Hans Str__t Movies

This biting satire of high-level military corruption concerns the problems of a small town located next to a training camp. Army regulars make a quick profit by replacing an old engine of a farm vehicle with the new one stolen from the base. When the group is confronted by their commander, they cut him in on the profits and avoid being disciplined. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this drama set in a Scandinavian hospital in 1915, the individual stories of three pregnant women about to give birth are presented. The women come from a different social classes and have disparate views about the impending births. The middle-class woman married a servant of a wealthy family. She doesn't love her husband, nor does she care much about her child, whom she conceived out of spite. The baby is stillborn, and the woman sheds nary a tear. The second woman became wild and sexually irresponsible after she was seduced as a young woman by a much older man. Dividing her time between modeling and robbery, the woman ends up sleeping with the son of the family the middle-class woman's husband works for. The son is willing to support his bastard provided the wild woman marry his homosexual friend and pretend the child is his. She agrees. The third woman is introverted. As a youth, she had a short-lived lesbian affair in school. She then fell in love with an archaeologist who impregnated her. He refuses to acknowledge the child as his. This enrages the woman who joins a feminist movement and dedicates her life to removing the stigma of having babies out of wedlock. Of the three, she is the only one who really wants her child. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Jazzgossen (The Jazz Boy) is the filmed biography of famed Swedish showbiz entrepreneur Teddy Anker. During the Roaring '20s, socialite Anker (played by Hasse Ekman, who also directed), diverts his family millions into managing a nightclub, promoting prizefights, inaugurating a movie company, and various and sundry other forms of entertainment-industry largesse. Losing his fortune in the financial crash of the early 1930s, Anker picks himself up, dusts himself off, and starts all over again. The story ends during WWII when, despite Sweden's neutrality, Anker vows to do his bit for the war effort. Several of Teddy Anker's contemporaries play themselves, including musican Karl Gerhard, who originally popularized the title song. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bergman's comic masterpiece opens with middle-aged lawyer Frederik Egerman (Gunnar Bjornstrand) again failing to consummate his marriage with the much younger Anne (Ulla Jacobsson). While visiting a former lover, actress Desiree Armfeldt (Eva Dahlbeck), he crosses swords with her current lover, Count Malcolm (Jarl Kulle), after both men learn that Frederik is the father of her illegitimate child. At Desiree's behest, her mother invites Egerman, the Count, and their wives along with Egerman's grown son, Henrik (Björn Bjelvenstam) to her manor house for the weekend. Before their departure, divinity student Henrik wards off the eager advances of the housemaid by reading from the Bible aloud, but it seems clear that he and Anne are quite taken with one another. After arriving at the Ryarp estate the guests are served a dinner spiked with a love potion which provokes swift reactions. The bewildered Frederik becomes aware of the increasingly intense bond between Henrik and Anne, and the Countess (Margit Carlquist) makes a public bet with her husband that she can seduce Frederik. Shocked by the dinner-table conversation, the strait-laced Henrik retires to his room to commit suicide. In the course of his bumbling attempt, he has the good fortune to learn why so many prefer sex to death. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi