Viveca Lindfors Movies
Though of the same era as her Swedish compatriots Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, talented and beautiful leading lady of stage and screen Viveca Lindfors never achieved their superstar status due in large part to working in movies that inadequately displayed the full extent of her ability and charismatic personality. Still, she earned accolades and awards from critics and film societies around the world, including two awards from the prestigious Berlin Film Festival.Born Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors in Uppsala, Sweden, she learned to act at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm. She made her Swedish film debut in Snurriga Familjen (1940). For the next six years, she would appear in more films and establish a stage career. Moving to Hollywood in 1946, she contracted herself to Warner Bros. studios and two years later starred opposite Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Don Juan (1948); however, in 1947, she appeared in Night Unto Night, Ronald Reagan's first starring role, but the film was not released until 1949. The following year, she debuted in her first French film, Singoalla. She made her first Broadway appearance playing the lead in Anastasia. Other memorable stage roles include Miss Julie (1955), Brecht on Brecht (1961), and I Am Woman (1973), a one-woman show.
For her filmwork, Lindfors won her first Best Actress Award from the BFF in 1951 for Die Vier im Jeep (Four in a Jeep). Her second BFF Best Actress Award was for her role in Huis Clos (No Exit) (1962). In her personal life, Lindfors was renowned for her numerous romantic liaisons -- this in a decade when such behavior was considered shocking. She claims to have married the first of her four husbands just to prove that a promiscuous woman could indeed marry a decent man.
Unlike many actresses for whom the aging process marks the death of their careers, Lindfors grew gracefully into her latter years, gaining a dignified beauty and an even more commanding presence in such films as Welcome to L.A. and Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978). In 1985, she made her debut as a screenwriter and director with Unfinished Business. Lindfors made her final film appearance in Henry Jaglom's Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995). She died in October that year of complications from rheumatoid arthritis in her home town of Uppsala. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- R
The debut of writer and director Jerry Schatzberg, this cinema verite drama won accolades for the Golden Globe-nominated performance of lead actress Faye Dunaway. Dunaway stars as Lou Andreas Sand, a former fashion model who has retreated to her seaside cottage and is being interviewed by Aaron Reinhardt (Barry Primus), a photographer and filmmaker who helped make her famous and with whom she was once involved. Aaron wants to make a movie about Lou's rise from rags to riches but as Lou recalls it, her seemingly glamorous existence was anything but a Horatio Alger tale. In an addled fog, Lou struggles to recite a shocking litany of casual sex and rape, drug and alcohol abuse, and the anger of her lesbian mentor Paula Galba (Viveca Lindfors) when her romance with wealthy boyfriend Mark (Roy Scheider) nearly led to marriage. Her career deteriorating, Lou even attempted suicide. A former fashion photographer himself, Schatzberg was an apt choice for director of this melodramatic portrait of the industry's ugly underbelly. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Faye Dunaway, Barry Primus, (more)
- 1969
The considerable talents Rip Torn, Viveca Lindfors and Sally Kirkland are largely squandered in this Manhattan-based film. In this symbolic and erotic drama Manhattan psychiatrist Joe Glazer (Torn) is a psychoanalyst who specializes in female neuroses. Obsessed by his work, he begins filming his sessions, voyeuristically watching the results in his off-hours. He interviews a masochist who can only be sexually aroused with pain (Markle) and is willingly fellated by his sex-starved patient JoAnn (Kirkland). He is also pursued by an uninhibited hippie girl and a transvestite. In his focus to help his patients, Joe fails to realize he is falling into his own world of madness. His sexual encounters are a diversion which prevent him from admitting his own feelings, wants and needs, and his filmmaking activities climax with a record of his own emotional background. Nudity and sexual situations prompted an X rating for this film at the time of the initial release. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rip Torn, Lois Markle, (more)
- 1969
