Une seule nuit

Ingrid Bergman oddly receives top billing in her last Swedish film, Only One Night before going Hollywood to reprise her role in Intermezzo which she did in her homeland 3 years earlier. Clearly the third lead her natural beauty takes a back seat to no one.

Carny manager, Valdemar (Edvin Adolphson) is a persuasive charmer easy on the eyes of the ladies. A charismatic upbeat fellow he finds out he is the out of wedlock son of a nobleman through farfetched coincidence. The upper crust old man (Olof Sandborg) sets out to convert Waldemar to a life of gentry as well as hook him up with his refined ward played by Bergman in order to extend the breed and name. The conversion however does not go smoothly.

Adolphson plays Waldemar the boundless charmer true to himself with a vivacious devil may care attitude, knowing the hardbitten existence of the carnival circuit suits him better than being lord of the manor. Bergman is more of a paradox, asexual but willing to sacrifice. She is certainly a character that bears a lot of scrutiny and Ingrid, though difficult to define is solid from end to end. Aino Taub as Wal's carnival squeeze brings excellent contrast to Bergman's character.

Bergman influencer director Molander seems to be attempting to convey a stay in your own lane attitude in this veiled class war that sometimes overloads scenes with superfluous dialogue making it move slowly in spots but forces you to linger to see where our leads are headed as Molander keeps matters nebulous until film's climax.

Miss Bergman plays an aristocratic liberated woman, who rides horses like a man, shoots ducks with a shotgun, is about to receive a PhD in something related to government history, and has plans for a career in government, possibly election. Eva has no interest in marriage or men. Now comes Vladimir, a free spirit with no roots, five years in the foreign legion, and currently working in a traveling carnival. Through an unlikely chain of events, they become engaged. In Sweden in the 1930's, engagements were expected to last for a year so the couple could get to know each other well. Free-spirited Vladimir takes a broad view of this custom leading to the climactic scene. Miss Bergman's performance here is great, and this scene all by itself is worth the price of admission.

This may seem a traditional melodrama but it is deceptive;none of the usual tricks are used:no tear- jerker scenes,nothing really romantic ;the case of the illegitimate son is treated in a way which often verges on comedy .For instance ,the way the aristocratic dad reveals the truth to his son takes a very long scene -and even longer if you include the scene with the servant-

The movie tends to show that even blood ties are weaker than values and traditions of the upper class.In the Bible,the Prodigal Son did belong to a wealthy family so he did not need a period of readjustment.A child of the circus living in a clown's trailer ,with a faithful partner who doesn't stand on ceremony with him,finds that his father's desirable mansion is a gilded cage and that his ward (Ingrid Bergman) is haughty even though she accepts to marry him to please her uncle:she gives free reign to her anger and her contempt when he tries to have sex with her before the wedding.We live in a compartmentalized world.

This is Gustaf Molander's specialty - the study of classes and he does it again here. A careful study of an illegitimate son who has grown up in the circus but later learns his father is a rich wealthy man. The father brings him in to strike a romance with Ingrid Bergman, as a way to make him respectable and usher him into high society. The issues of class as he tries to adjust to his new society while trying to abandon the old are carefully handled and shown without emphasis but with subtlety. Accceptance is tough all around and lessons are learned by all. This is a melodrama done Swedish style and try and see the Ingmar Bergman influences in this movie that inspired his work and Gustaf Molander's work in general that is reflected in Ingmar's work.

Ingrid Bergman is definitely the best actress in this traditional story about the meeting of the working class and the upper class. Gustaf Molander was always good at making upper-class dramas that never made anybody angry.