The Wind (1928)

Directed by Victor Sjöström. Starring Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cumming, William Orlamond, Edward Earle.

Elemental silent melodrama cajoles a harrowing performance out of Gish as a beaten and battered woman (psychologically even more than physically) at an isolated Texas ranch. She’s forced to leave her Virginia home to live with a cousin out West, and is quickly targeted by roughhewn men of varying levels of lechery; one she dismisses, one she marries but does not love, and one fosters an obsession that threatens to turn to violence. The blustery gales mentioned in the title are symbolic, of course—detailing a Poe-like madness that overcomes her—although it’s applied with such indelicate frequency as to risk confusion for camp. Gish’s performance comes close to the same borderline, but she sells her insanity with enough persuasion to emerge more fearless than reckless; it may not be a great performance, but it’s a powerful one. The tacked-on “happy ending” went against the wishes of both Sjöström and Gish. It was also the last silent film made by either the star or the director.

81/100