Enhörningen

Gustaf Molander's "The Unicorn" is a dated form of drama, with Swedish stage star Inga Tidblad impressive as a weak-willed woman fated to tragedy. Hollywood successfully remade a couple of Molander's classics but this feature, unreleased in America, has subject matter (including incest) unsuitable for American audiences in the 1950s.

Inga Tidblad is striking in the central role, with Bergman star Birger Malmsten her equal, portraying her wayward son. Wayward also describes Inga's character, unable to control her lust and paying dearly for her lies. But unfortunately the other male characters are hard to believe, from a truly evil villain (who fancies himself the Devil in certain facetious moments) who holds a grudge against her since their childhood, and her strait-laced cuckold of a husband. Even the "irresistible" military man/big game hunter creepy Other Man is strictly a stock role.

The direct-sound dialogue recording is quite crisp and lends an intimacy and immediacy to both the dramatic scenes and the over-the-top ones.

This Swedish film was directed by Molander towards the end of a career which had started in 1910 as a script writer for films by the famous directors of the silent era Victor Sjöström and Mauritz Stiller. He eventually began directing himself and had a career that spanned almost five decades. Internationally, he is most famous for "Intermezzo" (1936) and as the director who discovered Ingrid Bergman. This film "Enhörningen" ("The Unicorn") has been forgotten, for which there is an easy explanation, namely Ingmar Bergman. During the 1950s Bergman's films began to conquer the world and naturally crowded out other films, especially those by older directors such as Molander. Retrospectively, Bergman's best films were done in the 1950s and this film was supposed to be dated by comparison. However, Ingmar Bergman cooperated with Molander, and had a very high opinion of his filmmaking and great respect for him. In fact, there is a strong influence of Molander in the earlier Bergman films and anybody seeing this film would certainly agree. Molander was considered an accomplished craftsman with an excellent film technique. This is evident in the beautiful black and white photography in this film. The oppressive feeling in the hospital scenes and, in particular, the interesting mass bird scene outside the hospital are a bit reminiscent of Hitchcock. There are always interesting camera views, beautiful use of shadows and striking deployment of a moving camera, e.g. in the very odd short nightclub scene in Paris. So why has this film been forgotten? Apart from competing with superior films from Bergman's best period from the 1950s, perhaps this high-strung melodrama and the very theatrical acting would put some people off. One might complain that the ages of the actors are not appropriate for their roles. Inga Tidblad (aged 55 at the time) plays the main character, including her younger self when recalling the main events of her life, and so we see her in the role of a 20 year-old woman alongside a younger actress (Isa Quensel) playing her mother. Nevertheless, this film features some of Sweden's most famous stage actors. Inga Tidblad was a contemporary of Greta Garbo at theatre school but, unlike her, chose to stay in Sweden and had a distinguished and long career, mainly in the theatre. She was acclaimed in plays by Shakespeare and Strindberg, and was also the first Mrs Tyrone in the world premiere of Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey into Night", which took place in Stockholm. Another doyen of Swedish theatre, Edwin Adolphson, plays the lady-killer in "The Unicorn". His position in Swedish theatre and film was not unlike that of Laurence Olivier in Britain, and I would say that there is also some physical resemblance. As an interesting casting decision, which rarely occurs in films, he appears alongside his own daughter, Kristina Adolphson (aged 18), who plays the daughter of the lady-killer. Edvin Adolphson had a 60-year career and, as a curiosity, one of his earlier wives was Harriet Bosse, the veteran actress once married to the playwright August Strindberg. It is rather astonishing that the music composed for the film by the renowned composer Lars Erik Larsson is not mentioned in the credits. The music is very suggestive but used carefully and sparsely throughout the film, indeed only in the most dramatic moments. The whole production is well crafted.

It's a Nordic drama like a Greek tragedy, including all the classical ingredients, incest, suicide, betrayal, infidelity and all the Bergman necessities, like shame, guilt, sex and bottomless despair. The acting is perfect, especially by the older actors, like Inga Tidblad, Edvin Adolphson and Sture Lagerwall. Also the cinematography is classical in refined detail and perfection, and the music is all right, discreet but never interfering. Inga Tidblad was one of Sweden's most prominent actresses ever, actually better than both Ingrid Bergman and Greta Garbo, but she never went outside the Swedish limelight. Edvin Adolphson is the grand old man of Swedish cinema, always sympathetic and convincing, a true gentleman in every part, as outstanding in comedy as in tragedy. Sture Lagerwell is the knave, the Mephistopheles of the play, the seducer of souls who sees them through and pinpoints them, and he is perhaps the most interesting part. The novel is by Sigfrid Siwertz who was an outstanding Swedish novelist, probably rather underrated, with great insight in human nature and destiny. There is much of Eugene O 'Neill here but perhaps even more of Jean-Paul Sartre and other French dramatists, as Sigfrid Siwertz was a great francophile. Gustaf Molander made reliable and enduring classical Swedish films through four decades and is the great precursor of Alf Sjöberg and Ingmar Bergman. Bergman worked with him, admired him and learned a lot from him. He never should be obscured by the fames and careers of his moire illustrious followers.

It took me a while to warm to this film if one can of course warm to a subject so unremittingly bleak. Gustaf Molander's film actually has everything: infidelity, incest and drug addiction. Not at all bad for 1955 but then again this is Swedish! It also has great cinematography by Martin Bodin, an excellent score by Lars Erik-Larsson(although uncredited) and a literate script on which Molander collaborated plus a cast that is top-notch. Swedish actors never seem to be 'acting' and possess a truth and simplicity which is extremely effective. Perhaps it's the language. Inga Tidblad is Harriet whose one extra-marital indiscretion has devastating consequences. Judging by this performance anyone who saw her on stage was indeed privileged. Real-life father and daughter Adolf and Kristina Adolphson are excellent here as father and daughter and Sture Lagerwall is splendid as the odious Ossian. The film belongs however to Birger Malmsten as Harriet's love-child. A great talent but fated to be the forgotten star of so many 'early' Bergman films. Bergman did cast him later on however as the rapist in 'Face to Face'. Molander has always been in Bergman's shadow but will never be overlooked by true cinephiles. He is best remembered I suppose for being instrumental in introducing that other Bergman, Ingrid, to film audiences. Although the homogenised Hollywood remakes of 'A Woman's Face' and 'Intermezzo' are not without merit Molander's versions are infinitely more fascinating. Should anyone reading this be unfamiliar with Molander's work, it is never too late to start.