If you have tired of the contemporary moronic crime dramas churned out by the Scandinavian countries, perhaps this seventy-five year old crime drama from Sweden could be a nice antidote. "Ett brott" ("A Crime") is a film version of a 1933 play by the Swedish writer Sigfrid Siwertz which was very loosely based upon a sensational crime that had occurred in aristocratic circles in Stockholm the year before, the so called von Sydow murders. Siwertz was a conservative author now totally obliterated from the consciousness of contemporary Swedish society, which is now multicultural, i.e. non-cultural, and where anything produced more than 50 years ago is considered irrelevant. "Ett brott" caused a sensation when premiered in 1940. Previously, most of the films made in Sweden in the thirties had been so called 'pilsner movies', silly comedies filled mainly with cheap jokes about alcohol consumption. "Ett brott", a serious crime drama, was completely different. It was a huge box office success and one of the most notable films to emerge from 1940s Sweden. It is easy to understand the reasons for this. The film's plot is very cleverly constructed, the pace is quick, the dialogue is witty and the actors are all well chosen, including for the many minor parts. The story is set in aristocratic circles in Stockholm and there is a fair amount of social satire. The artist Hans von Degerfelt (played by Anders Henrikson who is also the director of the film) provides an ironic commentary on the world of high society. Henrikson managed to imitate the typical aristocratic drawl that is just right for his role. The film is full of interesting characters played by some of Sweden's most famous actors at the time. The weak and ruined brother, Rutger von Degerfelt, is played by Edvin Adolphson, a very famous Swedish actor who had a film career that spanned almost 50 years. The wife of Rutger von Degerfelt is played very convincingly by Karin Ekelund. This is a difficult role balancing superficiality with deeper emotions. The police inspector, Lilja, is played by Gösta Cederlund, an interesting character actor, who plays this role with a mixture of astuteness and severity. Many of the minor characters also make a memorable impression. The female concierge, Mrs Dunér, is played by Dagmar Ebbesen who had been the star in many of the pilsner movies of the previous decade. She has a comic role here and, given her alcoholic on-screen husband (Gösta Bodin), it is one which perhaps does not differ too much from her previous roles in the thirties. The brash upstart journalist, Risberg, is played by Håkan Westergren with a typical Stockholm accent. His flirt, Miss Waldemars, is played by Ulla Sorbon, who tragically died of tuberculosis one year after the film was finished. There is also the cameo role of a mad woman, Miss Furuvik, played by the fine character actress Hilda Borgström. There are some minor blemishes in this old film. The ending, with Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony playing in the background, might perhaps strike a modern audience as being a touch too schmaltzy. Here and there we find some patches of ham acting, especially Carl Barcklind in the role of the family patriarch Andreas von Degerfelt. This could perhaps also be said of Edvin Adolphson's acting on some occasions. On the whole, this is a well-crafted crime drama, distinguished by its sharp dialogue, brisk pace and mostly satisfactory acting by the large cast. This film now has subtitles in English on the Opensubtitles.org website. Hopefully, an international audience will come to enjoy this little-known gem of Swedish cinema, so different from the films noir of 1940s Hollywood.
