According to film scholar Peter Cowie, novelist Hjalmar Bergman had been fired with enthusiasm for the movies after seeing Terje Vigen, and became such close friends with Sjöström that he followed him to Hollywood for an ill-starred visit. Bergman's 1910 novel His Lordship's Last Will supplies the comic legacy for a story about the effect of a party hoax on the relationships in an old-established country family. Much of the jocularity takes place between Baron Bernhusen de Sars, played by the famous Danish actor Karl Mantzius, and his valet, neatly rendered by Carl Browallius. A contemporary review from Svenska Dagbladet goes on to comment: "Mantzius's Baron complements Hjalmar Bergman's original creation: throughout the whole book one can actually hear this creaky, jabbering old man's voice; here, one can actually see its owner as a live, splendid creature, vainglorious and petty, weak with age and temperamental...Carl Browallius doesn't give in to him; he is unrivaled as the dried-up servant, not a detail forgotten or put amiss. And around these two stars are gathered a colorful and realistic gallery of supporting players." The finely-chiseled performances and the light, careful direction have given His Lordship's Last Will a bequest as the first real Swedish comedy.