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Sjöström, MGM, 1928, from Dorothy Scarborough, script by Frances Marion. Letty (Lillian Gish) comes from Virginia to a West Texas ranch, is pushed into marrying Lige (Lars Hanson), and is assaulted by Roddy while the wind works the house. She shoots him and buries him in sand that will not hold. AFI Catalog records the released ending: Lige returns and they face the weather together, a studio finish Sjöström and Gish did not want. Wind machines in the Mojave. Gish's hair is a special effect.
In four programmes
The Texas wind Sjöström took to Hollywood. Gish in a shack, sand under the door, propellers in the Mojave doing the acting the mountains used to do. She shoots a man and the ground will not keep him. The studio ending is not his, and you can tell where it starts.
Wanting as weather. Letty is pushed into a marriage and then assaulted while the wind works the house, and the sand will not keep what she buries. Propellers in the Mojave stand in for a state of mind. Watch who pays. The studio ending says nobody; the film before it disagrees.
The late one. A Virginia woman worn down by Texas weather, propellers in the Mojave, sand under every door. She shoots a man and the ground gives him back. Watch her at the window while the wind works. The studio ending was not hers, and the performance before it does not need it.
The psychological case. Letty against Texas weather, propellers in the Mojave, sand that will not keep a body. Sjöström treats the frontier as a state of mind that gets in under the door. Watch the window. The weather wins, whatever the studio ending says.
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