
Victor Sjöström's luminous adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, starring Lillian Gish in one of her most nuanced performances. In Puritan Boston, the gentle seamstress Hester Prynne and the kindly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale share a secret love that, when discovered, brands Hester with the scarlet letter "A" and sets both their lives on a collision course with the colony's merciless moral order. Sjöström brings his Scandinavian sensibility to American material, finding both the human warmth and the cruel rigidity in the Puritan world, while Gish — who personally chose Sjöström to direct — gives a performance of extraordinary emotional depth. The chemistry between the doomed lovers is palpable, and Sjöström's restraint makes the moments of passion and suffering all the more powerful.
Victor Sjöström's luminous adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, starring Lillian Gish in one of her most nuanced performances. In Puritan Boston, the gentle seamstress Hester Prynne and the kindly Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale share a secret love that, when discovered, brands Hester with the scarlet letter "A" and sets both their lives on a collision course with the colony's merciless moral order. Sjöström brings his Scandinavian sensibility to American material, finding both the human warmth and the cruel rigidity in the Puritan world, while Gish — who personally chose Sjöström to direct — gives a performance of extraordinary emotional depth. The chemistry between the doomed lovers is palpable, and Sjöström's restraint makes the moments of passion and suffering all the more powerful.

Lillian Gish
Hester Prynne

Lars Hanson
Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale

Henry B. Walthall
Roger Prynne aka Roger Chillingworth

Karl Dane
Giles

William H. Tooker
The Governor

Marcelle Corday
Mistress Hibbins
Fred Herzog
The Jailer

Jules Cowles
The Beadle
Mary Hawes
Patience

Joyce Coad
Pearl

James A. Marcus
A Sea Captain

Polly Moran
Jeering Townswoman (uncredited)
writer
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