# The Scarlet Letter (1926 film)
**The Scarlet Letter** is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by the Swedish filmmaker Victor Sjöström (credited as Victor Seastrom), produced by [Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/metro-goldwyn-mayer), and adapted by Frances Marion from [Nathaniel Hawthorne](https://www.edgepedia.org/nathaniel-hawthorne)'s 1850 novel. It stars [Lillian Gish](https://www.edgepedia.org/lillian-gish) as Hester Prynne, Lars Hanson as the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, and Henry B. Walthall as Hester's husband Roger Prynne.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/11912) The film reached the screen only after Gish personally overcame a censorship ban on filming the novel, and it premiered in New York on 9 August 1926 before general release on 8 January 1927.[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/ScarletLetter1926.html)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Production | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. (Loew's Inc.); directed and produced by Victor Sjöström; scenario and intertitles by Frances Marion; cinematography by Hendrik Sartov; edited by Hugh Wynn[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/11912) |
| Principal cast | Lillian Gish (Hester Prynne), Lars Hanson (Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale), Henry B. Walthall (Roger Prynne), Karl Dane (Giles), Joyce Coad (Pearl)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/11912) |
| Release | Premiered 9 August 1926 in New York; general release 8 January 1927[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/ScarletLetter1926.html) |
| Format | Silent, black and white, nine reels, 8,229 feet, standard 35mm 1.33:1[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/ScarletLetter1926.html) |
| Censorship | The novel was on a list of books banned for film adaptation; the ban was lifted after Gish assured church and women's groups the film would be made in good taste, and it was produced with the cooperation of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) |
| Survival | Prints exist in the holdings of MGM/Turner/Warner and the UCLA Film and Television Archive (35mm preservation positive); the film is in the public domain in the USA[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/ScarletLetter1926.html) |
| Later adaptations | Followed by a 1934 sound version starring Colleen Moore, a 1979 PBS miniseries starring Meg Foster, and the 1995 Roland Joffé film starring Demi Moore[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in a Puritan colony in New England. Hester, a New England maid of Puritan background, marries Roger Prynne to please her father, though she does not love him. During her husband's long absence she falls in love with her pastor, the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale. When a child is born to her, she is condemned to wear the brand of an adulteress on her breast and refuses to name the child's father. She faces the jeers of the Puritan community and fights to retain her child; punished in the pillory, she is finally led to the public scaffold, where Dimmesdale confesses and dies of his anguish in her arms.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/11912)
## Getting past the censors
Gish had long wanted to star in a film version of Hawthorne's novel. When she suggested it to MGM studio head [Louis B. Mayer](https://www.edgepedia.org/louis-b-mayer) as a follow-up to her popular *La Bohème* (1926), he warned her that the book was on the list of titles banned for film adaptation, because church and women's groups considered its story of adultery in Puritan New England unsuitable for the movies.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) Writers had previously struggled to make the story acceptable, proposing changes such as establishing a prior relationship between Hester and the Reverend, making Pearl the child of a secret marriage, dispensing with the letter "A" altogether, or adding a happy ending.[4](https://silentfilm.org/the-scarlet-letter/)
**Gish's personal campaign** broke the deadlock. She wrote to Will Hays, the studios' moral watchdog, and to the heads of women's and church groups around the country, assuring them she would guarantee the film was made in good taste; she met with leaders of many such organizations and invited them to read the script and tour the set.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) • [4](https://silentfilm.org/the-scarlet-letter/) The ban was lifted, and the film was produced with the cooperation of the Federal Council of Churches of Christ.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) Before release it previewed in New York to more than 2,000 clergymen, women's club leaders, and educators, who approved.[4](https://silentfilm.org/the-scarlet-letter/)
## Production
Gish's MGM contract, signed in 1925, paid her $800,000 for a maximum of six roles over two years and gave her the right to select her own stories, directors, and cast.[4](https://silentfilm.org/the-scarlet-letter/) Choosing Sjöström as director was her idea; she had been impressed by his work, and he was then at MGM on a special loan-out from Svensk Filmindustri. She explained her reasoning in her memoirs: "I have always believed that the Scandinavians are closer in feeling to New England Puritans than are present-day Americans."[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) For Dimmesdale, production chief Irving G. Thalberg recommended Lars Hanson, another Swede, who had appeared in *The Saga of Gösta Berling* (1924), the film that introduced [Greta Garbo](https://www.edgepedia.org/greta-garbo) to U.S. audiences; Hanson spoke no English but communicated easily with his fellow Swede.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926)
An entire colonial village, complete with cobbled streets and a dunking pond, was constructed on the MGM back lot. Unlike the novel, which focused on the influence of Puritanism on early American life, Sjöström focused the film on Hester and Dimmesdale's forbidden love; the scene in which Hester lets down her hair and Dimmesdale touches it has been called one of the great love scenes in Hollywood history.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) Screenwriter Frances Marion overhauled the plot, shaping Hester to Gish's vision of the character as a girl of "innate innocence…swept off her feet by love…the victim of hard circumstances," and dropping the novel's philosophical and religious digressions.[5](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2004/cteq/scarlet_letter/)
Near the end of filming, Gish learned that her mother had suffered a stroke in London. Sjöström compressed two weeks of shooting into three days of non-stop work so she could catch the earliest train to New York; her mother recovered, and Mayer and Thalberg, delighted with the finished film, gave Sjöström a $10,000 bonus instead of the customary $5,000 for on-time completion.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926)
## Release and reception
Critics greeted the film enthusiastically and it drew large crowds in New York, running five months at the Central Theatre; a contemporary account notes a 19-week engagement whose weekly grosses topped $16,000 in week five before falling off.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) • [6](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/scarlet-letter-1926/) It did less well in the rest of the country. The critic Robert E. Sherwood wrote in *Life* that Gish's performance "establishes her true worth as it has never been established before," and [Carl Sandburg](https://www.edgepedia.org/carl-sandburg) of the *Chicago Daily News* praised a picture that "dares to be poignant and poetic in the midst of sensational happenings such as branding, desertions, seductions, public confessions of sin and moral accusations."[4](https://silentfilm.org/the-scarlet-letter/) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-scarlet-letter1926) The New York Sun's critic noted that Gish, for the first time in her career, played "a mature woman, a woman of depth and feeling."[6](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/scarlet-letter-1926/)
With the failure of the next Gish–Sjöström collaboration, *The Wind* (1928), her days as a film star ended, and both Sjöström and Hanson returned to Sweden in 1928.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) • [4](https://silentfilm.org/the-scarlet-letter/)
## Place in the novel's screen history
Hawthorne's novel had been adapted for the screen repeatedly before 1926: at least six adaptations preceded it, and [Hester Prynne](https://www.edgepedia.org/hester-prynne)'s story was first filmed as early as 1908, in a version involving Gene Gauntier.[5](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2004/cteq/scarlet_letter/) • [8](https://www.filmkultura.hu/archiv/regi/2005/articles/essays/hawthorne.en.html) The novel was previously filmed as *The Scarlet Letter* (1922), and a 1917 Fox production directed by Carl Harbaugh also existed.[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/ScarletLetter1926.html) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/11912) Later American versions include a low-budget 1934 sound film starring Colleen Moore (in which Walthall reprised his role), a 1979 PBS miniseries starring [Meg Foster](https://www.edgepedia.org/meg-foster), and the 1995 [Demi Moore](https://www.edgepedia.org/demi-moore) film directed by Roland Joffé.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) Several retrospective commentators rank the 1926 film above these successors; the Library of Congress film series notes call it "the best of multiple versions of the story," and the Toronto Film Society's notes call it "certainly the best of all the film versions."[9](https://loc.gov/exhibits/religion/films.html) • [6](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/scarlet-letter-1926/)
## Preservation and versions
Over time MGM reedited the film, and for a while the original version was thought lost; the Library of Congress later restored the lost footage.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) Prints survive in the holdings of MGM/Turner/Warner and in the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which holds a 35mm preservation positive and screened a 98-minute restoration at its 2004 Festival of Preservation; the film is in the public domain in the United States.[2](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/ScarletLetter1926.html) • [10](https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/series/2004-ucla-festival-of-preservation/) Reported running times differ by source and version: 80 minutes in the Library of Congress exhibition listing, 98 minutes for the UCLA restoration, 99 minutes in the TCM credits, 1 hour 20 minutes on Rotten Tomatoes, and 115 minutes on IMDb.[9](https://loc.gov/exhibits/religion/films.html) • [10](https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/series/2004-ucla-festival-of-preservation/) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-scarlet-letter1926) • [11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017350/) A restored version with a new musical score by Lisa Catarineau and Mark Northam, running 98 minutes, was copyrighted by Turner Entertainment Co. in 2000; its previous version ran 79 minutes.[11](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017350/)
## References
1. [The Scarlet Letter (1927), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/11912)
2. [The Scarlet Letter (1926), Silent Era Progressive Silent Film List](https://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/S/ScarletLetter1926.html)
3. [Frank Miller, "The Scarlet Letter (1926)," Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/12772/the-scarlet-letter-1926)
4. [Scott Brogan, "The Scarlet Letter," San Francisco Silent Film Festival](https://silentfilm.org/the-scarlet-letter/)
5. [Bob Davis, "The Scarlet Letter," Senses of Cinema, October 2004](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2004/cteq/scarlet_letter/)
6. [The Scarlet Letter (1926), Toronto Film Society film notes](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/scarlet-letter-1926/)
7. [The Scarlet Letter (1926), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the-scarlet-letter1926)
8. [Zoltán Dragon, "Envisioning the Scarlet Letter," Filmkultúra](https://www.filmkultura.hu/archiv/regi/2005/articles/essays/hawthorne.en.html)
9. [Film Series, Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, Library of Congress](https://loc.gov/exhibits/religion/films.html)
10. [2004 UCLA Festival of Preservation, UCLA Film & Television Archive](https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/series/2004-ucla-festival-of-preservation/)
11. [The Scarlet Letter (1926), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017350/)
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*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 1914 to 1926*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license