Lillian Gish gives a landmark performance in this 1926 version of the Hawthorne novel, directed by emigrant Swede Victor Sjostrom (with whom Gish made the superior The Wind in 1927). Something in the Hawthorne lends itself to film (there have been a dozen adaptations): it’s movie size, with powerful imagery and strong contrasts, a subject both theatrical and intimate. Sjostrom’s remains the definitive effort. With Lars Hanson, Karl Dane, and Henry B. Walthall.