form and style appropriate to tragedy." During the film Master of the House, Dreyer stylisticly uses the iris shot while cutting between close and medium interior shots, including and iris shot filmed over the shoulder of a character exiting through a doorway and an iris shot of her entering again later in the scene, and , more notably, the director during the middle of a scene uses iris shots while cutting between a close up and a medium closeshot; during the latter a second character, that of the protagonist's wife in the film, can been seen entering the frame of the shot from the right of the irised screen and then reentering during the length of the shot. Husband and wife are both shown in intercut iris closeups during a dialouge sequence within the middle of a prolonged interior scene, the exceptional beauty of the actress held by the camera as her eyes silently wait for her husband to speak. Dreyer shot most of the film in only two seperate interiors, having constructed a set where he could film the action from all sides of where it was taking place. In his biography of Greta Garbo, Raymond Durgnat quotes "the austerest of all film directors", Carl Dreyer, although the quote seems superfluous or decorative to the essay, as having said, "Nothing in the world can be compared to the human face. It is a land no one can never tire of exploring." The context was that Garbo, being a film star, was an object of art. Returning to Dreyer for his explanation of film technique as character-centered structure, character-centered editing, he writes in Thoughts on My Metier, "The soul is shown through style, which is the artist's way of giving expression to his perception of the material. This style is important in attaching inspiration to artistic form. Through the style, the artist molds the way details that make it whole. Through style he gets others to see the material through his eyes."

Early Danish sound film director Alice O'Fredricks appeared as an actress in two Danish silent films in 1925, Sunshine Valley (Solskinsdalen) with Karen Winther, directed for Nordisk Film by Emanuel Gregers, and Lights from Circus Life (Sidelights of the Sawdust Ring/Det Store Hjerte) with Ebba Thomsen, Margarethe Schegel and Mathilde Nielsen, directed by August Blom. She had appeared a year earlier with Clara Pontoppidan in a film produced by Edda Film, Hadda Padda, directed by Gudmundar Kamban and also starring Ingeborg Sigurjonsson. Gudmundur Kamban in 1926 for Nordisk Film directed Gunnar Tolnaes, Hanna Ralph and Agnete Kamban int the film Det Sovende Hus.

In October of 1917 Motoplay magazine announced that Asta Nielsen was in the United States, "Miss Nielsen has with her the scenario made from Holger Drachman's "Once Upon A Time" to which play she secured the film right some time ago, and George Brandes, the famous Danish author and philosopher, is writing a new story for her production in films. Miss Nielsen has studying American film art and said that what struck her most forcibly was the excellent photography, the great amount of titles and the extreme amount of time consumed in photography by a feature film." It assessed her on screen presence, near hauntingly with the hint that she would later play Hamlet, "She is one of the few actresses on the screen who seems able to show us her innermost thoughts, almost, one might say, the workings of her mind." Motion Picture World similarly reported Asta Nielsen, Danish Film Actress in America, "It is affirmed that she has not come here under contract and is not connected with any filmmaker on this side of the water" It mentioned, "The war has, of course, given a death blow to artistic activity in Europe.Miss Nielsen probably finds it a good time to take a vacation."

The assignment of script writer on the first of two films that were to pair Gunnar Tolnaes and Lily Jacobsson, The Maharaja's Favorite Wife (Mahatadajahen's Yndlings Hustru) directed in 1917 by Robert Dinesen, was given to Sven Gade. The actor and actress both returned in 1919 for the sequel, The Maharaja's Favorite Wife 2 (Mahatadjahen's Yndlings Hustru 2), diet cited by August Blom.

How Sven Gade directed Asta Nielsen as Hamlet would seem as odd a mystery as Greta Garbo having attended a party given by Basil Rathbone where she in fact was in costume as the Prince of Denmark- Sven Gade had screenplay writer Erwin Gepard add a prolouge to the film before the credits were run. It announced that American scholar Professor Vining put forth the theory that Hamlet was a woman. Queen Gertrude, portrayed by Mathilda Brandt, inquires if she has born a son, and the reply is that she has given birth to a princess and that during the interim, King Hamlet has been mortally wounded.She is advised,"Proclaim the Princess heir to the Throne and the people will believe that you have given birth to a son." The sexual deceit is then taken up by Ophelia in her service to the Princess as one who is aware of the deception. In Germany, Scandinavian film director Svens Gade positioned actress Asta Nielsen in front of the lens in Hamlet (1920). Directing in the United States in 1925, his films included Fifth Avenue Models adapted from the novel The Best in Life by Muriel Coxen, Siege and Peacock Feathers (seven reels) with Jacqueline Logan; in 1926 they were to include Watch Your Wife (seven reels), Into Her Kingdom (seven reels) with Corinne Griffith and Einar Hanson and The Blonde Saint (seven reels), adapted from the novel Isle of Life by Stephen Whitman and starring Lewis Stone and Ann Rork. Gade would later become a scenario writer rather than director, one instance being Symphony for Universal, directed by F. Harmon Weight.

