{ "id": "epg6dbb51c", "slug": "the-wind-1928-film", "title": "The Wind (1928 film)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent", "label": "Early and silent cinema", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "label": "Silent feature films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1927-2012", "label": "Released 1927 to 2012", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1927-2012" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945: Silent feature films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800", "label": "United States · 1800 to 1945", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent", "label": "Early and silent cinema", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent" }, { "id": "geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features", "label": "Silent feature films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t1800.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features" } ] } ], "excerpt": "The Wind (1928) is Victor Sjöström's silent MGM melodrama starring Lillian Gish as Letty, a Virginian driven toward madness on the windswept Texas plains; adapted from Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 novel, a 1993 National Film Registry selection.", "snippet": "The Wind (1928) is Victor Sjöström's silent MGM melodrama starring Lillian Gish as Letty, a Virginian driven toward madness on the windswept Texas plains; adapted from Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 novel, a 1993 National Film Registry selection.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.early-silent.silent-features.yr-1927-2012", "markdown": "# The Wind (1928 film)\n\n**The Wind** is a 1928 American silent melodrama directed by Victor Sjöström (credited in Hollywood as Victor Seastrom) and starring [Lillian Gish](https://www.edgepedia.org/lillian-gish) as Letty Mason, a fragile young woman from Virginia whose move to the wind-scoured Texas plains pushes her toward madness and violence. It was produced and distributed by [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/metro-goldwyn-mayer), adapted by screenwriter Frances Marion from Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 novel of the same title, and released on 23 November 1928.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) The film was the last silent major picture MGM released, the final silent film of Sjöström's career, and the last silent film Gish made.[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director and star | Victor Sjöström (credited as Victor Seastrom), with Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, and Montagu Love[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) |\n| Source | Novel *The Wind* by Dorothy Scarborough (New York and London, 1925); scenario by Frances Marion, titles by John Colton[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) |\n| Release | 23 November 1928; copyright registered 10 November 1928 (LP25816)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) |\n| Sound format | Shot as a silent film but released with synchronized music and sound effects (Movietone talking sequences and effects), as well as silent[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) • [3](https://www.loc.gov/item/87705867/) |\n| Running time | AFI lists 70 minutes (6,721 feet, 8 reels); other prints and restorations run 72 to 80 minutes[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) • [2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/) • [4](https://movingimage.org/archived-events/the-wind/) |\n| Recognition | Selected for the United States National Film Registry in 1993; restored by the Museum of Modern Art[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/) • [5](https://filmregistry.net/restorations/) |\n| Critical standing | 100% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (9 reviews); ranked #74 in the 2012 Sight and Sound critics' poll[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1023740-wind) • [7](https://films101.com/12886.htm) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n- **Changed ending:** The novel ends with Letty driven insane and wandering into the desert; studio officials required a happy ending before release[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND)\n\n### Story and source\n\nLetty Mason travels by train from Virginia to the ranch of her cousin Beverly on the western prairies, where the wind blows constantly. On the journey she meets Roddy, an attractive stranger who hints at a marriage proposal. At the ranch, the jealousy of her cousin's wife Cora forces Letty out of the household. With nowhere to go, she turns to Roddy, discovers he is already married, and hastily marries Lige, a roughhewn rancher she had previously scoffed at.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND)\n\nWhile Lige is away rounding up wild horses during a fierce windstorm, Roddy forces his way into the house and stays the night, urging Letty to leave with him. She refuses, shoots him when he becomes insistent, and buries his body in the shifting sand. A day of terror approaches madness; when Lige returns, the wind has covered the grave again, and the couple decide to face the wind together.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) • [3](https://www.loc.gov/item/87705867/)\n\nThe ending differs from its source. In Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 novel, Letty, driven insane, wanders off into the desert; according to modern sources cited by the AFI Catalog, studio officials required a happy ending before the film's release.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) Gish always insisted that a faithful ending had been filmed first and that the studio pressed for a happier one; the San Francisco Silent Film Festival essay notes that no evidence exists to support her claim.[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/)\n\n## Production\n\nGish chose the project herself. After working with Sjöström on the acclaimed *[The Scarlet Letter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-scarlet-letter-1926-film)* (1926), she personally pitched *The Wind*, a psychological western by the Texas-born Scarborough, to MGM production chief [Irving Thalberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/irving-thalberg), and insisted on Sjöström rather than [Clarence Brown](https://www.edgepedia.org/clarence-brown), MGM's initial suggestion, as director, and on Lars Hanson as her co-star.[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/) • [8](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/jac.v1i0.4641)\n\n**Location shooting in the desert.** Sjöström had arrived in Hollywood from Sweden in 1923 at the request of [Louis B. Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/louis-b-mayer), having built his reputation on adaptations of the Nobel laureate [Selma Lagerlöf](https://www.edgepedia.org/selma-lagerlof), and was known for using landscape to psychological effect.