Eva Dahlbeck Movies
A graduate of Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre, actress Eva Dahlbeck began her film career under the direction of Gustav Mollander. Dahlbeck is most closely linked with the films of Ingmar Bergman, expertly etching characterizations ranging from low-life decadence to elegant high comedy. For her performance as mother-to-be Stina Andersson in Bergman's Brink of Life, she won the "Best Actress" prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival. Dahlbeck made her American debut as the wife of supposed fifth columnist William Holden in The Counterfeit Traitor (1962). Eva Dahlbeck also wrote several screenplays, novels and books of poetry, often using the pseudonym Lis Edvardson. She died at age 87 in 2008. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
French New Wave filmmaker Agnes Varda writes and directs the intellectual drama Les Creatures. Michel Piccoli plays a novelist who gets in a severe car accident. He is injured and his wife (Catherine Deneuve) is rendered mute. They move to a small village on an island in order to recuperate, and for the husband to write his novel. He uses characters based on the townsfolk on the island. He meets a young man (Jacques Charrier) who is building a machine. They play chess and engage in a violent fight. The wife gives birth and regains her speech, and it is apparent that the young man only existed in the husband's imagination. The conclusion involves a futher distortion of fantasy and reality as the writer finishes his novel. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Catherine Deneuve, (more)
- 1968
This dark and extremely grim Swedish drama is set at the end of the 19th century and centers upon an imprisoned woman awaiting her execution. Her story is told via flashback. The trouble began when she and her son were tried for murder and incest. Before the trial, rumors were spread about the scandalous relationship. To quell them, the son married another woman. Unfortunately, the young man was impotent and unable to consummate the marriage. The bride tried to force the issue and the enraged fellow beat her unconscious, and his mother then strangled her to death. The mother then tricked her son into confessing to the murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
The mountain slopes of Iceland are shown to excellent advantage in the Scandinavian epic Hagbard and Signe. The story, based on an ancient legend, concerns Hagbard (Oleg Vidov), the son of a slain Norse king. Seeking revenge against the rival clan responsible for the killing, Hagbard calms down long enough to establish a truce. He also falls in love with Signe (Gitte Haenning), daughter of his onetime enemy. Signe's former beau, sizzling with jealousy, breaks the truce and makes it appear that Hagbard was responsible. The young prince escapes, but returns disguised as a woman to his beloved Signe. Thanks to a treacherous handmaiden, both lovers are imprisoned and sentenced to be hanged. Rather than undergo this final ignominy, Hagbard and Signe enter into a suicide pact. A Danish/ Swedish/ Icelandic coproduction, Hagbard and Signe was released throughout Scandinavia as Den Rode Kappe, Den Rodda Kappan and Rautha Skikkjan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gitte Haenning, Oleg Vidov, (more)
- 1967
In this heavy drama, a woman goes on a tumultuous train ride to South America, has a number of affairs, get involved in a murder and finds herself in a brothel. Later she finds herself pursued by one of her train conquests as she returns to New York to become a star dancer. Time passes and she boards another train. Here she is assaulted by a masked man who demands that she take off her clothes. In the morning she wakes up alone. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harriet Andersson, Erick Wedersøe, (more)
- 1965
This erotic murder mystery finds a wealthy old man despised by his family. When he is murdered, the disinherited family members are the prime suspects. The main focus of the film is Lotte Tarp, who appears in various states of undress and makes love in a few scene that have little to do with the plot. The film seems to suffer from bad editing and dubbing, with the nudity being one of the only redeeming qualities of this disjointed exploitation feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lotte Tarp, Anders Henrikson, (more)
- 1964
What is so rare, and cherishable, as an Ingmar Bergman comedy? All These Women concerns the sexual misadventures of cello-playing Jarl Kulle. Amidst his many romantic pursuits, the egotistical Kulle endeavors to get his life story published, "bribing" a writer by agreeing to perform the latter's musical compositions. Bergman regulars Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson and Bibi Andersson costar in All These Women, while the screenplay was cowritten by another stalwart member of the director's stock company, Erland Josephson. Originally titled For Att Inte Talla om alla dessa Kvindor, All These Women is better known in English-speaking countries as Now About All These Women. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bibi Andersson, Carl Billquist, (more)
- 1964
This plodding drama has the female manager of a laundry fighting her lesbian leanings towards one of her employees. Marta (Eva Dahlbeck) has eyes for Rike (Gio Petre), a younger woman plagued by promiscuity, alcoholism and thoughts of suicide. When Rike tells the other women her boss made a move on her, the business is halted by a worker revolt. Xenia (Ruth Kasdan) is the Nazi concentration camp survivor who Marta saves when the other women attack her after a hysterical outburst. Slight male romantic interest comes in the form of a young shipping clerk (Per Myhrberg) who often tries to flirt with the women individually but is afraid of them in a group situation. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Dahlbeck, Isa Quensel, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harriet Andersson, Gunnel Lindblom, (more)
In this tense espionage drama set in 1942, William Holden plays Eric Erickson, an American-born Swede who is put on the Allied blacklist for trading oil with the Nazis. Collins (Hugh Griffith), a British intelligence agent, offers to expunge Erickson's name from the blacklist after the war in return for information on the Nazis. Erickson agrees to the plan and proceeds to make it look as if he is pro-Nazi. This subterfuge causes him to be branded a traitor, and his wife, believing Eric to be a Nazi, walks out on him. Nevertheless, Eric continues with his deceit and makes the Germans think that he is planning to construct an oil refinery in Sweden to serve as a fuel supply for Germany. As a result he is allowed entrance to four German oil refinery, and he passes on the information to Collins. But Eric is being put under surveillance by the Nazis. They discover that Eric's lover, Marianne (Lilli Palmer) is working for the Allies. Suddenly both Marianne and Eric are arrested and thrown into Moabit Prison -- with dire consequences for both of them. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Holden, Lilli Palmer, (more)
- 1960
A Matter of Morals is the usual boiling pot of intrigue and double-dealings that reveals how once an imaginary line is crossed, morality can slide inexorably downhill. Alan Kennebeck (Patrick O'Neal) sets off in relative innocence to supervise his bank's million-dollar loan to a Swedish manufacturer. Since the boss is gone at the moment, Alan deals with the sleazy manager Erik Waldeman (Mogens Wieth), who happens to be embezzling money from the company. Unfortunately, Alan falls in love with Erik's sister-in-law Anita Anderson (Maj-Britt Nilsson), and with the help of Erik, his slide into moral degeneracy begins. Alan will do anything, anything at all to win Anita's love. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick O'Neal, Maj-Britt Nilsson, (more)
- 1958
Brink of Life (original Swedish title: Nara Livet) can be described as an Ingmar Bergman potboiler--keeping in mind that a potboiler from Bergman is better than a major production from almost anyone else. Eva Dahlbeck, Ingrid Thulin and Bibi Andersson portray three mothers in a maternity ward. In the course of a few days, each woman reveals to the others their life stories and intimate thoughts. And each wrestles with the decision whether or not to keep their babies or give them up for adoption. Brink of Life was adapted by Bergman from an original story by Ulla Isaakson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Thulin, Eva Dahlbeck, (more)
- 1955
Not even Ingmar Bergman was prone to discuss his obscure 1955 production Dreams. While on vacation, photo agency owner Susanne (Eva Dahlbeck) hopes to rendezvous with her married lover. The man's wife puts the kibosh on this, whereupon Susanne enters into an affair with diplomat Sanderby Gunnar Bjornstrand. This liaison ends unhappily, leaving her sadder and wiser at vacation's end. So annoyingly confusing is Dreams that at times it resembles a Woody Allen parody of Bergman, rather than the genuine article. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harriet Andersson, Eva Dahlbeck, (more)
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Dahlbeck, Ulla Jacobsson, (more)
- 1954
En Lektion i Kärlek constitutes one of Ingmar Bergman's more overtly entertaining films. In this highly engaging comedy, Bergman reunites Gunnar Bjornstrand and Eva Dahlbeck, who had already teamed to great effect in the final, comic episode of Secrets of Women (1952), and he once again casts them as an amusingly antagonistic husband and wife. Bjornstrand's character, David Erneman, is a successful gynecologist who has jeopardized his sixteen-year marriage by entering into an affair with one of his patients. In retaliation, his wife, Marianne, departs for Copenhagen to revive relations with a former fiancé. David initially seems only slightly disturbed by his wife's action, but when his affair ends and he enjoys an afternoon with his inscrutable daughter (Harriet Andersson, in an especially plucky turn), he determines to embark for Copenhagen and win back his wife. But his initial efforts at a reunion hardly bring him success, and only after a barroom altercation with his brutish rival does David seem to rekindle his wife's affection for him. En Lektion i Kärlek is a pivotal film in the Bergman canon, reviving his fortunes after the critics' rejection of Gycklarnas Afton (Sawdust and Tinsel) (1953) and spurring him toward his comic masterpiece, Sommarnattens Leende (Smiles of a Summer Night) (1955). Bergman came to regard En Lektion i Kärlek as a divertissement, but the film is of a greater magnitude than usual comedies of domestic life, and Bergman concludes it with the endearing image of Cupid strolling past the hotel room of the reunited couple. ~ Les Stone, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gunnar Björnstrand, Eva Dahlbeck, (more)
