“Though horse and carriage are always the same, the driver is not. The last soul to die each year - the one who passes over at the stroke of midnight - is destined to be Death's driver for the following year.” Sounds like a good gig except they left out the “one night is like 100 years” part. Join this episode’s Grue-Crew - Whitney Collazo, Chad Hunt, Jeff Mohr, and listener guest host Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff - as they travel to Sweden for a silent ride in The Phantom Carriage (1921).
Decades of Horror: The Classic Era
Episode 85 – The Phantom Carriage (1921)
On New Year's Eve, the driver of a ghostly carriage forces a drunken man to reflect on his selfish, wasted life.
IMDb
Director: Victor Sjöström Writer: Victor Sjöström; Selma Lagerlöf [based on the novel Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (Körkarlen; 1912) by the Nobel prize-winning Swedish author] Cinematography by: Julius Jaenzon (as J. Julius) Editorial Department: Eugen Hellman - color timer: negative cutter (as Eugén Hellmann) Cast Victor Sjöström as David Holm Hilda Borgström as Anna Holm Tore Svennberg as Georges Astrid Holm as Edit Concordia Selander as Edit's Mother Lisa Lundholm as Maria Einar Axelsson as David's Brother Nils Aréhn as Prison Chaplain Tor Weijden as Gustafsson Simon Lindstrand as David's Companion Nils Elffors as David's Companion John Ekman as Police Constable
Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage is a groundbreaking silent film for both its narrative structure and its multiple exposure visual effects. This episode’s Grue-Crew marveled at the depth of the character development. They’re also wowed by the effective use of up to four-layered multiple exposures. The film also incorporates social problems of the times - alcoholism and tuberculosis - that resonate with ills of the current times. Of course, the crew discusses the legendary scene that inspired the “Heeere’s Johnny” scene in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980).
The Grue-Crew universally regard The Phantom Carriage as a remarkable film. It is currently available to stream on the Criterion Channel and on physical media as a Criterion Blu-ray disk.
Chad, Whitney, and Jeff give a big Grue-Crew thank you to Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff for her insightful contributions to this episode … and for reading the book!
Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. The next episode in their very flexible schedule, chosen by their next super-secret guest host, will be Onibaba (1964), a Japanese film written and directed by Kaneto Shindô, loosely based on a Shin Buddhist parable.
Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the site or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com
To each of you from each of us, “Thank you so much for listening!”
