The Girl from the Marsh Croft (1917)

The Lass from the Stormy Croft (Swedish: Tösen från Stormyrtorpet) is a 1917 Swedish drama film directed by Victor Sjöström, based on the 1908 novella with the same title by Selma Lagerlöf. It was the first in a series of successful Lagerlöf adaptions by Sjöström, made possible by a deal between Lagerlöf and A-B Svenska Biografteatern (later AB Svensk Filmindustri) to adapt at least one Lagerlöf novel each year. Lagerlöf had for many years denied any proposal to let her novels be adapted for film, but after seeing Sjöström's Terje Vigen she finally decided to give her consent.

It was originally released in the US as The Girl from the March Croft and the UK as The Woman He Chose. However it is today generally referred to as The Lass from the Stormy Croft, which is closer to the original Swedish title. Six other adaptions of the same novel have been made, a German and a Turkish in 1935, a Finnish in 1940, another Swedish in 1947, a Danish (Husmandstøsen) in 1952 and another German in 1958.

Synopsis

Une jeune femme, Helga, met au monde un enfant illégitime. Le père présumé refuse de le reconnaître et la fille se trouve rejetée par la communauté villageoise. Fort heureusement, le fils d'un propriétaire terrien, Gudmund, éprouve de la compassion et réussit à la faire embaucher comme servante auprès de sa mère. Sa fiancée, en revanche, n'apprécie pas et ressent une réelle jalousie. Mais, elle sera reconnaissante lorsque l'infortunée jeune femme apportera les preuves de l'innocence de Gudmund, injustement accusé de meurtre à l'issue d'une rixe.

Actors