The key prop in this episode is an antique porcelain doll, used by Communist agents DeBecker (William Smithers) and Linker (Robert Wolders) to transport stolen microfilm. Once alerted to the doll's existence, Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) conducts a search for the precious plaything which takes him all the way from Oregon to New York State. This episode is distinguished by the superlative performances of veteran actresses Josephine Hutchinson and Viveca Lindfors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Also known as Cauldron of Blood, Blind Man's Bluff is a Spanish-made horror film long on gore but short on logic. Several beautiful models have disappeared, and the prime suspect is blind sculptor Boris Karloff, a surly and secretive sort who produces skeletal statues. Lovely model Rosanda Monteros tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, and of course nearly winds up a victim herself. The killer is not Karloff but his wife Viveca Lindfors, who hopes to sustain her husband's reputation by providing fresh skeletons for his artwork. Lindfors ends up hoisted on her own petard when she accidentally dips her arm in a vat of acid. Yeccch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
After the seemingly random murder of a civil servant, Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) follows the trail of clues to a Communist-funded news service based in Mexico City. What follows is a maelstrom of intrigue involving a possible defector, an eccentric collector of antiques, and a "mole" planted in the American Embassy in Vienna. The acting honors in this episode are won hands-down by the magnificent Viveca Lindfors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Written by Dick Carr, "The Spotlight" is a showcase for Viveca Lindfors in the role of long-retired opera diva Angela Drake. Appointed entertainment-committee chairman of the Virginia City anniversary celebration, Ben persuades Angela to come out of retirement for a command performance. Angela is so euphoric that she accepts the offer, neglecting to admit that she has completely lost her singing voice. Sharp-eared fans will hear a brief but pointed "inside joke" referring to recently departed series regular Pernell Roberts (Hint: It has something to do with Shakespeare). Also seen are Ron Randell as Carleton, Winnie Coffin as Mrs. Brown and Jean Determann as Mrs. Finch. "The Spotlight" originally aired on May 16, 1965, and was rebroadcast as the Christmas offering for Bonanza's 1965-66 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1965
Carroll Baker, the Sharon Stone of the sixties, plays another classy-looking blonde with a sordid background in Sylvia. Millionaire Peter Lawford is about to marry the glamorous but secretive Sylvia (Baker). Before taking the plunge, he hires private eye George Maharis to do a background check on the girl. Whew, what he finds out! Apparently the only sin Sylvia doesn't commit is robbing parking meters, but we have no idea what might happen after the final fadeout. Shortly before it opened, Sylvia was the subject of several magazine articles, trumpeting the fact that Carroll Baker had conducted extensive interviews with real-life prostitutes in order to prepare herself for her role. This apparently left her no time to consult an acting coach. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll Baker, George Maharis, (more)
- 1965
Brainstorm is a somewhat contrived but still well done and frightening thriller written and well-directed by actor William Conrad. Jim Grayam (Jeffrey Hunter) is a young scientist who saves Lorrie Benson (Anne Francis) from committing suicide. They fall in love, but Lorrie's husband Cort Benson (Dana Andrews), who had driven her to the brink of suicide before, discovers that Jim has had a history of mental instability and fabricates obscene phone calls and other actions to create the impression that Jim is unstable. The pair decide to murder Cort, using insanity as a defense. The film has a series of interesting plot twists and a plausible ending, and the performances are generally excellent with Conrad's direction maintaining a good pace and an excellent visual style aided by a good, simple musical score by George Duning. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Hunter, Anne Francis, (more)
- 1964
This episodic drama is set in New York and chronicles the sexual lives and difficulties of three people as they describe their romantic woes. One is an aging fashion model who clings to her young lover because she knows that she will never have another. Two others are married, unhappy, and totally neurotic. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1964
Fanfare for a Death Scene was one of a handful of TV dramas originally presented on NBC's Kraft Suspense Theatre, then reedited for European theatrical release. Richard Egan stars as an American secret agent, on the trail of a vanished scientist. Egan must recover the scientist's revolutionary secret formula before the Enemy catches up with his quarry first. Musician Al Hirt, a hot property in 1964 thanks to his recording of "Java", provides the jazz background score. Fanfare for a Death Scene was first shown in feature-film form in the US on local television, as part of Universal's syndicated movie package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
The President of the United States requires an emergency operation, which must be conducted in secret, after he is injured in a fall. The Seaview is chosen as the safest place for the surgery, but an enemy power has gotten an assassin aboard, as part of the surgical team performing the operation. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1962
Joseph Losey directed this unusual science fiction effort, which has won a small but fervent cult following. Simon Wells (MacDonald Carey) is an American visiting England, where he meets a woman named Joan (Shirley Ann Field). Simon is immediately attracted to Joan, but there's a considerable obstacle in their budding romance: Joan's brother King (Oliver Reed), the leader of a violent pack of motorcycle rockers. King has a barely concealed incestuous attachment to his sister, and he sometimes uses her to lure victims into his gang's clutches. King and his cronies attack Simon, take his money, and leave him stranded, where he's eventually found by a pair of military security men. Simon is brought to the home of Bernard (Alexander Knox), a scientist working on a secret project for the government, and his girlfriend Freya (Viveca Lindfors), a sculptor. Joan eventually tracks Simon down in hopes of winning his forgiveness, but another run-in with King causes Simon and Joan to discover a cave that holds a terrible secret: a group of strange, cold-blooded children who were the products of one of Bernard's experiments gone wrong. The children were genetically engineered to survive a nuclear war, and, as a result, they are radioactive enough to kill anyone who comes in close contact with them. Controversial in its day, The Damned was produced in England in 1961 but was not released until 1963, when Hammer Films booked it as the second-half of a double bill with Maniac. It did not reach American screens until 1965, when it was shown under the title These Are the Damned. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- MacDonald Carey, Shirley Ann Field, (more)
- 1962
Perhaps the most stunning moment in this interesting adaptation of the famous play by Jean-Paul Sartre is the last scene itself when the finality of three antagonist people being doomed to spend an eternity together hits home hard. The three are a journalist who betrayed members of the resistance movement in World War II, a lesbian who tempted a married woman to leave her husband, and a social-climber who killed her son and drove her husband to suicide. The trio are led into their "hotel" room by a bellboy (Ben Piazza) and when they try to leave, they quickly discover there is literally no exit. Thus trapped like rats in a cage, they reveal their sins of the past in flashbacks and soon find that the hell of being forced to spend an eternity together is much worse than fire and brimstone. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Rita Gam, (more)
- 1961
Boxing manager Barney Jurow (Harold J. Stone) smells a rat when one of his fighters is killed in the ring--and an autopsy reveals that the kid was pumped full of morphine. Unfortunately, Jurow can't go to Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) with his suspicions without running the risk of having his wife (Viveca Lindfors) deported as an illegal alien. So, Barney keeps his mouth shut--but this isn't enough for the mobsters who ordered his boy's death, who proceed to kill the trainer responsible for the doping and framing Jurow for the crime. This episode was originally scheduled to air on April 6, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