Upon being invited to follow a story that began in Victorian-Edwardian London, 1925 Silent Film audiences were also that year thrilled by the writings of Arthur Conan Doyle as they were led by Challenger on an expedition into The Lost World through the magic lantern silent film.

Silent Film: Lost Film, Found Magazines Being a reader of mysteries, to begin the summer of 2013 I plunged into the middle of The Cinema Murder, written by E. Phillips Oppenheim in 1917, the copy I purchased in an old bookstore near the Theater District (Emerson College) of Boston for one dollar being a second printing from Little, Brown and Company from that year, which I thought was impeccable. I put the computer aside untill reaching chapter twelve; when I returned to the internet I found that the film is lost- it is not entirely forsaken as a lost film, it is listed either as lost or unknown. The novel was read by Frances Marion, whose scenario was adapted as a silent two years later for Cosmopolitan by George D. Baker and Harold Rossen, starring Nigel Barrie as the narrator protagonist and Marion Davies as a love interest. The novel itself is surprisingly profound in its examination of society and morals with its dramatic undercurrents that continually lapse back into its mystery plot involving an art teacher writing a play, as though it were aiming towards the material of early silent film drama. Oppenheim had earlier written The Black Box featuring the consulting detective Sandford Quest, which was published as a photoplay edition with scenes illustrated from the Universal Film. A copy of the film The Cinema Murder could still exist. I was pleased enough with the ending novel to return to the bookstore after finishing to find a second printing of The Passionate Quest, also written by E. Phillips Oppenheim, published during 1924. While on chapter four I found out that the novel was adapted in 1926 by J. Stuart Blackton, the film starring May McAvory also listed as being unknown, and not necessarily lost, although there are no available copies at present; after finishing the novel I returned to the second hand bookstore to buy a third novel written by Oppenheim, my beginning July of 2013 with a second printing from 1929 of The Treasure House of Martin Hews. It is not unfounded to say that each novel begins with a journey to London on the part of the main character, or characters, and that while one novel may be more exciting, another might be more deeply moving, but the subjects of each novel seem to be different while the same element of romance and suprise is central to the storyline. While "Sherlock Holmes sluethhound" is mentioned by the main character's nemesis in the concluding chapters, the novel is atypical from the others in that it nearly surpasses the cannon of Doyle in being adventure concerning the theives of priceless art and Scotland Yard. After, to find another shift of subject matter I continued the summer with a first edition of the novel The Wrath To Come, again by E. Phillips Oppenheim and published by Little, Brown and Company in 1924, and after finishing, although the author's style, choice of language and grammar and use of the implausible to interconnect plot threads and character relations with events transpiring at the beginning of the novel with the reintroduction of an absent character, may be similar in his novels, I followed the author's potluck decisions on subject matter which propel the character's journeys with his return to the mystery-romance by reading a second edition printed in 1926 ofThe Golden Beast, which revolves around a disappearance that mimics a mystery from the previous generation which occurred on the same estate. There were 478 silent films made in Sweden; of them only 192 still exist, although there are copies of fragments from a number of them. Added to that, countless Danish silent films produced by Ole Olsen for Nordisk Films Kompagni are missing, among those being (Caros Dod) and The Robber Chief's Flight and Death (Roverhovidiryens Flugt og Dod), directed by Viggo Larsen, as well as films included as missing titled The Daughter Sold (Dattern Solgt), The Cripple (Krolblingen) , Lars Hovedstadrejse (Lar's Trip to the Capital) and The Poacher (Krybskytten).

Many early silent films made by the Nordisk Film Kompangni, although produced by Ole Olsen, still have an unattributed director, not only in the filmographies of lost film scholars but in the lists of the Danish Film Institute itself, thus at first there would seem there is a preponderance before continuing to 1907, that there entirety of 1906 would have been lost in collections of Danish silent film. Other missing titles produced by Ole Olsen include Triste Skabner (Sad Destinies), Tandpines Kvaler (The Painful Toothache), Gavtyve (Rogues) and To Foraedldrelose (Two Orphans), "Rivalinder" (A Woman's Duel/The Rivals), "Gelejslaven" ("The Galley Slave"), "Vitrioldrama" (Vitriolicdrama), "Violinist's Romance" (Violinistens Roman), "Gaardmandsson og Husmandsdottor" (("Father's Son and Crofter's Daughter), Knuste Haeband, and Kortspillere directed in 1906, as well as Testamentet, Den glade Enke (The Merry Widow) and Gabestokken (The Pillory) directed in 1907. Not the only webpage concerned with the preservation of Silent Film, the lost films webpage from Berlin show clips and stills from fifty silent film that it claims are "unknown or unidentified". Luckily, one of Olsen's first films for Nordisk from 1906, Fishing Life in the North (Fiskerliv i Norden)starrring Viggo Larsen and Margrete Jespersen was given Swedish intertitles and restored in time for the centennial anniversay of the studio. Of the 101 films made by Ole Olsen in 1906, 37 are thought to be fiction, or narrative, films, and of these less than ten percent exist today(Berglund).

Although there were many films made before 1910, and therefore incidentally those predating the first silent Swedish films made in Kristianstad, that are missing, not all of the lost films of Denmark are short early silent films produced by the pioneer Ole Olsen. Author Ron Mottram has written that only one sixth of the four reel film The Baths Hotel (Badhotellet) survives as a fragment, it having starred Einar Zangenberg and Edith Bueman Psilander. There are no surviving copies of "Tyven" ("A Society Sinner") directed in 1910 by August Blom. There are no surviving copies of Pontifar's Hustru (Pontifar's Wife), directed in 1911 by August Blom or The Guvernorens datter directed in 1912 by August Blom and starring Else Frolich and Ebba Thomsen nor or there existant copies of the films The Blue Blood (Det blaa Blod,1912) and The Black Music Hall (Den sort Variete,1913), both directed by Vilhelm Gluckstedt. The latter was scripted by Stellan Rye. The film Island of the Dead (De Dodes O) directed by Vilhelm Gluckstadt, was recently included by Caspar Tybjerg as a lost film in his article Distinguished Compositions. Directed in 1913, the film was photographed by Julius Folkman and starred Ellen tegner.There were 31 silents that were given by him to the Royal Library during the year 1913 to begin the Dansih Film Archive. Peter Elfelt donated 20 films a year later, making him with Ole Olsen and Anker Kirkeby one of the original founders of Det danske Filmmuseum. It is more than certain in Denmark that were a seance to be held, Ole Olsen would still relish being a screening room curator and that his spirit would tap affirmatively if a medium ever were to ask- whether or not the ghost of Victor Sjostrom spends the evenings in various theaters of Strindberg. Bengt Forslund penned a brief paragraph about the silent film The Divine Woman (En Gudomlig Kvinna, 1928), directed by Victor Sjostrom under the name Victor Seastrom, One film thought to be non-existent before preservation attempts is a film which introduced actor Nils Asther in his first appearance onscreen, a Lars Hanson film directed by Mauritz Stiller in 1916, The Wings (Vingarne)- it was remade, or re-adapted rather, as a silent by Carl Theodore Dreyer.

There have been several films thought to be lost that have been reported as lost and having been directed by Danish film director that are difficult to be identified as having been directed by Dinesen, if recognized as such at all, in the catalogue of the Danish Film Institute: these include the film's The Spy (Spionen, 1908), released too early for Dinesen to have been its director, Katasofen, En Kvindens Aere and Dramaet I den gamble Molle. The film "The Devil's Daughter" ("Djaeveler's Datter") in which Robert Dinesen starred with Else Frolich, was filmed during 1913 and is listed as a lost film, to which there is no inaccuracy as to Robert Dinesen having been the director.



