Bent Christensen Movies

A prominent member of the Danish Parliament is murdered during a house debate on nuclear energy, and the police investigative unit is all too zealous in their pursuit of suspects. Bent Christensen's crime drama -- based on a popular novel by Paul-Henrik Trampe -- works fairly well as a mainstream thriller but fails as the powerful statement against police corruption it was obviously meant to be. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

Director Bent Christensen dusted off an ancient British stage play, hired star comedian Dirch Passer to do his usual noisy shtick, and released this lead balloon to an unsuspecting audience. The story is familiar: a group of travellers are forced to spend the night in a remote railroad station, but stories about a ghost train make the night less than restful. Arthur Ridley's original play was filmed three times before as Ghost Train, in 1927, 1931 and 1941. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

This provocative sci-fi outing is set in an over-populated, horribly polluted 21st century where child-bearing has become illegal. To help ease the tension and stress caused by not procreating, married couples use robot dolls to substitute for children. One couple decides to break the law and have a real baby in secret. Unfortunately, their neighbors find out and demand that the couple share the baby with them. The other couple does so, but finds that the neighbors get too attached to the infant. They stop sharing their child, and the neighbors becomes so angry that they report them to authorities. The couple and their baby are arrested and sentenced to death. Fortunately, the clever husband anticipated this and made a few plans in advance. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This story was first heard as a radio play, Filejsens droem, and was made into a stage play entitled Alting og et posthus. Mrs. Knudsen (Tove Maes) is a middle-aged waitress in a noisy restaurant. When she gets home, there is little relief, and no satisfaction to be found in the equally noisy and often illegal activities of her no-good teenage son and his friends. Her problem is not that they are misbehaving. Far from it. She only wishes she weren't missing all the fun! This Danish language film has no dubbing or subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

The filmed version of his Danish crime comedy features the stars of the very popular stage version of the play Busybody, Marguerite Viby as the caretaker's wife, and Buster Larsen, who has strained his back and is restricted to remaining painfully in a fully prone position. While he copes with the indignities of his current situation, his busybody wife ably undertakes the chores he is unable to perform. Along the way, she finds a corpse, reports it to the police, and must deal with the fact that it disappears before they arrive. She is then involved in solving this murder mystery along with the investigating policeman, who turns out to be one of her old beaus. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

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, 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

This Danish melodrama filmed on location in Kenya proved somewhat of a debacle for producer-director Bent Christensen, who was widely accused by critics of wasting the public's time on what was rather obviously an expensive excuse for an African Safari. The husband-and-wife team of Poul Reichardt and Charlotte Ernst starred in a story about a young girl searching for her father in "Darkest Africa." It had all been done before -- from Pearl White to Jungle Jim -- and usually with a bit more punch. Amazingly, the screenwriter, Finn Holten Hansen, was a highly respected film critic at the time! ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

This comedy by Danish director Bent Christensen revolves around Harry (Osvald Helmuth), an eccentric old man whose pot of gold comes in one day when he gets an inheritance. Rather than invest his windfall he decides what he needs for true happiness is his own butler. After Harry hires someone willing to take on the job, circumstances conspire to bring about unexpected changes -- even for Harry's two best friends, a pair of petty thieves. Meanwhile, the butler has his own opinion of his job and his new boss. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi