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
- 1952
Basically a low-budget reworking of Ninotchka, this romantic comedy drama contains a strong anti-communist message as it tells the story of a Czechoslovakian secretary and the government official she works for. Both are loyal party members, particularly the secretary. One day, her boss, having just returned from a visit to the US is assigned to test his secretary to insure that she is immune to the lure of capitalism and materialism. At first, when her boss begins to shower her with such decadent gifts as make-up and a beautiful evening gown, she is shocked and afraid that he has become a traitor. Still he continues to give her such luxuries as bubble bath and even nylon stockings. Much to her chagrin, the woman begins to like these things and sure enough her party values crumble. By this time, her boss has fallen in love with her and rather than turn her in for treachery, he decides to defect to Austria with her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Paul Christian, (more)
- 1952
It's always a pleasure to see ace western director Leslie Selander in action, and Riders of Vengeance is no exception. Originally released as The Raiders, this Universal programmer stars Richard Conte as a miner who leads an expedition of his compatriots to the California Gold Rush. Crooked Morris Ankrum sets about to cheat Conte and his friends out of their claims. The good guys stage a counteroffensive with the help of Mexican miner Richard Martin. Viveca Lindfors once more brings intelligence and charm to a two-dimensional role. Watch for future Gunsmoke star Dennis Weaver as "Logan". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Conte, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1951
Minister Sterling Hayden is able to tend to the needs of his flock, but can do nothing for his alcoholic wife. She kills herself, whereupon the anguished minister turns his back on his calling. He ends up a skid-row derelict and is thrown into the drunk tank. An elderly preacher (Ludwig Donath) takes it upon himself to regenerate the dissipated Hayden. He succeeds with the help of his blind daughter (Viveca Lindfors), who falls in love with the ex-minister. Journey Into Light unfortunately compromises its compelling storyline by moving at a snail's pace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sterling Hayden, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1951
It's a lucky thing that Four in a Jeep was bankrolled by a Swiss production company; if ever a movie needed a neutral approach, this is the one. The scene is postwar Vienna, a city sliced up into four United Nations sectors. Viveca Lindfors, a recent escapee from a Soviet prison camp, tries to win freedom for her husband. American MP Ralph Meeker attempts to help Lindfors, and to avoid falling in love with her himself. Filmed on location, Four in a Jeep was released in the US by United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Ralph Meeker, (more)
- 1950
Rudolph Mate directs this sentimental melodrama about a ridiculously self-sacrificing wife based on the book by Ruth Southard and starring a 12-year-old Natalie Wood. Mary Scott (Margaret Sullavan) is pregnant when she finds out that she has terminal cancer with only a few months left to live. She keeps this information a secret from her husband, Brad Scott (Wendell Corey), who is carrying on an affair with his assistant, Chris Radna (Viveca Lindfors). Mary encourages her husband to pursue Chris as a replacement wife and mother after she dies. While on a final vacation with Brad, Mary dies and leaves Chris at home babysitting their daughter, Polly (Natalie Wood). No Sad Songs for Me features an Oscar-nominated score by George Duning. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margaret Sullavan, Wendell Corey, (more)
- 1950
To cash in on the American popularity of Swedish actress Viveca Lindfors in the early 1950s, certain enterprising distributors dug up some of Lindfors' earlier Scandinavian films. Made in Sweden in 1943, Anna Lans was released in the U.S. as The Sin of Anna Lans in 1950. Lindfors plays the title role, a maidservant in a wealthy but dysfunctional household. Anna Lans falls in love with the family's son, who enjoys her sexual favors but refuses to marry her. The heartbroken Anna drifts from one desultory romance to another before finding redemption. Subtlety is not the strong suit of The Sin of Anna Lans, but Viveca Lindfors is good as always. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors
- 1950
This Side of the Law stars Kent Smith as David Cummins, a man caught up in an epic subterfuge. At the behest of attorney Philip Cagle (Robert Douglas), Cummins poses as a man who has been missing for seven years and is presumed dead. Cagle insists that this deception is necessary to protect a huge estate from avaricious relatives. Cummins finds himself heir to a far-from-loving wife, a resentful brother and a seductive sister-in-law. That's right: there's much more to this than meets the eye. Top-billed Viveca Lindfors brings a bit of texture to the otherwise two-dimensional character of Cummins' "wife." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Kent Smith, (more)
- 1950
A submarine commander is determined to use guided missiles on his sub in this war drama. To do so, he defies the edict of the navel bureaucracy and begins testing the prototypes. This results in personal injury and the death of a crewman. So guilty does the commander feel, that he begins to suffer a mental breakdown and becomes hysterically paralyzed. Fortunately, he recovers, sincerely apologizes to the Navy and is allowed to proceed with the testing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Henry O'Neill, (more)
- 1950
Though he had previously appeared in David Bradley's film adaptation of Julius Caesar, Dark City marked Charlton Heston's first role in a major Hollywood production. Danny (Heston) and his pals Augie (Jack Webb), Soldier (Henry Morgan), and Barney (Ed Begley Sr.) set up a poker game to take Arthur Winant (Don DeFore) for all his money, but after the fact they discover that the money he lost wasn't really his and, in desperation, Arthur killed himself. Arthur's brother Sidney (Mike Mazurki), a large man not known for his emotional stability, becomes enraged when he learns the facts about Arthur's death, and he vows to kill the men responsible. When his friends start dropping like flies, Danny hides out with his girlfriend, nightclub singer Fran Garland (Lizabeth Scott), and pays a visit to Arthur's widow Victoria (Viveca Lindfors) in hopes of finding out who the killer might be. Jack Webb and Henry Morgan later reformed after their first appearance together as criminals when they co-starred in the TV show Dragnet. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, (more)
