The Girl from the Marsh Croft
About The Girl from the Marsh Croft
Helga (Greta Almroth) takes Peter Martenson, the father of her child, to court, then drops the charge when he is about to swear a false oath. Gudmund Erlandson (Lars Hanson) admires that and gets his parents to take her in as a servant, though he is engaged to Hildur (Karin Molander), a wealthy neighbor's daughter. A drunken night ends with a man murdered. Believing he did it, Gudmund confesses on the wedding morning, and Hildur turns away. Helga can prove he is innocent and tries to send him back to Hildur, but he marries Helga instead.
Cast & crew
More about The Girl from the Marsh Croft
Charles Magnusson produced Victor Sjöström's first Selma Lagerlöf film for A-B Svenska Biografteatern, after she saw Terje Vigen and agreed to let the company adapt at least one of her books a year. Ester Julin and Sjöström wrote the screenplay; Silent Era spells the co-writer Ester Juhlin. The shoot ran from 15 June through 25 July 1917, and the film opened on 10 September 1917.
Themes
Background
Lagerlöf published Tösen från Stormyrtorpet in 1908. She was the first woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and this was the first film taken from one of her books.
Look
Henrik Jaenzon photographed the film during the June and July 1917 shoot.
Music
Silent, with Swedish intertitles.
Preservation
Silent Era records that a print exists.
Notes
- The plot names above are the English forms used in a 1917 magazine synopsis. Silent Era spells the son's name Gudmund Erlandsson.
- William Larsson and Thekla Borgh play Helga's parents. Georg Blomstedt is Hildur's father. Hjalmar Selander and Concordia Selander play Gudmund's parents. Nils Aréhn is the judge. Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson and Gösta Cederlund are also billed.
- Axel Esbensen designed the production.
- Norway saw it on 5 December 1917, Denmark on 22 May 1918, Finland on 21 October 1918, and the United States on 4 March 1919.
- The American release title was The Girl from the March Croft. In Britain it was The Woman He Chose.
- Other films of the 1908 novella include a German and a Turkish picture in 1935, a Finnish one in 1940, a Swedish one in 1947, the Danish Husmandstøsen in 1952, and another German film in 1958.
Scenes
- Helga withdraws the case as Peter is about to swear he is not the father.
- Gudmund confesses on the morning he is to marry Hildur.
- Once his innocence is proved, he marries Helga.
Influenced by
- Selma Lagerlöf's 1908 novella Tösen från Stormyrtorpet
- Terje Vigen (1917), which persuaded Lagerlöf to license her books
