Chrisander's first screen appearances as an actor were in German and Swedish silent films in the mid-1910s.

His first motion picture role was in the 1915 Carl Schönfeld-directed German silent film drama Um ein Weib.

[2] In 1917, he appeared opposite the popular Polish film actress Pola Negri in her first role in a German production, Nicht lange täuschte mich das Glück.

In 1919, he co-directed the German silent film Alraune und der Golem with actor and director Paul Wegener.

In total, he directed three films in Germany, before relocating to the United States where he directed two dramatic films: 1927's Fighting Love, starring Jetta Goudal, Victor Varconi and Henry B. Walthall for Cecil B. DeMille Pictures,[3] and that same year, The Heart Thief, starring Joseph Schildkraut and Lya De Putti.