[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/) He demanded that the exteriors be shot on location in the [Mojave Desert](https://www.edgepedia.org/mojave-desert) near Bakersfield, California. Temperatures soared above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (one scholarly account gives 120 degrees), and airplane engines were brought in to whip up the sand, with nine wind machines creating the film's visually distinctive sandstorm. Gish later called the ordeal \"one of my worst experiences in filmmaking,\" and told a reporter it was \"without any doubt, the most unpleasant picture I've ever made.\"[8](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/jac.v1i0.4641) • [2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/)\n\nThalberg considered the bleak material commercially risky. A telegram to Sjöström instructed that Hanson be clean shaven from the dishwashing scene onward, \"otherwise there will be no conviction of growing romance and certainly no audience desire to see it come about.\"\n[8](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/jac.v1i0.4641) The production itself was international: besides the Swedish director and Hanson, the principal cast came from six countries across three continents, including the American Gish, Australian Dorothy Cumming, Canadian Edward Earle, Danish William Orlamond, and the British Montagu Love.[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nThe film was completed by the summer of 1927, but MGM held its release until 23 November 1928, a full year after *The Jazz Singer*, by which time audiences wanted sound films. It was shot silent but released with a synchronized music-and-effects soundtrack, and it opened too late to be received wholeheartedly as a silent film.[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/) • [8](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/jac.v1i0.4641)\n\n**A commercial failure.** The Wind was a box office flop, simultaneously panned and hailed by critics, and called both an \"American western\" and a \"European\" film. Gish recalled Thalberg's verdict that \"we had a very artistic film, which I knew was a veiled punch\"; after a preview, the only comment Sjöström received was \"Good night, Victor.\" A New York Times review sarcastically claimed that \"yesterday afternoon's rain was far more interesting.\"[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/) Because it succeeded in Europe, not at the American box office, MGM attached little importance to that acclaim and soon canceled Gish's contract, bringing her run as a film star to a close; Sjöström went back to Sweden, made just a few more pictures there, and toward the end of his life earned international fame by starring in [Ingmar Bergman](https://www.edgepedia.org/ingmar-bergman)'s *[Wild Strawberries](https://www.edgepedia.org/wild-strawberries-film)* (1957).[2](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/)\n\nCritical estimation rose enormously over the following decades. The film holds a 100% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, where Tim Dirks of Filmsite calls it one of Gish's greatest achievements, and critics have singled out Sjöström's rendering of the invisible wind through its effects, notably the sandstorm and superimposed white horses representing the blowing wind.[6](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1023740-wind) • [8](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/jac.v1i0.4641) In the 2012 [Sight and Sound](https://www.edgepedia.org/sight-and-sound) critics' poll it placed 74th.[7](https://films101.com/12886.htm)\n\n## Preservation and availability\n\nThe film survives; the Library of Congress's American Silent Feature Film Survival Database records it as extant, and its elements were deposited when the film was selected for the [National Film Registry](https://www.edgepedia.org/national-film-registry) in 1993.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND) • [3](https://www.loc.gov/item/87705867/) The Museum of Modern Art restored the film in 1993, with support from the Lillian Gish Trust for Film Preservation, and screens a restored 35mm print with the original music and effects soundtrack drawn from the Vitaphone discs, respecting the release frame rate of 24 frames per second.[5](https://filmregistry.net/restorations/) • [4](https://movingimage.org/archived-events/the-wind/) • [9](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/9759) [Availability](https://www.edgepedia.org/availability) has remained limited: the restoration is listed as available only on public domain DVDs, and the film also streams on free services such as Public Domain Movies, Fawesome, and Filmtap.[5](https://filmregistry.net/restorations/) • [10](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-wind-1928)\n\n## References\n\n1. [The Wind (1928), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/13353-THE-WIND)\n2. [Benjamin Schrom, \"The Wind,\" San Francisco Silent Film Festival essay (2009)](https://silentfilm.org/the-wind/)\n3. [The Wind, Library of Congress catalog record](https://www.loc.gov/item/87705867/)\n4. [The Wind screening, Museum of the Moving Image](https://movingimage.org/archived-events/the-wind/)\n5. [Restorations, Film Registry](https://filmregistry.net/restorations/)\n6. [The Wind (1928), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1023740-wind)\n7. [The Wind (1928, Victor Sjöström), Films101](https://films101.com/12886.htm)\n8. [Confronting The Wind: a reading of a Hollywood film by Victor Sjöström](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.3402/jac.v1i0.4641)\n9. [The Wind (1928), Museum of Modern Art event page](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/9759)\n10. [The Wind (1928) streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/the-wind-1928)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Early and silent cinema › Silent feature films › Released 1927 to 2012*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wind-1928-film", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wind-1928-film.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Wind (1928 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wind-1928-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Wind (1928 film)](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wind-1928-film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wind-1928-film](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wind-1928-film). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Wind (1928 film)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-wind-1928-film. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "The Wind is Victor Sjöström's silent MGM melodrama starring Lillian Gish as Letty, a Virginian driven toward madness on the windswept Texas plains; adapted from Dorothy Scarborough's 1925 novel, a 1993 National Film Registry selection." }