Ulla Jacobsson Movies
Swedish stage actress Ulla Jacobsson achieved international fame by way of her second film, One Summer of Happiness (1951). She was greeted with equal critical effusion for her serene performance in Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). Ulla hopscotched between Europe and England for the balance of her career; on the occasion of her one American film Love is a Ball, the graceful and talented Jacobsson had to withstand an idiotic ad campaign which tried to redefine her as a Swedish "sex symbol." Long married to a Swedish scientist, Ulla Jacobsson left moviemaking in 1975; six years later she succumbed to bone cancer at the age of 53. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1968
Henri (Jean-Claude Dauphin) is a young filmmmaker who convinces a nobleman to let him use his sprawling chateau to film a movie. The governess to the nobleman's children is a Polish woman in her 30s. Henri successfully talks her into a role in the film, and the two are soon engaged in a passionate romantic affair. He joins the army, but the lovestruck governess follows him wherever he goes. When he tries to end the affair, she attempts suicide. The unfortunate woman continues to follow Henri, who may never escape from her amorous obsession for him. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Dauphin, Ulla Jacobsson, (more)
- 1967
A man returns every year to visit his estranged family and friends in this drama dripping with biting social commentary. His 40-year-old buddies are part of the nouveau riche who consider themselves elite and are content to sandbag it at work. Teutonic sentimentality is lampooned, and the narrow minded are held up to ridicule. Some fine performances outweigh the passages of unintentional humor in this second film from director Ulrich Schamoni. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ulla Jacobsson, Sabine Sinjen, (more)
- 1970
Chris (Bjorn Thambert) is a teenage boy who covets the mistress of his late father. His mother Vera (Ulla Jacobsson) follows her son's mysterious actions and discovers Barbro (Grynet Molvig) has the same attraction for her son as she did for her late husband, who is only shown in flashbacks before his death in an auto accident. Vera is crushed to find Barbro is not only intimately involved with her son, but was also her husband's mistress before he died. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grynet Molvig, Folke Sundquist, (more)
- 1958
Crime and Punishment is Dostoyevsky's story about the Nietzchean student Raskolnikov, played in this 1958 French film version by Bernard Bleier. Raskolnikov believes himself above such bourgeois concepts as morality and conscience, which leads to his murder of a hateful old woman. A perceptive police inspector (Jean Gabin) wears down Raskolnikov's sociopathic tendencies, until the student--who has a conscience after all--breaks down and confesses. Updated and set in Paris, this adaptation of Crime and Punishment has been released in the US as The Most Dangerous Sin. Other versions of the Dostoyevsky original have starred actors as wildly diverse as Peter Lorre and George Hamilton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Gabin, Marina Vlady, (more)
- 1955
Der Pfarrer von Kirchfield (The Parson of Kirchfield) is based on the popular German "folk play" by Ludwig Anzengruber. Bearing a strong resemblance to several other stories -- notably The Atonement of Gosta Berling -- the film stars Claus Holm in the title role. Holm's spotless reputation as village priest is compromised when he befriends unwed mother Anna Birkmaler (Ulla Jacobsson). Throwing caution to the winds, the priest falls in love with the "soiled" but basically decent Anna. Ultimately, however, he realizes that his covenant with God is stronger than his carnal desires. Previously filmed in 1930, Der Pfarrer von Kirchfield was challenged at the box-office in 1955 by an Austrian version of the same Anzengruber play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claus Holm, Ulla Jacobsson, (more)
Faustrecht der Freiheit (Fox and His Friends) was one of the many films in the short, but prolific, career of German auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Fassbinder plays Franz Biberkopf, a financially poor gay man who performs in a traveling circus as Fox the Talking Head. One day, he lucks into winning half a million marks in a lottery. This attracts the attention of numerous swindlers, including Eugen (Peter Chatel), who becomes Fox's lover, gets Fox to spend the money on Eugen, and then dumps Fox mercilessly once the money is gone. Unable to come to terms with how he has been used, and miserable at being in the same place he was before he won the money, Fox commits suicide. The cast is rounded out by El Hedi ben Salem and Brigitte Mira, the stars of Fassbinder's celebrated Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peter Chatel, (more)
- 1951
Better known as One Summer of Happiness, Hon Dansade en Sommar was the most popular and financially successful of Swedish director Arne Mattson's romantic films. Based on the novel by Per Olof Ekstrom, the story revolves around the romance between college graduate Goran (Folke Sundquist) and farmer's daughter Kerstin (Ulla Jacobsson). Their plans to marry are stymied by the opposition of a local clergyman (John Elfstrom). Only after a devastating tragedy occurs does Goran realize the folly of allowing others to make decisions for him. Though Arne Mattson could have spent the rest of his career turning out Bergmanesque exercises like this one, he decided to switch creative gears and concentrate on Hitchcockian thrillers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Folke Sundquist, Ulla Jacobsson, (more)
- 1970
A French couple's marital bliss is interrupted by the presence of a pretty young maid. The husband (Daniel Gelin) is a successful doctor whose wife (Ulla Jacobson) hires Aline (France Anglade), a young provincial girl. She masturbates while the couple makes love one night, and the wife is always pointing out the beauty of Aline to her husband. She becomes his mistress when his wife leaves for three days, leading to the predicable erotic scenes between the older man and the French maid. When his wife discovers the affair, she leaves him. The doctor contemplates sending the maid away in an effort to save his troubled marriage. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Gélin, France Anglade, (more)
- 1963
In this light romantic comedy Charles Boyer plays the enigmatic Mr. Pimm, a man with a Cupid complex who grooms men to be paired with the ideal wealthy heiress, and once heavenly matrimony is attained, Mr. Pimm gets his cut. He has his eyes set on Millie (Hope Lange) for the handsome but somewhat inept Gaspard (Ricardo Montalban) and knowing that love might need a nudge or two, he places Davis (Glenn Ford) in Millie's home as a chauffeur who will help Gaspard whenever he can. Millie has her own ideas about the most irresistible man around -- and he is not Gaspard. Meanwhile, Gaspard agrees with Millie because there is someone else on his horizon as well. Telly Savalas shines in an early role as Millie's gourmet uncle. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Hope Lange, (more)
- 1970
- PG
A young man learns the identity of his father's mistress after finding a teddy bear in the car after his father's fatal auto accident. He threatens to tell his mother about the affair unless the mistress pretends to be his fiancee. They end up falling in love, but she leaves soon after finding out that she is pregnant by the young man's father. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
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)
- 1965
In this tale of espionage and adventure set during World War II, Norway has fallen under Nazi occupation, and a factory is producing "heavy water" (a key ingredient in the manufacture of atomic weapons), under the order of the German military. Knut Straud (Richard Harris), a leading figure in the Norwegian underground, joins forces with scientist Dr. Rolf Pederson (Kirk Douglas), who is working with British intelligence agents to destroy the factory in hopes of keeping the Atomic Bomb out of Axis hands. However, while originally Straud and Pederson are only supposed to infiltrate the factory as a reconnaissance force while awaiting British troops, the English army is forced to retreat from their plans, leaving the Norwegians to destroy the factory and scuttle a shipment of the "heavy water" all by themselves. Inspired by a true story, The Heroes of Telemark also features Michael Redgrave and Anton Diffring. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Douglas, Richard Harris, (more)
- 1962
A light frolic at the beach with sun and sex both foremost on the scene, this standard comedy by director Giulio Petroni is that much better for the comic work of Ugo Tognazzi and Raimondo Vianello as Benito and Adolfo, two undertakers who enjoy a bit of fun at the beach before they have to go in and punch the clock. Also along for the ride are Jean-Pierre Aumont as Valerio and some very attractive women, involved in a series of episodic vignettes about classic situations -- such as mistaken identity. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Maria Ferrero, Eddie Bracken, (more)
- 1959
Intended as a light farce this comedy by Luigi Commencini is a little plodding in its story about a bank manager (O.W. Fischer) who has had it with his buttoned-down, boring job. One Monday he can no longer face the tedium of both his work and his life and so he stays home and rebels by playing with toys and joining in on a radio concert with his own instruments. His erratic behavior does not go unnoticed and soon a winsome psychiatrist (Ulla Jacobsson) whom he knows and secretly admires, is right there trying to help him. The newly liberated bank manager logically grasps this opportunity to press forward his innermost feelings. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- O.W. Fischer, Ulla Jacobsson, (more)
- 1959
In this drama, following the retreat of the Germans from Stalingrad, a deserter is sentenced to die. A pastor speaks to the condemned man and learns that the man deserted to protect a Russian widow who was being threatened from both sides. Still, despite the pastor's best efforts, he cannot save the man from execution. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernhard Wicki, Ulla Jacobsson, (more)
Filmed on a grand scale, Zulu is a rousing recreation of the January 22, 1879, siege of Rorke's Drift in Natal, Africa. An army of 4,000 Zulu warriors have already decimated a huge British garrison; now they are on their way to the much smaller Rorke's Drift. A Royal Engineers officer (Stanley Baker) is determined to stand his ground, despite having only a skeleton garrison at his command. His steamroller tactics are constantly at odds with those of a by-the-book lieutenant (Michael Caine), who feels that a retreat is called for, but it becomes clear that if the garrison is to survive, they'd better pay heed. Jack Hawkins and Ulla Jacobsson are also on hand as an idealistic missionary and his somewhat more pragmatic daughter. Richard Burton provides the narration for Zulu, closing the film with the observation that 11 of the 1,344 Victoria Crosses awarded since 1856 were bestowed upon the survivors of Rorke's Drift. Zulu was followed in 1979 by a "prequel," Zulu Dawn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, (more)
