6. The Phantom Carriage (1921)

Only In Amityville

Episode 6 of Season 2! Host, Gratton Conwill and special guest, Matt Fields discuss The Phantom Carriage (1921).

Day 6

The Phantom Carriage 1hr 46m

The Phantom Carriage was released on January first of 1921. It’s a Swedish silent horror film directed and written by Victor Sjöström. In addition, Sjöström stars as the character David Holm in the film. The Phantom Carriage was based on a 1912 Swedish novel, Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! by Selma Lagerlöf.

An anecdote about the preproduction of this movie involves Sjöström visiting author Selma Lagerlöf at her home and reading the entire screenplay aloud while acting out each part. Upon finishing, Sjöström collapsed into her couch from exhaustion. In response, Lagerlöf offered him something to drink as her blessing of his adaptation.

Noteworthy for its special effects, The Phantom Carriage had a lengthy post production of five months which was very unusual for the time. The double exposures used throughout the film were all achieved in camera, as optical printing technology would not be available until the 1930’s. This means that each time they shot a scene, the camera had to be hand cranked at precisely the same speed during both of the separate exposures.

This movie’s legacy today is found in its influences on directors Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick. Bergman would even go as far as casting Victor Sjöström in his 1957 drama, Wild Strawberries. Another notable figure in film history who enjoyed this movie was Charlie Chaplin who once called this movie the best film ever made, although he was likely referring to the heavily edited version released in the U.S. in 1922.

The Phantom Carriage has:

4.0 on Letterboxd

8.1/10 on IMDb

100% on rotten tomatoes

92% on google

8.83 average CTS score

From the creators of Giant Monster BS: Gratton Conwill and Matt Fields bring you Only In Amityville season 2: Escape from Amityville!

Escape from Amityville is a limited series podcast event happening exclusively during October of 2021! Starting October 1st, we will review one movie every other day. Each movie will be a lesser known or appreciated, but culturally significant, horror movie made within the past 100 years. None of these movies have anything to do with the original tale of America's most haunted house, but in the spirit of the Amityville story, we promise to review chilling and horrifying movies featuring demons, monsters, and various ghouls! 15 episodes in total! The series finale takes place on Halloween night with a special mystery review. Fans of Giant Monster BS and/or Horror films will be right at home with this podcast. Vulgar, brutally honest, scary as hell, oh yeah... it's Escape from Amityville time Baby!

Only In Amityville is an ad-free, self funded podcast hosted by Gratton Conwill and Matthew Fields.

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