Andrew Earle Simpson

Kiss of Death [Dödskyssen] (silent film music)

Instrumentation	piano
Duration	32'
Film Date/Studio	1916, Sweden
Director/Actors	Victor Sjöström, dir./Sjöström
Movements	N/A
Premiere	12/17/06, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Performers	Andrew Simpson, pno
Commissioned by	National Gallery of Art
Recording	N/A
Publication	Composer
Performance History	12/06, National Gallery of Art
mp3 sample

Film synopsis and musical notes

This short film (a fragment, 32 minutes in length after reconstruction) is a mystery: a crime drama.  Victor Sjöström plays himself as well as another character who resembles him: thus, two exposures in the same shot are employed to show Sjöström playing himself as well as his "double." 

The essential plot of the story is that Dr. Weyler (Sjöström), an engineer for a mechanics firm, is slowly being poisoned by his neighbor, Dr. Monro, who is being hired by Weyler's competition.  Through a stroke of luck, another engineer who resemble Weyler shows up out of the blue; the two agree to switch places, and Weyler leaves for a rest home. 

Eventually, after many events, the criminals are apprehended, and Weyler returns to his work. 

The film is deliberately melodramatic and over-theatrical, with somewhat improbable and ridiculous coincidences; thus, the music similarly is overwrought and exaggerated, to match the tone of the film.