Das Erbe von Björndal

After the death of old Dag (GERMAN FILM AWARD (h.c.) winner Gert FRÖBE), young Dag (Joachim HANSEN) takes over the Björndaler Hof. But of course the idyll with his wife Adelheid (Maj-Britt NILSSON) doesn't last long. With the maid Gunvor (Ellen SCHWIERS), erotic temptation comes to the Björndaler Hof. But it's not her husband Dag who falls for the beautiful maid, but a completely different family member... In addition, completely new family members like Aunt Eleonore (Brigitte HORNEY) are causing further tension in the land of fjords and forests...

The second part of the Björndal saga is significantly weaker than the first part. The drama is not heightened enough. In addition, there are too many and too big jumps in time to be able to introduce the next generation (Michael HINZ, Gertraud JESSERER). What remains are the beautiful Norway pictures and the scenes of a marriage between the model German Joachim HANSEN and the Ingmar BERGMAN actress Maj-Britt NILSSON. Hans NIELSEN and Carl LANGE can be seen again in their well-known roles from the first part. Another new addition is Hans Christian BLECH in a smaller role.

The first film THE FORESTS SING FOREVER attracted 10,009,000 visitors to West German cinemas in 1959, which corresponds to a box office of around 7 million euros.

The second film THE INHERITANCE OF BJÖRNDAL was only able to attract 5,198,000 visitors to West German cinemas in 1960, which corresponds to a box office revenue of around 3.8 million euros.

In total, the West German Björndal franchise made more than 10 million euros in the box office. Not bad for the time!

This sequel to "Und ewig singen die Wälder" is far inferior to part 1. In part 1 one can see that the cast and certainly the director took the thing seriously; for Ucicky thìs film must have been just another of his routine jobs done without much interest (like he did every film in the 50's). The scene that should have been a dramatic moment (a pile of trees in the river is blown up) is very badly managed. Script also not that good; it seems that as much as possible has been put into it which has lead to mediocre storytelling, towards the end things get clumsy. Strictly for the real fans of the Trygve Gulbranssen trilogy; they could regard it as a moving illustration to the book