en A year earlier, in the United States, Valda Valkyrien had appeared in the film The Valkyrie (Eugene Nowland), which irregardless of how possibly faithful it was to Norse Saga and The Elder Edda and its being elected to the Hall of The Dead, the film is now thought to be lost. Originally a ballerina, Valda Valkyrien had appeared in more than six Danish silent films, mostly of three reels of length, before her coming to the United States, including Dodsspring til hest fra Circuskuplean), Direcktorens Datter (Blom, 1912), Hans Forste Honorar (Blom 1912) and The Vanquished (Den Staerkeste, Eduard Schnedler-Sorensen 1912) During 1916 Valda Valkyrien, by then billed as merely Valkyrien (Baroness De Witt, starred in the films The Cruise of Fate and Hidden Valley, both directed by Ernest Wade-both films are screen film appearances of hers also listed as being a lost films- nor are there existant copies of the film made by Valkyrien in Denmark during 1912 entitled Hottets ny Skopudser (The New Shoeshine Boy, Eduard Schnedler-Sorensen) in which she briefly appeared with Otto Langoni. While audiences in the United States were watching Valkyrien on the screen, Great Northern used full page advertisements to popularize the film The Mother Who Paid starring Regina Wethergren "Featured in an Emotional Role" When reviewed, the film was "lavishly mounted and well cast", Wethergren "an actress of considerable emotional intensity...The appeal lies in a picture presentation of a thoroughly romantic tale in which there is no pretense of realism and no mere regard for probabilities than must govern even the writer of colorful fiction." And yet when we look for the film in Denmark we find En Moders Kaelighed starring Ragna Wettergreen four years earlier under the direction of August Blom, photographed by Johan Ankerstjerne with a screenplay by Peter Lykke Seest, a film which had afforded a small role to Valda Valkyrien. The United States lists The Story of a Mother (Historien om en moder, Blom, 1912) with Ragna Westergreen and Valda ValkyrPien, as a lost film along with the 1912 film En historie om kaerlighed (Two Sisters, August Blom 1912) with Jenny Roelsgaard and Valda Valkyrien as also being a lost film. Which is to say that the possibility of the The Man With the Missing Finger first run in the United States from Great Northern in actuality being a script written by Carl Dreyer entitled Den Falske Fingre now at first seems open. Moving Picture World during 1917 reviewed "the celebrated Danish beauty" Valda Valkyrien in The Imagemakers. The picture has a very unusual plot as it deals with pre-existence and tells us of a love that lasted through the centuries." The film allows Valkyrien a dual role, that of an egyptian girl in love with a prince before his death and her reincarnated spirit in the form of a modern woman. "Valkyrien's charming personality never appeared to better advantage than in this picture." Edwin Thanhouser described the film as "a drama of reincarnation involving parallel romances, one in modern times and the other dating back 3,000 years." During 1917 Valda Valkyrien appeared in the film Magda (Emile Chautard) with Clara Kimball Young, of which today there are no surviving copies. Valda Valkyrien has also been listed as being Baroness Dewitz or famous Baroness Von Dewitz with the alternative birthplace of Iceland rather than Denmark provided by author Hans J. Wollstein in The Strange Case of Valda Valkyrien; the library of Congress lists her as appearing in the extant film Diana the Hunter (Charles W. Hunter, 1916) during a year in which she also starred in Silas Marner for Thanhouser under the direction of Ernest C. Warde.

Loves of An Actress (Rowland Lee,1928) in which Nils Asther starred with Pola Negri and Mary McAllister, as a matter of fact, is a lost film. If all that exists of The Chinese Parrot is a still photograph, the caption from Photoplay Magazine, cautioned that, alhtough mysteries were not meant to be divulged, the adaption had not kept faithful to the Earl Der Biggers plotline.

Lost Silent Film, Found Magazines, the four reel missing prolouge to Mysterious Island shot by Benjamin Christensen



There are accounts that Benjamin Christensen's first visit to the United States had been an unsuccessful solicitation at Vitagraph while he was here to also promote two of his early mystery films, "Night of Vengence/Blind Justice" and "The Mysterious Mr. X"; if so, he did not stay, nor did he sell any projects before later arriving at M.G.M. There are also accounts that he returned a third time under a renewed contract with First National, but that he had left Denmark only to return later leaving his projects here, including a script involving the Roman Empire unrealized.

During 1929, his return was chronicled by The Film Daily headlined by "Talkers Cut Attendence Abroad, director Says." One of many articles on the installation of sound equipment in Scandinavia, it read, "Talkers are having an adverse effect on picture theater attendance abroad, according to Benjamin Christiansen, director, who returned yesterday from Sweden. Synchronization of foreign languages to replace English has proved unsatisfactory." Not incidentally, Film Daily later that year announced that "Sunkissed", starring Vilma Banky and director by Victor Sjostrom, would be the first of several "Multi-Lingual Talkers" planned to be produced by M.G.M., it claiming it being by virtue of Greta Garbo speaking three languages fluently, Basil Rathbone speaking three, and Nils Asther being fluent in five languages.

Screenwriter Frances Marion had written the early revision to the photoplay The Mysterious Lady, which was rewritten by screenwriter Bess Meredyth. During the time in between it had been elaborately reworked by Danish film director Benjamin Christenson. Upon first arriving at M.G.M. In the United States, the Danish silent film director Benjamin Christenson had sold the scenario to The Light Eternal; Motion Picture News in 1926 reported a title change and that Christenson had been film a project under the names The Light Eternal and Devilkin and that Louis B. Mayer had finally decided upon its release title. The first film Christenson had directed in the United States, The Devil's Circus (1926, seven reels) with Norma Shearer and Charles Emmet Mack, had had a script which he had written himself. In The Devil's Circus Praised, Motion Picture Classic reviewed the film, "Some of the metropolitan critics were impressed with Benjamin Christenson's first American film The Devil's Circus. To me it was just early Griffith plus a dash of Seastrom pseudo-symbolism. Christenson is responsible for both the story and the direction." Arne Lund writes, "Christensen later claimed that twenty M.G.M. screenwriters were set loose on the screenplay of The Devil's Circus...Christensen stated that he barely recognized the original story after the continuity 'improvements' by staff writers...Christensen's initial story draft for example, set the film in Copenhagen, but M.G.M.'s writers quickly transposed the story." Christenson point, of course, was that the writers that were let loose on his script "altered the whole tone and message." During early 1927, Motion Picture News welcomed Christensen back to Hollywood reporting, Christianson Returns, "Benjamin Christianson, M-G-M's Danish director has returned to the studios from a brief vacation in Denmark and will shortly be assigned a new production. He reports interesting activities under way in Sweden and Germany and anticipated a strong bid for fame by the Russians this year."