One major film star referred to director Nicholas Ray as a "loser," because of Ray's alleged willingness to let his more temperamental actors walk all over him. Evidently, Ray had a very compliant and cooperative cast in King of Kings, inasmuch as the film emerged as one of the most disciplined Biblical epics ever made. Jeffrey Hunter is cast as Jesus Christ, delivering a wholly credible performance in this most taxing of roles (never mind the wags who referred to the film as "I Was a Teenage Jesus"). Siobhan McKenna is a radiant if somewhat overaged Mary; Hurd Hatfield offers a properly preening Pontius Pilate; Rip Torn portrays Judas more for the tragedy than the treachery; Robert Ryan (a personal favorite of Ray's) is one of the best John the Baptists you're ever likely to see; and Harry Guardino convincingly interprets Barabbas as a firebrand political extremist. The only false note in the casting is the MGM-dictated selection of teenaged Brigid Bazlen as Salome. The best aspect of the film is its handling of the days after the Resurrection; the "Jesus sightings" are offered as secondhand information, so as to retain some of the mystery inherent in the Scriptures. King of Kings was previously filmed in 1927 by Cecil B. DeMille, with a middle-aged H.B. Warner as Jesus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Hunter, Hurd Hatfield, (more)
This Biblical epic stars Elana Eden as Ruth, who serves in the temple where the High Priestess (Viveca Lindfors) leads the worship of the Pagan idols of the people of Moab. When Ruth falls in love with Mahlon (Tom Tryon), a Hebrew, she must come to terms with his spiritual beliefs, but in time she embraces his faith and converts to Judaism when they marry. Ruth travels with Mahlon and his mother Naomi (Peggy Wood) to their homeland of Bethlehem. Ruth suffers hardship and religious persecution, and when Mahlon dies, Ruth's faith is severely tested. But her belief in God survives this trial by fire, and in time Ruth finds a new love with Boaz (Stuart Whitman). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Whitman, Tom Tryon, (more)
- 1958
The still-controversial L'Affair Dreyfuss of the late 19th century is the focal point of I Accuse! Jose Ferrer (who also directed) stars as French Army captain Alfred Dreyfus, who is chosen as the fall guy for a major military scandal for no other discernable reason than his Jewishness. Wrongly accused of treason, Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and shipped off to Devil's Island. Friends and family members, bolstered by the support of novelist Emile Zola (Emlyn Williams), force a retrial, to no avail. When their mistake and subsequent coverup is revealed, the Army tries to save face by offering Dreyfuss a pardon, even though they will not rescind their accusation of treason. Left with no alternatives, Dreyfuss accepts, returning to France in disgrace. Only the confession of the genuine traitor enables Dreyfuss to clear his name and have his rank restored. Many of the facts of the case that had been glossed over for legal reasons in 1937's Life of Emile Zola are herein presented on film for the first time. The screenplay for I Accuse! was adapted from the Nicholas Haasz' book by Gore Vidal, who manages to make several allusions to America's own McCarthy-era "witch hunts". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Ferrer, Anton Walbrook, (more)
- 1958
Weddings and Babies is an independent, location-filmed romance set amongst the denizens of the Manhattan "glamour" industry. Viveca Lindfors stars as a model who yearns for more in life than just an hour's shoot. John Myhers costars as a photographer who likewise feels unfulfilled (Sidebar: director Morris Engel had once been a still photographer). It's nice to hear New Yorkers talking and acting like real people instead of characters in a woman's magazine; this sentiment was shared at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film was honored with the Critics Prize. Incidentally, the "baby" in Weddings and Babies is future actor Kristoffer Tabori, the real-life son of Viveca Lindfors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, John Myhers, (more)
- 1958
Previously filmed twice in Hollywood, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey was brought to television in this lavish, live, star-studded DuPont Show of the Month adaptation. The story essentially begins at the end -- July 20, 1714 -- when the famous San Luis Rey bridge near Lima, Peru, collapses, plunging five people to their deaths. The victims were the wealthy but embittered Marquess de Montemayor (Judith Anderson); the Marquess's young maid, Pepita (Sandra Whiteside); Uncle Pio (Hume Cronyn), mentor of the celebrated Peruvian actress La Perichole (Viveca Lindfors); Jaime (Miko Oscard), Pio's youthful traveling companion; and Esteban (Steven Hill), a talented young scribe who left behind a twin brother, Manuel (Clifford David). Investigating the tragedy, Captain Alvarado (Theodore Bikel), an intimate of one of the victims, tries to figure out how it came to be that the unfortunate five were all brought together on the same disastrous day. Also in the cast is the celebrated actress/director Eva Le Gallienne as Madre Maria, and Kurt Kaznar, with whom Theodore Bikel would later co-star in the Broadway production The Sound of Music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judith Anderson, Hume Cronyn, (more)
