Gustaf Molander Movies
Swedish filmmaker Gustaf Molander is best known outside his native country for Intermezzo (1936), a romantic outing that launched the international career of his discovery, Ingrid Bergman. Molander started out as an actor in Finnish and Swedish stage productions in 1911 following formal training at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theater. He began co-writing scripts in 1916 and worked closely with filmmakers Sjöström and Stiller. Molander made his directorial debut in 1920 and continued writing his own scripts and directing films through the early '70s. Karin Molander, his first wife, was a popular star of silent films. His younger brother, Olof Molander, also became a filmmaker. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1980
- PG
After displaying his easygoing charm in a number of television appearances and a showy supporting role in The Electric Horseman, Willie Nelson scored his first leading role in this romantic comedy-drama in which he (appropriately enough) plays a musician. Buck Bonham (Nelson) is a country singer/songwriter with a loyal following in his native Texas and the neighboring Western states. However, Buck hasn't yet had the hit record that would make him a star nationwide; in the meantime, Buck and his band keep up a busy tour schedule, much to the annoyance of his wife, Viv (Dyan Cannon), and son, Jamie (Joey Floyd), who would like to see Buck at home every once in a while. As Buck wonders if he should press on with his musical career or call it quits, his close friend and longtime guitarist Garland Ramsey (Slim Pickens) announces he's retiring, and suggests a good replacement -- his daughter, Lily (Amy Irving). Lily had a crush on Buck as a child, and now as a full-grown and very beautiful woman, her infatuation has only increased with time. Consequently, Buck must choose between Viv and Lily as well as his home and his career. Honeysuckle Rose was written specifically for Nelson, and his character bears more than a passing similarity to Willie and his life before the album Red Headed Stranger made him a star; the film also earned Nelson an Academy Award nomination for the film's theme song, "On the Road Again." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Willie Nelson, Dyan Cannon, (more)
- 1950
Swedish filmmaker Gustav Molander's Kerleken Segrar was released to English-speaking countries as Victory of Love and Love Will Conquer. Like many of Molander's wartime films, this one contains a subtle but strong anti-fascist slant. The director concentrates on a Swedish family that constantly complains about the hardships brought about by WW II. Their outlook on life is radically altered when a young concentration camp refugee comes to live with them. Most of the cast members in Kerleken Segrar are newcomers, including Danish leading lady Ilselil Larsen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl-Arne Holmsten, Ingrid Thulin, (more)
- 1949
Filmed in 1948, Swedish filmmaker Gustav Molander's Eva gained an American release the following year. The eponymous Eva, played by Eva Stiberg, is the cast-off girlfriend of headstrong railroad engineer Bo (Birger Malmsten). When Bo's new bride is killed in a train accident, he returns to faithful Eva. Out of tragedy blossoms a new life for both hero and heroine. Unlike such previous Molander protegees as Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, Eva Stiberg did not go on to a particularly stellar career. Eva should not be confused with the 1962 French film of the same name, though both contain strikingly similar plot elements. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Birger Malmsten, Eva Dahlbeck, (more)
- 1948
The first of Gustav Molander's two 1948 productions was Nu Borjar Livet, released in English-speaking countries as We Live Now. Written and directed by Molander, the film serves as an excellent showcase for Mai Zetterling, here cast as a young woman named Vera Ullman. When unhappily married clergyman Tore Gerhard (George Rydeberg) seeks solace outside his home, he finds it with the loving Vera. Fearing a scandal, Gerhard refuses to divorce his wife Dorrit (Wanda Rothgardt). When she realizes that her relationship with the minister will always be a back-street affair, Vera returns to the arms of her faithful -- and very patient -- boyfriend. Successful in Sweden, Nu Borjar Livet did passable business elsewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mai Zetterling, Georg Rydeberg, (more)
- 1947
