Reviews of silent film releases on home video. Copyright © 1999-2024 by Carl Bennett and the Silent Era Company. All Rights Reserved.

By the Law [Po zakonu] (1926)

This intense drama was directed by Lev Kuleshov from the short story “The Unexpected” by Jack London.

In a remote part of the Yukon, a frustrated group of miners suddenly discover that their gold mine is paying off. But Michael Dennin (Vladimir Fogel) is not a stakeholder in the mining operation and soon becomes envious of the others. He suddenly murders two of the miners and the remaining two, Swede Hans Nelson (Sergei Komarov) and Edith Nelson (Aleksandra Khokhlova) his English wife, must stop Dennin by beating him into unconsciousness. At the climax of the struggle, Edith must stop her husband from murdering the murderer. She insists that they must let the law handle him.

Dennin is bound by rope and held at gunpoint. Time and again the woman must stand between the two men, who would kill each other if they could. The melting winter ice and rising waters of the river must retreat before they can leave for civilization and the law.

Edith develops a fearful empathy for Dennin, while her husband remains vengeful. The stress of the isolation on the ongoing situation takes its toll on Edith and Hans, and he argues the merits of an instant justice upon the murderer. She reluctantly agrees, but insists that they carry out a judgment hearing following the rules of British law as Dennin is an Irishman and a subject of Queen Victoria.

The would-be judges are also the would-be jury who become, in turn, the would-be executioners, sentencing Dennin to death by hanging. Edith’s empathy has been swept away by a lapse of resolve and the madness of religion and self-justification. The horrifying execution is, for the couple, followed by the horrific appearance of Dennin’s ghost.

The Soviet message of Western values gone awry will not be lost upon the viewer, with the significant repeated intercutting of the queen’s portrait and the surreal denouement of Edith’s upraised bible and robot-like leading of Dennin to his final reckoning. Eventually, all Westerners are corrupted by gold, by religion and by their selfish sense of rightiousness.

Kuleshov’s direction of the spare production is notable. Reputedly filmed for a miniscule cost, the film nonetheless poses a number of striking images that are carefully composed for audiences to learn something of the character’s nature or the status of the situation, all of which are visually bold and worth savoring. The tableaux at the gallows tree is memorable for its starkness and impressionistic significance. Kuleshov’s prolonged burial sequence builds to a palpable suspense as Dennin attempts to free himself while the couple are struggling with dead bodies amid a raging storm.

The elements of nature play a significant part in the stylistic telling of the tale. The wind and the rain beat angrily upon the burial effort. Dennin starts a defiant fire within the cabin, and the candles of the birthday cake foretell the fires of the Nelson’s perdition. Water from the melting river surrounds and invades the isolated cabin like a deadening shroud, and the return of the earth signals the moment for Dennin’s death.

Fogel’s fascinating face punctuates this intense film, but Khokhlova’s distressing creepiness (with backlit flyaway hair and Olive Oyl thinness) and her acting performance (seemingly restricted to bug-eyed mugging) may evoke some cynical laughter from modern viewers.

— Carl Bennett