...from director Sigurd Wallen, which also marks the proper screen debut of Ingrid Bergman. In a rundown neighborhood of Stockholm known as Old Town, a motley assortment of characters go about their days getting into light mischief. There's the "Count" (Valdemar Dalquist),an old and affable man always on the hunt for a drink; Gurkan (Sigurd Wallen),the Count's pal and the henpecked partner of fishmonger Amalia (Tollie Zellman); innkeeper Borstis (Eric Abrahamsson) and his young cleaning girl Elsa (Bergman); and mysterious newcomer Ake (Edvin Adolphson) who may or may not be a wanted thief and bank robber.
This lightweight affair about poor but pleasant people making the best of the lives while also working and hoping for more reminded me a bit of the Marseilles Trilogy from Marcel Pagnol, the French film trilogy about workers along the waterfront. The characters are vivid and likable, even if the situations are at times a bit too regional. For instance, much is made about needing ration books to obtain liquor, but this isn't explained in any detail, so I'm not sure why there was rationing in pre-WW2 Sweden. I watched this for Ingrid Bergman, and she's not bad. Only 19 when this was filmed, she has quite a substantial role, and even gets to sing a few lines.
6.0Plot summary
A burglar called Diamond-Lasse is carrying out a series of raids in the Old Town in Stockholm, but the police have no idea of who he is. In fact, the local police officer Göransson is more focused on catching day-laborers buying illicit spirits. In the midst of this a stranger called Åke turns up. He puts up at Hotel City in the Old Town, where he soon falls in love with Elsa, a young woman who lives and works at the hotel. Åke also makes friends with two day-laborers called The Count and The Cucumber. The Count is really an aristocrat, but one who has lost everything except his noble name. He is in love with the owner of the hotel, an elderly woman called Klara, but she won't marry him until he gets a permanent employment. The Cucumber is in love with Klara's friend Amalia, but Amalia has higher plans than marrying a day-laborer. She is not good in writing, but her blind neighbor Karlsson helps her to formulate a matrimonial advertisement for a newspaper. Soon a confidence trickster, Mr. Berglund, turns up and asks for her hand. The newcomer Åke proclaims himself as being unemployed, but his new friends in the Old Town are suspicious, because he always have money and can buy legal alcohol. Elsa and The Count think that he is the burglar Diamond-Lasse, but instead of reporting him to the police, they want to help him change his life.
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Lively Swedish comedy
Isn't she cute?
By all rights, this film should be lost. It's not a bad film, but it's mediocre to the extreme. A rare movie that ends up as being both confusing and predictable simultaneously. But it exists still because it was Ingrid Bergman's first speaking role in a film. And, well, she's great. She's much chubbier here than she was in later films, but as attractive as ever. She won a Best Newcomer award for the role in Sweden - deservedly. There is a nice musical number, which is reprised by Bergman later in the film. Also, the cinematography is very nice. Sweden developed that art quite nicely in the silent era, and the photography here is far nicer than is necessary. Other than that, though, the film is nothing special.
Some Steinbeck type characters surround Ingrid in her first movie.
What we have here is a mildly amusing crime comedy involving some booze hounds that may remind you of Steinbeck's denizens of TORTILLA FLAT. There is also a suspicious looking young man hanging around hotel maid Elsa (Ingrid Bergman),a blind man tapping his way around the Old Town, some belligerent cops, and a widow looking for a new husband. The old town has been plagued with a number of robberies lately, and Elsa thinks her new young man may be involved. See if you can figure it out, but don't take anything at face value!
Actually, this is a fairly routine little B pic, but it surely has one good thing going for it. That's Ingrid in her first film, and looking like she was born for the business. Some cavilling critics have said she was too plump, but to my discerning eye she was just right.