When Letty Mason moves to West Texas, she is haunted by the relentless sandstorms. At her cousin Beverly’s ranch, Letty receives an unexpectedly cold reception from her brother’s wife. Family tensions and unwanted attention from three men gradually begin to drive Letty mad.

Swedish director Victor Sjöström’s most famous Hollywood film continues his exploration of the relationship between the human psyche and the harsh landscape. This time, it’s Texas with its ceaseless wind, which, according to the plot, drives women to madness. In this silent psychosexual thriller, the wind becomes something of a harbinger of death, an echo of colonial violence, or a crushing masculine energy. At times plunging into frankly terrifying scenes with gale-force winds, the film achieves the impossible—it succeeds in scaring the audience with wind without the scariest element of all: sound, the roar, the howl. 

The film was restored by MoMA with support from the Lillian Gish Fund for Film Preservation.