- 1950
When he's discharged from a military hospital, ex-GI Bob Corey (Gordon MacRae) goes on a search for his army buddy Steve Connolly (Edmond O'Brien). A reformed crook, Connolly is on the lam from a trumped-up murder rap, and Corey hopes to clear his pal. Tagging along is Army nurse Julie Benson (Virginia Mayo), who has fallen for Corey. The rest of the film emulates the 1946 noir exercise The Killers, with Julie and Corey interviewing various people with whom Connolly has come in contact. One of those people, of course, is the actual killer, who now adds the GI and the nurse to the "hit list." Warner Bros. used Backfire to test the dramatic potential of singing star Gordon MacRae, who passes that test with flying colors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, (more)
- 1949
Filmed in 1947, Warner Bros. Night Unto Night wasn't released until 1949. Based on a novel by Philip Wylie, the film stars Ronald Reagan as John, a young scientist suffering from epilepsy (In 1951, Reagan would play another epileptic, baseball star Grover Cleveland Alexander, in The Winning Team). Viveca Lindfors co-stars as Ann, who is recovering from the loss of her husband. Both John and Ann head to the coast of Florida for rest and relaxation, and it is here that they fall in love. While John and Ann contend with their individual afflictions and private demons, their mutual friend Shawn (Broderick Crawford) dispenses philosophical advice. The psychological aspect of Night Unto Night seems dated and simplistic when seen today; even so, Reagan and especially Lindfors are convincing in their difficult roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Reagan, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1949
An established film favorite in both her native Sweden and Hollywood, Viveca Lindfors made her French film debut in Singoalla. Lindfors plays the title character, a wild-eyed gypsy lass who falls in love with a nobleman (Michel Auclair) The plot thickens when the nobleman's son (Johnny Chambot) likewise lusts for Singoalla. Director Christian-Jacque exhibits his customary lack of restraint, which in this instance is a plus rather than a minus. Filmed in French, Swedish and English versions, Singoalla was also released as The Wind is My Lover and The Mask and the Sword. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Michel Auclair, (more)
Though Errol Flynn was well past his prime (and obviously well lubricated in certain scenes), he rises to the occasion of The Adventures of Don Juan with a spirited, athletic performance. As fabled Spanish swashbuckler/lover Don Juan, Flynn spends the early portions of the film romancing willing young ladies and dueling with jealous husbands. Spain's Queen Margaret (Viveca Lindfors) assigns Don Juan to head the royal fencing academy to keep him out of trouble. When scheming Duke de Lorca (Robert Douglas) plots to topple the monarchy, it is Don Juan's eager young fencing pupils who come to the rescue. Though a troubled production (filming was habitually halted due to Flynn's precarious physical condition and by constant changes and replacements in production personnel),The Adventures of Don Juan moves swiftly and enjoyably from start to finish, abetted by a rousing, semi-satirical Max Steiner musical score, which has since been heard in such 1980s films as Zorro, the Gay Blade and Goonies. Incidentally, Errol Flynn is doubled in the famous leap from the head of a long staircase by stunt expert Jock Mahoney. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Errol Flynn, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1948
To the Victor is one of the first Hollywood films to touch upon the subject of war guilt. There are no high-ranking Nazis or gas ovens here; the people on trial are French citizens, accused of collaboration. This being a Warner Bros. production, the cast includes such authentic Frenchpersons as Dennis Morgan, Bruce Bennett and Dorothy Malone; leading lady Viveca Lindfors isn't from Burbank, but she's not from France either. Once past this obstacle, the film raises some interesting moral and ethical questions, but was made to close to the events for anything resembling objectivity. Plus there's a turgid romance between a French girl and a black marketeer, which adds nothing to the proceedings. To the Victor warrants B for effort, C for results. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Morgan, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1946
Sweden's Hasse Ekman was producer, director and costar of the sentimental drama I Dodens Vantrum. The title translates as In the Waiting Room of Death, but it isn't as grim as it appears to be. Set in a Swiss hospital, the film deals with the romance between a terminal patient and a doctor. Future Hollywood luminary Viveca Lindfors heads the cast, but acting honors are taken by co-star Stig Jarrel. The film's biggest drawing card is its vivid location photography of the Swiss Alps. When Viveca Lindfors gained fame in America, I Dodens Vantrum was released stateside as Interlude. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hasse Ekman, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
- 1946
Swedish writer/director Olof Molander emulated his older brother Gustav with 1946's Appassionata. Like Gustav's Intermezzo, Olof's Appassionata in set in the rarefied world of musicians and concert tours. Brilliant pianist Georg Rydeberg falls madly in love with the much-younger Viveca Lindfors (on the threshold of her Hollywood career). Rydeberg soon learns he has a rival both for Lindfors and for his standing in the musical community: up-and-coming young musician Alf Kjellin. The piano music in Appassionata is provided by the accomplished Polish keyboard maestro W. Witkowsky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Georg Rydeberg, (more)