The Haunted House (seven reels) with Thelma Todd, Montague Love and Barbara Bedford, was reviewed by Motion Picture magazine, "A most involved plot holds together a mystery picture, which starts out with some pointless, though eerie gags, but succeeds in ending with a burst of screams from the audience...This is of the new school of mystery play, in which there is a laugh for every shiver, so you don't feel you must look under the bed when you go home." Motion Picture Magazine reported, "On the set of The Haunted House at First National. A spooky scene was shot. William V. Mong as the vindictive old caretaker crept up behind Thelma Todd and touched her on the shoulder. The shriek she gave was so realistic that everyone on the set was impressed with Thelma's acting ability, and after the scene was shot the director took the occasion to congratulate her on her film work. 'Oh,' said Thelma candidly! 'That wasn't acting, that was my sunburn I got swimming at Malibu yesterday.'" During 1928 Exhibitor's Daily Review printed, "Christensen Signed- the general manager of production for First National, after seeing The Haunted House, signed Benjamin Christensen, the Swedish director, for two more pictures to be done at First National." "The Haunted House had had a Photplay which Christensen had written himself.

The Hawk's Nest (eight reels) with Milton Sills, Montague Love and Mitchell Lewis was to follow during 1928. Motion Picture New Booking Guide of 1929 provided a brief synopsis of the film. "Melodrama of feud between proprietress of Chinatown cafes. His henchman a cussed of murder committed by enemy, one of the cafe owners undergoes surgical operation to rid himself of scars. Through his changed appearance he wins confidence of his enemy, captures and forces to confess."

Mockery (seven reels) when reviewed by Photoplay shifted the look from director to star, "Lon Chaney's running rapidly through the list of human ailments and tribulations...Mockery is hardly an authentic picture of the budding (Russian) revolution but it is a good melodrama built up to a keen edge of tensity by Lon Chaney's highly effective character playing." The Film Spectator reviewed the film as part of its audience, "We are baffled by what goes on in the haunted house, but we find no less entertaining on that account." From a story written by Christensen, the continuity of the film is credited to Bradley King. A caption from Photoplay during 1927 read, "Benjaminn Christiansen had this elaborate contraption built so that he might get a good shot of Lon Chaney starting downstairs. The title of the newest Chaney picture- a Russian story- has been changed from Terror to Mockery. Its all right with us." The studio during 1927 had in fact in advance advertised the coming Metro Goldwyn Mayer Films starring Lon Chaney, "You'll get Lon Chaney in "Terror" Next, Then "The Hypnotist" Motion Picture News during 1927 reported what would now seem a mystery, "Production work was begun last week by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer on "Terror", the new film will star Lon Chaney. Benjamin Christensen, Scandinavian director is directing from an original story by Stig Esbern. Barbara Bedford has the feminine lead in the new picture....Other roles are being played by Richard Cortez and Johnny Jack (Mack) Brown." Film Daily roc idled a similar account, "M.G.M. Has begun production on Terror. Lon Chaney's new film which presents him in the role of a Russian peasant during the revolution...Barbara Bedford has been signed by M.G.M. To play opposite Lon Chaney I his next production, Terror."