- 1958
Based on the Alexander Pushkin story The Captain's Daughter, Tempest is set in Russia during the reign of Catherine the Great. A Russian ensign named Peter Griniev (Geoffrey Horne), banished by Catherine (Viveca Lindfors) to a distant outpost, saves the life of Pugachov (Van Heflin), leader of a peasant uprising. Allowed to escape, Griniev tries to warn of the Pugachov's plans, but the Russian generals refuse to listen. When Griniev attempts to remove Pugachov's daughter (Silvano Mangano) from harm's way, he is accused of desertion. This time it is Pugachov's turn to rescue Griniev by convincing Catherine that the boy is innocent of treason. Tempest compensates for its overall dullness with a few brilliantly staged battle sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Heflin, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1957
It's "Freud on the Frontier" time in the tension-filled western The Halliday Brand. Ward Bond plays Big Dan, the despotic head of the Halliday clan, while Joseph Cotten and Betsy Blair costar as Halliday's offspring Daniel and Martha. Intensely anti-Indian, Big Dan encourages a mob to lynch Jivaro (Christopher Dark), Martha's half-breed sweetheart. Despising his father's complicity in Jivaro's death, Daniel breaks off his relationship with the elder Halliday, casting his lot with Jivaro's father (Jay C. Flippen) and sister (Viveca Lindfors). The climactic showdown between father and son is superbly and innovatively handled by director Joseph H. Lewis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Cotten, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1956
Cornell Woolrich, whose written works have served as the basis for many an Alfred Hitchcock production, was the author of this Playhouse 90 drama. After arranging to meet his fiancee at a busy downtown street corner, a young man arrives at the appointed destination--only to find that the girl is dead. It is the first of several mysterious, unmotivated and apparently unrelated murders in the same metropolis. Can it be that a maniacal serial killer is on the loose--or, perhaps, have the victims been killed by persons whom they already knew? Directed by John Frankenheimer and boasting an all-star cast, "Rendezvous in Black" was originally telecast live from Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1955
In his first western since 1939's The Oklahoma Kid, James Cagney is a pillar of integrity in the Pine-Thomas production Run for Cover. Cagney plays Matt Dow, who at the beginning of the film has been released from prison after serving six years for a crime he didn't commit. Heading westward, Matt befriends young Davey Bishop (John Derek), whom he begins to regard as the son (or brother) he never had. When Davey is injured during a train holdup, Matt brings him to the farm of Mr. Swenson (Jean Hersholt) to convalesce. Here Matt falls in love with Swenson's daughter Helga (Viveca Lindfors). When word of Matt's prowess with a gun reaches the local townsfolk, he is offered the job of sheriff. Matt accepts, but on one condition: that the crippled Davey be appointed deputy. Matt's faith in Davey proves to be misplaced when the embittered boy throws in with the dreaded Gentry gang, but an 11th hour regeneration caps this "psychological western." The curiously Freudian relationship between Matt and Davey was par for the course for Nicholas Ray, who directed Run for Cover betwixt and between his more famous endeavors Johnny Guitar and Rebel without a Cause. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, John Derek, (more)
- 1955
Director Fritz Lang was attracted to the British period piece Moonfleet because of the relatively unregenerate nature of its greedy "hero" Stewart Granger. Young Jon Whitely, who is in the legal custody of Granger, learns that he is to inherit a valuable diamond. Hoping to get his own hands on the gem, Granger packs Whitely off to boarding school, but the boy returns to bollix up his guardian's plans. Just when it appears that a cynical ending is on the horizon, Granger does right by Whitely. Adding spice to Moonfleet are George Sanders and Joan Greenwood as a wittily decadent aristocratic couple. Lang's first CinemaScope effort, Moonfleet was based on a novel by J. Meade Falkner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stewart Granger, George Sanders, (more)