One of the last efforts from Sol M. Wurtzel's "B" unit at 20th Century-Fox, The Invisible Wall details the trials and tribulations of gambler Harry Lane (Don Castle). Told in flashback, the film recounts how Lane managed to lose nearly $10,000 entrusted to him by bookmaker Marty Floyd (Edward Keane). Hoping to recoup his losses by investing in a "sure thing," poor Lane ended up accused of murder. He is cleared when it is revealed that the victim was no victim after all. The picaresque plotline takes the hero from Los Angeles to Vegas to Denver to St. Louis, courtesy of the 20th Century-Fox back lot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Castle, Virginia Christine, (more)
- 1947
Gustav Molander's Woman Without a Face (originally Kvinna utan Ansikte) is distinguished by a screenplay by no less than Ingmar Bergman. Not a remake of Molander's A Woman's Face, as one might assume at first glance, the later film concentrates on the emotional turmoil experienced by an artist named Ruth (Gunn Wallgren). Unable to reach out to her friends and loved ones, Ruth puts her fate in the hands of the duplicitous Victor (George Funkqvist), who is Satan in everything but name. One wonders how this quintessentially Bergmanesque material would have been handled with Bergman himself in the director's chair. In America, Woman Without a Face was sold on the reputation of his male lead, up-and-coming matinee idol Alf Kjellin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gunn Wållgren, Alf Kjellin, (more)
- 1946
Released in the U.S. as It's My Model, this Swedish comedy was the only 1946 effort by veteran director Gustav Molander. Far more lighthearted than earlier Molander endeavors, this one stars Maj-Britt Nilsson as an artist's model and Alf Kjellin as an idealistic young sculptor. In Kjellin's eyes, Nilsson is the literal embodiment of the monument he has been commissioned to finish. What Kjellin cannot admit to himself is that he is falling in love with the girl, but this revelation comes in due time. It is clear from first frame to last that Molander intended to "mold" Maj-Britt Nilsson into a major star, just as he'd perviously done for Ingrid Bergman and Signe Hasso. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alf Kjellin, Maj-Britt Nilsson, (more)
- 1943
Filmed in 1943, Gustav Molander's Det Brinner en Eid (There Burned a Flame) was released in the US two years later. The great Swedish director Victor Seastrom, who later starred in Bergman's Wild Strawberries, here heads the cast as an unnamed Theatre Manager. The story concerns a Scandavian Shakespearean troupe, doing its best to survive as an invading army marches into its homeland (no names are mentiond, but it's clear that the locale is Norway, and that the invaders are Nazis). A misguided foreign attache named Lemmering (Lars Hanson), who is in love with the troupe's leading lady (Inga Tidblad), schemes to keep the performers on stage so as to entertain-and hopefully appease--the occupying army. Instead, the actors join the Underground movement, determined to wipe the enemy off the face of the earth. Interestingly, the aristocratic Lemmering is depicted sympathetically, rather than as the brown-nosing Quisling he really is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Gregory Ratoff directed David O. Selznick's richly produced American remake of the Swedish film directed by Gustav Molander and starring Ingrid Bergman, who re-creates her role here. The story -- based on the original screenplay by Molander and Gosta Stevens -- concerns a love affair played out between famed concert violinist Holger Brandt (Leslie Howard) and a young pianist, Anita Hoffman (Ingrid Bergman). Holger has just finished a grand tour and has returned to his home country of Sweden, into the arms of his wife Margit (Edna Best) and two children, Ann Marie (Ann Todd) and Eric (Douglas Scott). But soon Holger falls deeply in love with his children's piano teacher Anita. Holger asks Margit for a divorce, but she demurs, telling Holger he should take time to think the whole thing through. Holger and Anita travel abroad, and Anita becomes acclaimed as a pianist -- but Holger keeps looking at other people's children and begins to wonder whether he should go back to his family. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Howard, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
- 1938
Filmed in Sweden in 1938 as En Enda Natt, Only One Night was released in the US in 1942 to capitalize on the popularity of its star, Ingrid Bergman. Actually, Bergman's role is secondary: the film's true star is Edvin Adolphson, playing the illegitimate son of wealthy Olof Sandborg. Taking on the airs of an aristocrat, Adolphson dumps his middle-class girlfriend Aino Taube and commences to enjoy the good life. Sandborg tries to pair up Adolphson with socialite Bergman, but his crude behavior squelches any possibility of lasting romance. Realizing that he's in over his head, Adolphson returns to his former life and former love. By the time Only One Night made it to American theatres, many of its "racier" sexual aspects had been shorn in the editing room. Fortunately, all of Ingrid Bergman's close-ups remained intact. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1938
Having previously discovered such talents as Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, director Gustav Molander used his Sara Lar Sig Folkvett (Sara Learns Manners) as a showcase for his latest protegee, Tutta Rolf. She is cast as Sara, a good-hearted but hopelessly vulgar servant girl. Though she is a constant embarrassment to her middle-class employers, Sara is so well liked by the members of the household that no one can bear to fire her. When Sara inherits a fortune, she becomes acutely aware of her social shortcomings and sets about to become a "lady." But once she realizes that High Society is populated by phonies and hypocrites, our heroine gives away her money and returns to the people she truly cares about. A neat climactic plot twist allows Sara to have her cake and eat it too. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tutta Rolf, Emma Meissner, (more)
- 1938
French playwright Francis de Croiset's heavily plotted Il Etait Une Fois formed the basis of the Swedish A Woman's Face (En Kvinnas Ansikte). Ingrid Bergman plays a woman embittered by the horrible scar on her face, the result of a childhood mishap. Feeling unworthy of the "good" world, Bergman becomes a criminal. Given a new countenance by plastic surgeon Anders Hendrikson, Bergman decides to start life all over again, only to become enmeshed in a complicated crooked scheme, engineered by smarmy aristocrat Georg Rydenberg. A Woman's Face was purchased by MGM and remade in 1941, with Joan Crawford in the lead; most cineastes consider the Swedish version as the better of the two by far-and what a terrific ending! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Bergman, Anders Henrikson, (more)
- 1937
The English-language title of this Swedish romance is Under a False Flag. Tutta Rolf stars as Margot, the spoiled-rotten daughter of banker Karl Hammar (Ernest Eklund). Accustomed to getting what she wants, Margot falls in love with a poor bank clerk (Allan Bolin) who does not reciprocate her feelings. To win him over, she pretends to be poor herself -- and finds that she rather likes not being pampered for a change. Undre Fals Flagg was also released as Under False Colors, which under the circumstances makes more sense. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernst Eklund, Tutta Rolf, (more)
- 1936
Based on a play by Helge Krog, Pa Solisdan (On the Sunny Side) was one of Gustav Molander's most popular films. Lars Hanson stars as wealthy Harold Ribe, who steals naïve provincial girl Eve (Ingrid Bergman) away from lothario novelist Joachim Brink (Edvin Adolphson). Feeling that Eve lacks sophistication, Harold introduces him to his city friends, only to find himself battling for the girl's attentions with another man. Meanwhile, Brink finds solace in a romance with Harold's sister Kajsa (Marianne Lofgren). In 1936, American critics were impressed by most of the cast, though they tended to ignore newcomer Ingrid Bergman in her first starring role. Pa Solisdan was remade for Swedish television in 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lars Hanson, Ingrid Bergman, (more)
- 1936
The Swedish Intermezzo was the film that brought Ingrid Bergman to the attention of Hollywood. Bergman plays a fresh-faced music student who falls in love with Gosta Ekman, a very-much-married violin virtuoso. Ekman leaves his wife to live with Bergman and to tour with her on the concert circuit. His daughter's near-fatal accident awakens Ekman to his familial responsibilities. Streamlined from 88 minutes to 70, the plot of Intermezzo was transferred intact to the 1939 American version of the same name, which served as Bergman's Hollywood debut. To avoid confusion, the original Intermezzo was retitled Interlude for its U.S. distribution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gösta Ekman, Inga Tidblad, (more)
- 1935
Based on a play by Hjalmar Bergman, this Swedish film concentrates on the family of a brilliant but poverty-stricken scientist, played by Gosta Ekman. When Hakan Westergren, the eldest of Eckman's grown children, becomes engaged to a wealthy young woman, he refuses to allow her to support him. When it seems as though Westergren has forged his father's name on some promissory notes in order to raise money, the potential scandal nearly forces Eckman to give up the Nobel Prize he is about to receive. This domestic dilemma is solved (though not to everyone's satisfaction) and the family pride is saved. Swedenhielms might never have been released in the U.S. had it not been for the charming early presence of Ingrid Bergman, cast as Westergren's fiancee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gösta Ekman, Tutta Rolf, (more)
