Vita frun

While it's not really a part of the Hillman-movies, "Vita frun" features Holmsten as the detective Hillman and along for the ride is also regulars Hallberg and Granhagen. The plot is simple enough: A ghost, called "vita frun" (The White Lady) ,is blamed for the strange deaths that occur at a country manor. But is it really a ghost? This film manages to be quite unintentionally hilarious at times, when Mattsson tries to give his old-fashioned ghost story a sense of true pathos and a "Bergmanesque" sense of doom. The actors mostly play the whole silly plot commendably straight, but that sometimes makes supposedly serious lines like "You want to die, Eivor! You want to drown in the swamp!" an unexpected comedic delight. The downside of "Vita frun" are some very talky scenes that could have been omitted (or better developed) and the character Freddy, as the (so-called) comic sidekick with a stutter, who is 100% annoying. But Mattssons sense for visuals does manage to make an impression during the course of the movie, creating suspense by using lights and shadows and weird camera angles. There is one TRULY creepy scene and several others that are genuinely eerie. And it's all shot in glorious black-and-white, adding a lot of atmosphere, by Hilding Bladh who also lensed the pre-giallo "Mannekäng i rött". Sweden has never had a director like Arne Mattsson who often put style before content and was ridiculed in the 50's and 60's for being totally politically incorrect, but today we can appreciate his movies for what they are: somewhat slow-moving at times, unnecessarily theatrical, but pure entertainment

Apparently Freddy, the dimwitted "assistant" of the Hillman detective couple, was a big hit with Swedish audiences at the time, or at least the producers thought so, because by the time (1962) this 4th film in the Hillman film series came around, he was given the top spot as far as series regulars were concerned, with Hillman himself in a clearly secondary role, and his wife-partner written out altogether. I don't agree with this choice; in fact, I think Freddy's so-called "comic relief" adds at least 30 minutes to this movie's already bloated running time. Like the two others in the series I've seen, it has some scattered very spooky scenes, but it is incredibly plodding. ** out of 4.