With live piano accompaniment by Marta Waterman
2:00 pm | 1926 | Drama, Silent B&W | 1 hr 55 min
“Only Lillian Gish could get The Scarlet Letter past the censors of the late ’20s and only she could have made it such an authentic American classic “(Frank Miller). This was Gish’s project and she fought to bring it to the screen, writing letters to Will Hayes (MGM’s censure) and church and ladies’ groups. Gish believed that a refined and thought-provoking film about Hawthorne’s 1850 novel could be made. Her writing campaign worked and the result is a masterful film. She did it with the help of Swedish director Victor Seastrom and leading man Lars Hanson (Gish believed that ) and American film pioneer Frances Marion,who wrote the script. Lillian Gish gives a powerful performance as Hester Prynne, the novel’s heroine whom John Updike called “a truly liberated, defiantly sexual woman” in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic novel of sin, guilt and redemption.
Set in 17th-century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, The Scarlet Letter is an American Tragedy of sin, guilt and redemption that questions the limits of law, the power of religion, and the nature of sin. Equal parts tragic love story and social commentary, The Scarlet Letter brings to life the undying human need to integrate personal morality against societal dictates.
Founded in August of 2010, The Rosendale Theatre Collective, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization is dedicated to preserving the historic Rosendale Theatre
and enhancing the cultural life and economic vitality of Rosendale and Ulster County through film, the performing arts and educational programming.
“Sunday Silents” is made possible by the generous support of:
UlsterCountyAlive.com
Jim DeMaio State Farm Insurance Agent, New Paltz
Just-A-Buck of New Paltz.
The Scarlet Letter (1926) – Cinefamily Original Trailer! from Cinefamily on Vimeo.