When reviewing the film The Haunted House, the editor of The Film Spectator included the opinion that "Miss Bedford's appearance on the screen have been all too rare. The splendid performance she gave in Mockery, opposite Lon Chaney, should have earned her recognition as one of our most talented dramatic actresses. It is a strange business that does not make more use of a girl endowed so abundantly with both beauty and brains." On the camera technique of Chhistensen, The Film Spectator noticed, "By placing his camera almost on the floor, Christensen gives an eerie quality to his character...the heroic proportions of the characters supplied by the lowered camera gain added effectiveness by the clever use of lights and shadows....Nor did Sol Polito shoot any of his scenes from distorted angles. Occaisionally he placed his camera behind a chair and shot scenes through its back, but such shots were consistent with the usual low position of the camera." Interestingly, it added what would be a wry, and macabre overtone had it been pointed out seriously as having been the director's intention. "There are a couple of slips. Conklin's hat blows off and apparently rolls in the direction from which the wind is blowing. Although we get the impression that it is raining outside people coming into the house have no rain on them. The source of light in the haunted house is not indicated." Unless these oversights were meant to be Christensen's expression of the mystery of "the hereafter". There are many accounts that Mockery was long thought to be a lost film untill film preservation efforts during the 1970's, Rutgers University having inadvertly left the film as still missing on its moving image internet webpage, which provided a synopsis of a film surmised to be non-surving : author John Ernst published the biography Benjamin Christensen in 1967, Today, there are no known existant copies of the 1929 film The House of Horror (7 reels) for which Thelma Todd returned to the screen to film under the direction of Benjamin Christensen. Nor are there existant copies of the silent films The Haunted House and The Hawk's Nest; untill they are found and or restored, the films made in the United States by Benjamin Christensen continue to lurk within the shadows of the silver screen theaters, and although many of the theaters, with all their grandeur that introduced the films are also gone, particularly in Boston, the detectives of film can find them in the world of Lost Film, Found Magazines with each newly discovered poster, still or full page advertisement. The House of Horror, written by Richard Bee and photographed under the direction of Benjamin Christensen, was reviewed in 1929 by Motion Picture News. "If it isn't classified as a horror by audiences it will admittedly be rated a bore...Everything is there in The House of Horror, except the custard pie. MYbe that will be inserted in the sound version. In any case, it will neither add nor detract from the present story; because there is none. First National will install sound and dialouge in this picture...The picture consists largely of wind blowing, doors opening and closing and books falling off the shelves. Even the sequences where Louise Fazendas runs around madly and merrily garbed in 1876 model lingerie fail to cheer audiences. The main action of the story centers entirely in an antique shop."

It need not be overlooked that the Journal of Scandinavian Cinema recently published the article Scandinavian Auteur as Chameleon: How Benjamin Christenson reinvented himself in Hollywood 1925-29, written by Arne Lunde, who looks at correspondence written by the film director. Lunde sees an influence Christensen, "a visionary stylist and innovator" (Lunde), made on the technique used to film The Mysterious Island (1929), although, much like Stiller's having been replaced by Fred Niblo, he had been replaced on the film by Lucien Hubbard. "Silhoetted lighting in a submarine-interior shot also shows traces of a key Christensen stylistic signature." The review for The Mysterious Island during 1929 in Motion Picture News appeared alongside its review of House of Horror with the note, "The picture was originally started about three years ago with Benjamin Christensen directing. After completion of a four reel prolouge, deciding the story was impractical for the screen. Last year, Lucien Hubbard took the picture off the shelf to see what he could do with it. Hubbard wrote an entirely new story and started production. The finished picture does not contain more than a few hundred feet of the four reel prolouge photographed for the first version." When Photoplay reviewed the film Seven Footprints to Satan (1929), it held, "You won't get very excited about this so-called mystery story because you feel down underneath that it will turn out to be a dream. The denoument is not quite as bad as that, but almost...Thelma Todd manages to look both beautiful and freightened while Chreighton Hale makes his knees stutter." The film was photographed by Sol Polite. Exhibitor's Daily Review wrote, "Considerable mystery surrounds the identity of the actor who will play the role of 'Satan' in First national's forthcoming mystery picture, Seven Footprints to Satan, which Benjamin Christensen is to direct. The character in the novel by A. Merritt is described as a gigantic man with a Mongolian appearance. He is the central figure in the story. Christensen, who directed The Haunted House, the first mystery for First National, refuses to divulge the actor's identity." Later, Exibitor's Daily Review added, "A wire from First National's Burbank studios states that Loretta Young has been added to the cast of the mystery thriller Seven Footprints to Satan"

There are reports that the film Helge Indians (Helgeninderne, 1921) made by Benjamin Christensen before his coming to the United States and starring his wife, Karen Winther and Karina Bell is now a lost film. Forsyth Hardy chronicles, "The Danish director Benjamin Christensen, who was engaged to make Haxan (1922), an imaginative study of witchcraft which excitedly exploited the properities of the camera. These expensive films, however, failed to make impressions on the reluctant foreign audiences." He notes that it was a newly completed studio at Rasunda that had emerged with Svensk Filmindustri, a momentum having arisen as the result of the merger in 1919 between Svenska Bio and Film Scandia. In the United States, the film was reviewed as Witchcraft through the Ages by Film Daily who saw the film as claiming that there was "witchcraft, sorcery and black magic" throughout the centuries and that it was responsible for the perfidy of countless souls, "Novel film beautifully photographed is absorbing study but subject rather too grim for most picture houses....The incidents are strung together without any particular story...some striking effects of witches flying on broomsticks, infernal regions, ect, build a supernatural atmosphere that is gripping. Novel, beautiful- but not ordinary house fare." Christensen wrote, directed and starred in the film, entrusting the photography to Johan Ankerstjerne, who had previously distinguished himself through the use of side-lighting and had been behind the camera for the filming of Vengence Night, written and directed by Christensen in 1916.

