[Encyclopedia of Fantasy] “InKorkarlen(1912; translated by W. F. Harvey asThy Soul Shall
Bear Witness!1921 UK) she portrays the emissary of Death who on a New Year’s Eve comes
driving his old cart into a small town to collect the spirits of the dead.”
The novel has been filmed thrice, first in Sweden in 1921 by Victor Sjostrom (this version is
variously known asThe PhantomCarriage,The Stroke of Midnight, andThy SoulShall Bear
Witness), and later by Julien Duvivier (La charrette fantome, 1939) and Arne Mattsson (1958).
“…she called it 'my Christmas Carol', recognising her debt to Dickens. Sjostrom directs himself
as a drunken reprobate given the chance on New Year's Eve to change his life instead of being
condemned to drive a horse-drawn hearse. This moving, innovative picture, which Bergman
watched every year…”Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness was a primary influence on the gothicisms of
Ingmar Bergman.
“David Holm is angry and destitute, a disabled unemployed glass blower with a wife and two
children. He gets drunk in the bad parts of town with his friends Georges, Pierre, and others. It's
New Year's eve, and Georges tells of the legend that Death has a phantom cart that the dying can
hear rolling towards them, and whosoever dies New Year's midnight must take Death's job on the
cart for the coming year. Georges is so frightened of dying at midnight that he gets lost, falls off a
roof, and dies. David finds shelter from the cold at a brand new Salvation Army shelter, where
pretty young Sister Edith greets him as the blessed first visitor. She hopes to reform the rough
David, and she makes him promise to return to her in a year. David leaves angrily, and in the
coming months Edith tracks him down to learn more about his hostile life, including how he beats
his wife and starts fights in the bars. By the next winter, David resents his promise to visit Edith,
and he goes to a graveyard where he is killed in a fight. Georges rides up in the cart of Death,
wishing to teach David regret. As phantoms they visit David's wife, who is about to poison herself
and the children. David is horrified, but then Georges takes David to Sister Edith, who is dying
from the flu. David begs another chance, and Georges agrees to keep Death's job another year so
David can return to rescue his family. With Sister Edith's ghost by his side, David sheds tears for
the first time, and his wife takes him back in time.
“The appearances of Death with the transparent cart are subsequently all the more haunting,
especially when Death calls spirits to rise from their bodies with the command "Prisoner, come
out of your Prison".
December 28, 1934“The Cart of Death”
Marianne Helweg (translator, scriptwriter).
M. H. Allen (producer).
Ruth Anderson, John Cheatle, Edward Craven, Roy Emerton, Gwendolen
Evans, Winifred Evans, Wallace Evenett, Marne Maitland, Mary O’Farrell, Janet
Taylor, Gladys Young.