Buster Larsen Movies

Long but rewarding, the Danish-Swedish Pelle the Conqueror is based on the early passages of Martin Andersen Nexoe's four-volume novel. Pelle (Pelle Hvengaard) is the son of a 19th-century Swedish farmer (Max Von Sydow). Seeking escape from their poverty-stricken surroundings, father and son emigrate to Denmark. Upon arrival, however, they are treated like indentured servants, leading to a profound ideological turnaround for the impressionable Pelle. In the original novel, Pelle ended up embracing Communism. Nexo's political overtones are soft-pedalled in the film, which concentrates on the close, indestructable relationship between Pelle and his father. Adapted for the screen by Bille August, Pelle the Conqueror won the 1988 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Kurt and Valde (Lars Knutson and Arne Hansen) are a down-on-their-luck duo who seem destined to bumble their way through life riding high on farce and outrageous fortune, yet director Hans Kristensen has opted to round out their human traits -- a noble idea, but it is at odds with the slapstick-style humor. Both men have been dodging hotel bills as they move from one place to the next, when suddenly they find themselves (in disguises) mistaken for the buddies of an inventor who has just accidentally blown himself up before his formula for an artificial gasoline could be handed over to the proper authorities. Now people believe that Kurt and Valde have the formula -- and the chase is on. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A 1723 satire written by Ludvig Holberg ("the Moliere of the north") was chosen as the story for this full-length feature film, meant to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Nordisk Film Kompagni, perhaps the world's oldest, continually-running film studio. Director Kaspar Rostrup has decided to emphasize the perceived weaknesses of the upper and lower classes in Denmark in his adaptation of the story. Jeppe of the Hill features (Buster Larson) as the tipsy peasant Jeppe and (Henning Jensen) as the Baron who plays a cruel practical joke on the unsuspecting simpleton. The comedy springs into action when the Baron encounters a dead-drunk Jeppe and has him brought to the castle in a stupor. When Jeppe comes around, he is led to believe that he is the Baron himself, now in a position to wreak a long-desired vengeance for indignities suffered at the hands of his former social superiors -- which he does with an increasing enthusiasm that sets off alarms in the Baron's mental security system. Before mayhem and worse is allowed to happen, Jeppe gets roaring drunk again, and the Baron is able to toss him back into his pre-Baronial lifestyle -- poor Jeppe loses his brief but heady moment of power. Although he is no longer top man on the hill, Jeppe has craftily observed some of the Baron's elite servants stealing the silver, so to speak. Armed with that information, Jeppe may have the last word yet. First-time director Kaspar Rostrup and the lead actor Buster Larson successfully brought Jeppe of the Hill to the stage 10 years before the release of this film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This Danish film's genre is a very unusual one: it is an erotic comedy of manners, and it is intended to be sensual rather than pornographic. Great care has been taken to avoid pornographic elements. Each segment in this film further develops the overall theme. The first segment shows the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and their subsequent putting on of clothing and erotic awakening. In each segment, more clothing is donned. The 1910 episode is filmed in the manner of an old silent film, with jerky movements and a piano accompaniment. A highlight of the film is the performance of Birte Tove. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In Copenhagen, during the hippie era (late '60s, early '70s), the profession of "marriage broker" still existed. One part of the story of this Danish film concerns a romance between a man with this profession and the woman who is the leader of a hippie group. The hippies seek to save old buildings from the wrecker's ball by defacing rather pompous statues and public monuments and use the ensuing publicity to make a case for their cause. The other part of the story concerns the adventures of these unlikely antiquarians. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this early generation gap drama, a former resistance fighter turned coffee planter in Kenya (Erno Muller) returns to his hometown of Copenhagen, Denmark only to fall for a girl half his age (Maud Berthelsen). The relationship is doomed, however, due to the man's obsession with his resistance past in general and the liquidation of a Nazi collaborator in particular, an obsession that eventually leads to his own death at the hands of former comrades. Danish novelist Leif Panduro often successfully delved into middle-age angst, but this film was one of his few fiascoes. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Filmed on location in Copenhagen, Hidden Fear stars John Payne as an American lawman whose Denmark-based sister Natalie Norwick is in big, big, trouble. Arrested for the murder of her music hall partner, Natalie hopes that Payne can clear her name. Following the evidence trail, the detective meets the murder victim's girlfriend Anne Neyland, who in turn leads our hero to a vicious counterfeiting gang, headed by ex-Nazi Alexander Knox. Conrad Nagel, who evidently went along for the ride to get a free vacation, appears briefly as Neyland's American sugar daddy. Given only a limited release, Hidden Fear hid from view until it was picked up for an ABC network telecast in 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi