Sir Arne's Treasure

Sixteenth-century Sweden. Three Scottish officers imprisoned by the king escape. On their way they break into the house of Sir Arne, a parson, take a chest full of gold and kill everyone in the household. The only survivor is Elsalill, who goes to relatives in Marstrand. There she meets a young and handsome officer and falls in love with him. His name is Sir Archie, and after a while she works out that he was one of the killers. The ice has closed the harbour; the ship cannot leave. Mauritz Stiller directs the Swedish film, made in 1919; a hundred and six minutes, silent, adapted from Selma Lagerlöf's novel. The closing scene of the funeral procession moving across the snow is among the most quoted images in silent cinema.