- 1953
The Swiss-English The Village strives for accuracy by having each cast member speak in his or her own native tongue, a la The Longest Day. Set during WW II, the film concerns itself with 200 Jewish war orphans, living out the war in a Swiss "children's village." Having been traumatized by their experiences, the kids have trouble responding to kindness and generosity. It is up to the village supervisors (John Justin and Eva Dahlbeck) to restore the orphans' faith in humanity. And along the way, the two adults happen to fall in love. Considering recent revelations about Switzerland's true role in WW II (which was not always neutral, and sometimes not very altruistic), The Village can be viewed today as a relic of a more innocent filmmaking era. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Justin, Eva Dahlbeck, (more)
- 1952
In this multi-faceted Ingmar Bergman film, rich in dramatic and comic elements, three wives pass time in a summer house, awaiting the returns of their husbands, by entertaining each other with recollections of past marital traumas. In the first recollection, the sexually unfulfilled Rakel (Anita Bjork) shares a bathhouse, and more, with a former lover, Kaj (Jarl Kulle). When her emotionally withdrawn husband (Karl-Arne Holmsten), an antiques collector, returns and discovers the incident, he retreats to a garden hut and vows to kill himself. But he is dissuaded from self-destruction by his older brother, who blithely reassures him that an unfaithful wife is better than no wife! The narrator of this episode wearily allows that her husband is little more than a child. Marta (Maj-Brit Nilsson), the storytelling wife of the second episode, recalls her love affair and marriage to a Parisian artist (Birger Malmsten) whose family disapproved of the relationship. Included in her tale is a vivid child birthing. The third episode is a comic classic in which Bergman regulars Eva Dahlbeck and Gunnar Bjornstrand play emotionally estranged spouses who rekindle their marriage while trapped in an elevator. Kvinnors Väntan, which closes with the resolution of a framing tale involving the elopement of two younger lovers, shows Bergman in complete mastery of the film medium. Whether manipulating close-ups during an emotional give-and-take seduction or employing symbolic imagery to emphasize the joy of becoming a parent or merely allowing consummate pros to indulge in slapstick, he proves himself unfailingly adept at all facets of filmmaking. This is one of several lesser-known but nonetheless impressive Bergman films from the mid-1950s. ~ Les Stone, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Dahlbeck, Maj-Britt Nilsson, (more)
- 1949
Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjoberg's Bara en Mor takes place in a Statare, a farming community where the workers and their families were reduced to virtual serfdom by the landowners. The director uses this setting to decry the restrictive class structure that still existed in Sweden as late as the 1930s. Rya-Rya, the central character played by Eva Dahlbeck, is the mother of a large and ever-expanding brood. Rya-Rya must not only worry about putting food in the mouths of her children, but also reaching the inevitable day when she will have outgrown her usefulness to the landlords -- and must face the loss of her home and land. The drama is heightened by Rya-Rya's passion for two different men. Bara en Mor contained a bit of nudity that caused the film some problems when it was released in the U.S. as Only a Mother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Dahlbeck, Ulf Palme, (more)
- 1949
Eva Dahlbeck carries the dramatic weight of the Swedish Flickan Fran Fjellbyn. Set in Sweden's mountainous northern regions, the story concerns a group of villagers who are plagued with one misfortune after another. At long last, they decide to seek out a better life in America. This little-known effort might prove to be an excellent companion piece to Jan Troell's The Emigrants. The English-language translation of the film's title is Girl From the Mountain Village. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eva Dahlbeck, Bengt Blomgren, (more)
- 1949
Filmed in 1948, Swedish filmmaker Gustav Molander's Eva gained an American release the following year. The eponymous Eva, played by Eva Stiberg, is the cast-off girlfriend of headstrong railroad engineer Bo (Birger Malmsten). When Bo's new bride is killed in a train accident, he returns to faithful Eva. Out of tragedy blossoms a new life for both hero and heroine. Unlike such previous Molander protegees as Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, Eva Stiberg did not go on to a particularly stellar career. Eva should not be confused with the 1962 French film of the same name, though both contain strikingly similar plot elements. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Birger Malmsten, Eva Dahlbeck, (more)
