Eva Dahlbeck Movies

Karick och Stortlopp translates literally as Love Goes Up and Down. This Swedish romantic comedy centers around a young screenwriter (Sture Lagervall) who heads to the mountains to soak up "local color." Assigned to write a film about skiing, our hero meets a female journalist (Eva Dahlbeck) on a similar mission. A romance follows, on and off the slopes. Very lightweight stuff, Karick och Stortlopp benefits from the presence of Eva Dahlbeck, who though artistically superior to her surroundings delivers a sincere and effective performance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

For his first film in two years, Anders Henrikson doubles as star and director in Nyckeln och Ringem. The title translates as The Key and the Ring, and the story is based on a novel by August Brunius. Henrikson plays John Berger, whose comic interaction with his large family provides most of the film's best moments. As indicated by the title, the course of true romance is affected by two vital props, a key and a ring. The matchless Eva Dahlbeck makes an excellent impression in a somewhat smaller role than usual, though her thunder is stolen by leading lady Hilda Borgstrom. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lars Hard was adapted for the screen by Jan Fridegard from his own novel. Set in feudal Sweden, the film details the iniquities and hardships perpetrated upon tenant farmers. Unfairly accused of fathering a child out of wedlock, farmer Lars Hard (George Fant) is summarily tossed into jail. Upon his release, he finds himself persona non grata among his fellow soil-tillers. The remainder of the film concentrates on Lars Hard's efforts to clear his name and regain his tiny patch of land. Contemporary reports indicate that Lars Hard was well received in Sweden, and equally so in the other Scandinavian countries. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Var Sim Vag translates literally as Different Roads. Director Hasse Ekman stars as Tage Sundell, a busy doctor. So dedicated is Sundell to his work that his wife Birgit (Guna Wallgren) begins to feel like the proverbial fifth wheel. When the couple finally drifts apart to pursue their "different roads," they find out how much they truly depend upon each other. Played more for comedy than drama, Var Sim Vag was another feather in the cap of the multitalented Hasse Ekman, and a box-office winner in virtually every Scandinavian province. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi

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, Rovi

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, 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

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, Rovi

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, Rovi