Gjest Baardsen

Gjest Baardsen is an old, but entertaining movie about the legendary thief "Gjest" who always manages to escape from the police. The best about this movie is the plot and the humor. This is a drama-movie, but it contains some very funny moments. Recommended

Loosely based on the autobiography of Gjest Baardsen, a 19th century outlaw, this eponymous 1939 film was the most popular Norwegian movie of the era.

After the 1814 war with Sweden, Norway is bankrupt and the government decides to confiscate all silver in the land. Anna Reinche (Vibeke Falk) owns a chest of silver. On this account, she is pursued by the nefarious prosecutor Mons Peder Michelsen (Joachim Holst-Jensen). Enter Gjest Baardson (Alfred Maurstad), a thief who prefers craft to violence.

The film looks like a B movie remake of Robin Hood, and compares favorably to the Douglas Fairbanks and Errol Flynn melodramas. Maurstad has a good comedic sense, even if he's no Fairbanks. Vibeke Falk is astonishingly beautiful, and Holst-Jensen– usually a comedic actor– is suitably sinister.

'Gjest Baardson' alternates between studio scenes with extensive dialog and mostly silent location scenes. The studio scenes are well lit, but really nothing special. Unfortunately, these predominate. The location shots are interesting, contrasting the narrow, claustrophobic streets of Bergen with the ragged, outsize mountains of the Fjordland. (The film also contains two musical numbers, which were very popular at the time.)

'Gjest Baardson' was a Norwegian attempt at a Hollywood melodrama. It was released during the dark days immediately preceding the May 1940 German invasion, As escapism, the movie succeeded admirably– providing audiences with something the probably needed at this time.

This is one of the real true classics in Norwegain film. a film which is constantly shown on Norwegian television, still able to draw crowds liking it.

The film, bade by early Norwegian film auteur Tancred Ibsen, is based upon the store of the factual events and probably also some good stories about the petty criminal Gjest Baardsen, which was born in 1791. Though said not to be as charming as the way actor Alfred Maurstad depicts him, undoubtedly the legend of Baardsen has several equalities with the sympathy the legend of Robin Hood got from the poor in his raids around Nottigham Forest. Baardsen was a master thief, and stole More than he could eat and use, and subsequently gave away much of the stolen goods and foods to the poor population, whilst on run from the local police over a wast area of Norway.

Norway was a the time an extremely poor and also unequal society, where the Christan church was amongst the rich. This film is based upon the book by Holger Sinding, which was released in 1880, and is a colorful story based upon the self biography by Baardsen himself. Baardsen became re-known all around the country, not only because he was much sought after by the police all over. He got arrested a lot of times, but somehow managed to break out of prison time after time like an escape artist. In 1827 he was finally arrested and put in jail with a life time sentence at Akershus castle, where he wrote his self biography in no less than three volumes, and also a book about the language Rodi, the language of the traveling gypsy people, and a book about the life as a prisoner. He was freed in 1845, when he started a national tour, selling his books. He died four years later, in 1849.

The film works great, and was a huge success just before the second world war. The film was critically acclaimed for dramatic sense, tempo and charming humor, where Alfred Maurstad manages to give life to the legend as a master thief and a reason for being loved by the poor. Few Norwegian films had managed to be equally appraised by the press.

The film has still the power to enchant it's viewers 75 years later.