FILM FILM - University of Macau Library

46 Transition and Transformation
as a comment from Exceptional Photoplays reveals: “The picture is full of typical
Seastrom effects. He is the master of light and shade and knows how to get the
most out of his groupings without using huge mobs.” 11
In retrospect, it is striking that both Name the Man and He Who Gets
Slapped were featured in Motion Picture Magazine in January 1924 and January
1925 respectively (the last issue of the magazine that was devoted to film stories
appeared in September 1925). 12 The aim of these film stories issues in the
monthly magazine was to further exploit the films produced by retelling their
plots in new versions, as short stories, along with publicity photos and ‘behind
the scenes’ profiles of popular movie personalities. As the concept had become
quite established, the fact that Sjöström’s first two films in Hollywood were actually
included also testifies to the importance ascribed to them. The magazine
was independent in relation to the production companies, but in reality, it also
helped to attract new audiences to the films chosen.
Photoplay editions, which had been used systematically since the 1910s, were
another way of recycling film material for commercial purposes. They were
cheap reprints of original novels, released to coincide with the premiere of a
motion picture, with film stills both on the cover and illustrating the text. One
of the largest publishing houses in this context was New York-based Grosset &
Dunlap. In the case of He Who Gets Slapped, however, the photoplay edition
is particularly interesting. Here, a tie-in was produced; a novelization of Andreyev’s
play and the Sjöström film, by a totally unknown writer, George A.
Carlin, which combined elements from both sources. The fact that Carlin was
anonymous as a writer is interesting; usually, the commercial concept of photoplay
editions was based on the successful combination of a well-known writer
and a newly released picture. Here, however, the editors seem to have relied
almost uniquely on the picture, as stated on the front page: “With scenes from
the photoplay, A Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Picture”. (FIG. 3)
For Sjöström’s next Hollywood film, Confessions of a Queen, another publishing
house, A. L. Burt Company, took up the competition in publishing Alphonse
Daudet’s Kings in Exile, with an added explanation on the cover:
“Screened as Confessions of a Queen”. This choice of a non-American literary
source was an exception in Sjöström’s case.
The two stories by American novelists later brought to the screen by Sjöström
during the Hollywood years, The Scarlet Letter and The Wind, were again
published by Grosset & Dunlap, a publishing house which seems to have had a
flair for success, as they published editions of the three films that have generally
been considered the most important during the Hollywood years. The fact that
no less than four of his films were released as photoplay editions also testifies to
the recognition of Sjöström as a successful American director, an acknowledged
part of the Hollywood dream factory.