Author John Ernst published the biography Benjamin Christensen in 1967.



Danish film director Carl Th. Dreyer was in Norway during 1926 shooting the film The Bride of Glomdal (Glomsdalsbruden), photographed by Einar Olsen and starring Tove Tellback. Adapted from a novel by Jacob Breda Bull, Dreyer reportedly shot the film quickly, or quicker than he thought the project merited, before leaving Scandinavia to film in France. The Norwegian Film Institute during 2007 announced the restoration of the film The Bridal Procession (Brudeferden i Hardanger), also filmed in Norway in 1926; the film stars the very beuatiful actress Ase Bye and was directed by Rasmus Breistein.

Professor Ib Bondebjerg sees in Dreyer's style a marked "expressive inner realism". Bondebjerg writes, "Dreyer's own thoughts on filmmaking stress the importance of close-ups and the role of the naked, emotionally loaded face." As Dreyer had film in France, it is of note that Bondebjerg, in the paper A Cinema of Passion, Carl Th. Dreyer- the International Auteur in Classical Danish Cinema, traces the style of Dreyer's camerawork in La Passion de JLeanne D'Arc as more directly contemporary that directly attributable to the montage theory of Eisenstien and a Russian formalist influence. Scholar Casper Tybjerg points out Dreyer's attention to historical accuracy when designing the sets to the film and his having been inspired by medieval miniatures from which he derived a concept of stylization. Tybjerg explains a theory that advances that "filmmakers drew on paintings for their intrinsic visual interest" and that Dreyer looked to the paintings of Pieter Brugel the Elder when conceiving the film. In his paper Distinguished Compositions- The Use of Paintings as Visual Models in Danish Silent Films, Casper Tybjerg sees Carl Dreyer looking to Flemish art not so much to stir audience recognition through the use of well known tropes, but more to fabricate visual effects, this differing his stylistic choices from less auteur films that had been made earlier.

Paul Rotha was an early film critic to notice the stylistic auteur in Dryer's technique, evidently before the film disappeared, or was thought to be a lost film. In his volume, The Film Till Now, Rotha includes a sectioned titled The Theoretical- Methods of Expression of Dramtic Content and writes, "Camera mobility is completely justified in any direction and at any speed so long as the reason for its movement is expression and heightening of the dramatic theme....in La Passion de Jeanne D'Arc, where the quick, pulsating, backward and forward motion denoted the hesitant trepidation in Jeanne's mind...."





Although Karina Bell is now well-known for starring with Gosta Ekman in Kloven (The Clown, 1926) directed by Danish silent film director A. W. Sandberg, she had appeared before the camera under his direction is several ealier films, including The Lure of the Footlights (Den Sidste Danse, with Else Neilsen, Clarra SchronI'm feldt and Grethe Rygaard. Anders W. Sandberg showcased both Karina Bell and Karen Sandberg Caperson in the 1924 film House of Shadows (Moranen). Writing about the film, author Anne Bachmann notes, "Later Danish cinema also occasionally- and influenced by the Swedish style- emphasized Norwegian locations." Interestingly enough, Asta Neilsen waited untill having returned to Germany to appear in the film Hedda Gabler under the direction of Franz Eckstein, but not before her having made the film Felix with Rasmus Briestein. The film was based on a novel written by Gustav Aagaard and photographed by Gunnar Nilsen-Vig, who would later go on to photograph for the directors John Brunius and Tancred Ibsen. The screenplays to The Kiss (Kyssen, Feyder, seven reels) and Wild Orchids were both written by Hans Kraly. In Germany, Kraly had written the scripts to the films of Danish director Urban Gad, including the 1913 film The Film Star (Die Filmprimaddonna, starring Asta Nielsen.

Important to modern authors, Movie Makers magazine looks at the moving camera, flashback narrative and double exposed titles, the use of an image with inter-title, in the film Night Watch (Lajos Biros) looks at the overuse of the moving camera in The Street of Illusion (Kenton), "the camera pauses before a door, opens it, goes through a hall, enters a curtained arch, then another curtained arch, passes to a man and then gives a close up of him." It almost reevaluates the criticism of Stiller's and Dreyer's use of the moving camera from the perspective of 1929.

