Hasse Ekman Movies

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, All Movie Guide

This rich, powerful Ingmar Bergman film charts the frustrations and humiliations of several circus performers. The circus's portly owner, Albert (Ake Gronberg), recalls a humiliating incident involving the company's clown, Frost (Anders Ek), who discovered his wife, Alma (Gudrun Brost), swimming nude before a band of cheering soldiers. Having concluded his recollection, Albert visits his estranged wife, Agda (Annika Tretow), who realizes that he has made little money with his circus endeavor. While Albert endures the humiliating encounter with his wife, his jealous mistress, Anne (Harriet Andersson), retaliates by yielding to a seductive local actor, Frans (Hasse Ekman), then realizes that she has been exploited and debased. Later, the drunken Frost informs Albert of Anne's sexual indiscretion, whereupon Albert determines to thrash Anne's cynical lover. In the ensuing altercation, however, Frans manages to thwart Albert's bullish attacks and deliver a series of punishing blows. Beaten and degraded, Albert ponders suicide, then decides to avenge himself on unfaithful women by killing the company's bear, beloved by the provocative Alma, whose betrayal of Frost has so haunted Albert. Following the bear's demise, the company departs to another town. Gycklarnas Afton is full of powerful performances and staggering sequences, including the legendary flashback in which Frost finds his wife cavorting nude before the soldiers. In this scene, played with almost hysterical intensity, Frost, dressed as a clown, tearfully carries his nude wife from the water, past the soldiers, and back to the circus tent. The soundtrack's jarring contrast between sheer silence and a blaring brass band, coupled with the black-and-white cinematography's emphasis on glaring sunlight, generate a mood of considerable tension and unease. This extraordinary scene ranks among Ingmar Bergman's greatest feats and readily establishes Gycklarnas Afton as an unflinching examination of the human condition. ~ Les Stone, All Movie Guide

A couple's relationship begin to unravel during a rail trip through Europe in this drama, an early work from legendary Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. Rut (Eva Henning) is a former ballet dancer whose career has been sidelined due to an injured knee, while her husband Bertil (Birger Malmsten) is a slightly prickly academic. Rut and Bertil are traveling though Germany from Switzerland while their friends at home are celebrating the rowdy annual observance of Midsummer; much of Europe is still mired in poverty and disarray in the wake of World War II, and their vacation generates more tension between the two than positive feelings. As the couple's train rolls through the ravaged nation, flashbacks introduce us to other characters in the drama -- Raoul (Bengt Eklund), a military officer with no conscience who has an affair with Rut, and Viola (Birgit Tengroth), a friend of Rut from her days in dancing school who had a fling with Bertil and has fallen into a deep depression over her romantic and sexual confusion. Torst (aka Thirst) was adapted from a short story by Birgit Tengroth, who also appeared in the film as Viola. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The title of this Swedish romantic comedy translates to the old bromide One Swallow Does Not a Summer Make. Producer/writer/director Hasse Ekman casts himself in the leading male role, playing the husband of errant wife Eva Henning. While on a business trip to Venice, Henning falls in love with her boss Lauritz Falk. Hardly the grieving mate, Ekman carries on an affair with Sonja Wigert. By summer's end, however, everyone is back with his or her proper partner -- but only after an amusing and satisfying "revelation" scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmgoers who know Stig Jarrel only for his performance of the odious, sadistic schoolmaster in Sjoberg's Torment might be startled by his endearing and amusing portrayal in Fram for Lilla Marta. Jarrel is cast as a saxophone player who needs a job in a hurry. Trouble is, the only opening is with an all-girl orchestra. Thus it is that Jarrel dons female attire, anticipating Some Like It Hot by nearly 14 years. An enormous hit in Sweden, Fram for Lilla Marta did rather less well in America, where it was briefly released as Go On, Little Martha. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Swedish actress Eva Dahlbeck was one busy lady in 1945-46, though not quite as busy as actor-writer-director Hasse Ekman. Somehow, Dahlbeck and Ekman found time to combine their talents in Mote I Natten. The title translates as Night Meeting, indicating that the film is "noir-ish" in nature. Unlike previous Swedish thrillers, which favored psychology over violence, Mote I Natten plays like an old-fashioned serial, with the protagonists placed in dire jeopardy more than once. Director Ekman seems determined to imitate the best (and occasionally the worst) of American movie melodramas, and he succeeds quite admirably. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide