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| CATEGORY: | Video |
| DIRECTOR: | Gustaf Edgren |
| THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE: | January, 1941 |
| MANUFACTURER: | Fox Lorber |
| MPAA RATING: | NR (Not Rated) |
| FEATURES: | Black & White, NTSC |
| TYPE: | Foreign Film - Swedish |
| MEDIA: | VHS Tape |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
| UPC: | 720917014425 |
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Customer Reviews of Walpurgis Night
Political Propaganda set to Melodrama This film is the first foreign film I've seen. I bought it because I wanted to hear the voice of Lar Hanson, the great silent actor who starred in such films as Flesh and the Devil (with Greta Garbo), and along side Lillian Gish in The Wind and The Scarlet Letter (he has a soft, soothing voice, by the way). "Walpurgis Nights" (the Swedish festival celebrating the arrival of Spring, a time of love and procreation), created a stir because of its subject of abortion. Clary, The wife of Johan Borg (Hanson's character) refuses to give him children and, when she becomes pregnant, finds an underground doctor to perform a secret abortion. A blackmailer comes across the doctor's records and threatens to go public. Clary must confront Johan with her deed and the two of them attempt to buy the information. A tussle ensues and Clary shoots the blackmailer. To avoid a scandal, Johan joins the Foreign Legion leaving his wife to take on with a married man.
On the side of the story, newspaper editor Fredrik Bergstrom (Victor Sjostrom)is concerned with the decling birthrate in Sweden and attributes it to a lack of romantic love in Swedish society. His daughter Lena (Ingrid Bergman) is in love with her boss Johan and, unlike his deceiving wife, wants to give him babies. Johan's estranged wife finds her new romance crumbled as her lover returns to his wife for the sake of their children. Clary commits suicide. The point: Babies will bring true love and happiness to a marriage. Will Johan and Lena ever find such love?
At the time, the film was more than just melodrama. Swedish population was actually falling (it was the Depression era) and the film was meant as a political message against abortion and in favor of larger families. Censored in the United States, this film was ahead of its time and important on a historical level. Generally well acted and fairly fast paced (although some of the scenes at the newspaper dragged), this film lasts 75 minutes and has English subtitles.
As good as any Ingrid Bergman film
This film gets lots of attention as a film about falling birth rates and abortion. But what the film really is about is the search for true love: Lena Bergstrom (Ingrid Bergman) finds it with an unhappily married man, Johan Borg (Lars Hanson). When Borg is implicated in a murder that he didn't commit, he flees to the French Foreign Legion. He ultimately deserts, risking death by firing squad, in order to be with his true love again. An ultimately uplifting movie, and just about the best Ingrid Bergman film in any language.
A 1935 Swedish film with Ingrid Bergman about abortion
Ingrid Bergman plays the second female lead in the Swedish film "Walpurgis Night" ("Valborgsmassoafton"), directed by Gustaf Edgren in 1935. Bergman plays Lena Bergstrom, whose father, the crusading newspaper editor Fredrik Bergstrom (Victor Seastrom), constantly bemoans the growing disinterest of the Swedish people in having children. Lena works as a secretary to Johan Borg (Lars Hanson), whose wife Clary (Karin Carlson), refuses his bed because she is worried about what childbirth would do to her looks. Despite her precautions, Clary becomes pregnant and goes to an abortionist. When she is blackmailed, Clary ends up shooting the criminal and then committing suicide, the resulting scandal in the newspapers makes Johan join the Foreign Legion, leaving behind Lena, who loves him and actually wants to give him babies. Although the subject of abortion saw "Walpurgis Night" censored in America, Swedish audiences were sufficiently impressed by the film's message to overlook the fact the story is pure melodrama. Apparently the population of Sweden was actually declining at this point in time, which puts the topic of abortion in more of an ironic frame than merely being sensational. The film is anti-abortion, but the position is based on the need to reverse the decline in population rather than on moral grounds, which is certainly interesting. Bergman does not really have much to do as the woman in waiting, but does manage to make an impression even in this early work. This film (2229 meters long if you must know) is in Swedish with English sub-titles.