Danish Silent Film director Robert Dinesen would film his last two films in Germany, both lensed by the photographer George Bruckbauer, Der Weg durch die Nacht (1929) having starred Kathe von Nagy and Margarethe Schon, and Ariane im Hoppegarten (1928), having starred Maria Jacobini. Nordisk film at that time made only one film, The Joker (Jokeren, directed by George Jacoby. It had made more than 350, although short, films during the year 1914.

That Lars von Trier has had one of his works referred to as a Dogumentary is a silent nod to not only Vilgot Sjoman, but to silent film poet Dziga Vertov. Hovering over the journal seems the hinting that there could be later a mention of the work of Carl Th. Dreyer while trying to align themselves with typical literary journals such as Cinema Quarterly, The Hound and the Horn and Film Art. Vampyr, Danish director Carl Th. Dreyer's use of the vampire, in the form of Jullian West, as thematic context, was filmed almost silently, with sound added, in Germany in 1932. The film was based the plotline of ,among other vampire tales, In a Glass Darkly, written by Sheridan Le Fanu. Dreyer's choice of cameraman was Rudolph Matte. Carl Dreyer tips his hat to his having been a screenwriter when quoted by Sigfried Kracauer in Theory of Film, the redemption of physical reality whenever paraphrased as having noted the effect of narrative on the film's images, and their effect, in turn on the emotion of the spectator, the plot articulated on the screen bringing fantasy to the viewer. Film critic theorist Kracauer establishes a necessary validity of film as an experience and concludes the relational is subordinate to the technique of film when kept provisionally a realistic representation of fantasy, seeing realism as bringing fantasy into a camera-reality, "Vampyr, with its cast of partly non-professional actors is shot in natural surroundings and relies only to a limited extent on tricks to put across its vague hints of the supernatural." Film critic and author David Bordwell, on his webpage Observations on Film Art, recently provided a link to the web written by the Danish Film Insitute on the film of Carl Th. Dreyer it covering the directors brilliant silent film career as well as his longevity into the sound era. Peter Schepelern, writing with Lisabeth Richter Larsen of the Danish Institute sees Benjamin Christensen as Denmark's leading director between 1010-1020. The Danish Film Institute has written, "He had full control over the creation of his films, not only as a director, but also in many cases by being producer, author and protagonist." While Danish film director Benjamin Christensen had by 1913 had begun directing with his first film, Sealed Orders (Det hemmelinghstulde X), a melodrama that, irregardless of its belonging to or being typical of the genre of the early Danish spy film, had included the use of montage in his editing, Carl Th. Dreyer had in fact begun rather as a writer, contributing the screenplay to the film The Brewer's Daughter (Byggerens datter, 1912), directed by Rasmus Ottesen and starring Emmanuel Gregers. He was to write every screenplay that he was to direct. Of the film Leaves in Satan's Book (1919), Forsyth Hardy wrote, "In the selection of his theme we see both the influence of Griffith and the preoccupation with the forces of good and evil which has been characteristic of all Dreyer's films." After her having appeared with Edvin Adolphson in the film Brollopet i Branna (1927), directed by Erik Petschler, Mona Martenson in Norway starred with Einar Tveito in People of the Tundra (Viddenesfolk) (1928) written and directed by Ragnar Westfelt for Lunde-film, in Germany starred with Aud Egede Nissen in the film Die Frau in Talar, in Norway starred in the film Laila (1929) directed by George Schneevoigt for Lunde-film from a script adapted from a novel by Jens Anders Friis, and in Denmark starred in the film Eskimo (1930), also directed by George Schneevoight. Danish film director George Schneevoigt continued the beginning of early Danish sound film the following year with the film Pastor of Vejlby (PraestOoen i Vejlby). The Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers during early 1930 printed, "The old company, 'Nordisk Film', has completely discontinued operations because of heavy competition with American and German made pictures. A new company, 'Nordisk Tone-film' has now been organized. it has been producing one reel sound pictures, not running more than from five to eight minutes."

Professor Ib Bondebjerg of the University of Copenhagen with author Mette Hjort has written a concise abbreviation of the effect of the transition to sound film on Danish Film production, "The advent of sound, combined with the negative effects of the First World War, had the effect of radically undermining Denmark's leading role within the international film industry and during the period of classic cinema culture (1930-1960), Danish film was reduced to a minor cinema produced in a small nation in an increasingly global world dominated especially by the U.S. The few Danish films that did manage to penetrate the international market during these years generated interest primarily as an expression of individual artistic talent, a case in point being the films of Dreyer. The period coincides largely with the articulation of the popular Danish genre formulae that were able at times to draw full houses and to constitute film as Danes preferred form of entertainment."







