Gyurkovicsarna (1920)

Gösta Ekman and Pauline Brunius were the stars in the silent Swedish comedy Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920). Ekman and Brunius also wrote the script. For this Skandia Film production, Förlag Nordisk Konst in Stockholm made a series of six sepia postcards.


Swedish postcard by Forlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/1. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Forlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/2. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Pauline Brunius in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/3. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Violet Molitor in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).

Happily not-married ever after

The plot of Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920) evolves in Hungary. Mr. Gyurkovics (Julius Hälsig) and Mrs. Gyurkovics (Gucken Cederborg) have a dozen children of whom the eldest, the twins Géza (Gösta Ekman) and Bandi (Nils Asther), just preparing for their matriculation exam. When graduation day arrives, Géza refuses to come but is taken by force by the principal's attendant. When father Gyurkovics dies later, Bandi takes over the estate while Géza becomes an officer aspirant in the nearby garrison city.

Géza soon meets an angry colonel (opera singer Emil Stiebel) who puts him in his place. He goes to the restaurant and chases out all the other guests with his dragon sabre, for which he is arrested. Once out again, he immediately begins to make boys' streaks, is discovered by the colonel, and is chased around the regiment building. He takes refuge in a room where it appears that, at the top, the colonel's young daughter, Jutka (Violet Molitor), is sleeping. When the customary ball takes place in Baja, Géza awakens by continuously dancing with Jutka. The colonel orders a lieutenant to make sure the couple is divorced. The lieutenant executes the order such that Géza challenges him to a duel. None of them, however, are particularly keen to hurt the other and no accident occurs.

After a while Géza becomes under-lieutenant. He wins at card games and gets permission to visit a seaside resort, where he meets a general, a minister, and Freiherr Hetvics-Janky (Henrik Ljungberg). The Freiherr's wife (Pauline Brunius) is unhappily married and wants to provoke her husband to get a divorce. She immediately appeals to Géza and suggests that he will abduct her, as he would like to do.

Meanwhile, Mother Gyurkovic sends her son Bandi to the garrison city to keep an eye on Géza. Bandi meets Jutka and sweet love arises between them. Géza and the Freiherr's wife make a compromising train journey. Her husband, the field marshall, meets them on their trip, behaves extremely favourably to Géza, and refuses to be provoked. Thus, Géza avoids all obligations versus the intriguing Freiherr's wife. There will be a wedding between Bandi and Jutka. Among the wedding guests, there is Géza, who is happy to have failed to marry.

Gyurkovicsarna was a film adaptation of the novel 'A Gyurkovics-fiúk' by author Ferenc Herczeg. Exteriors were shot in Kalrberg and Falsterbo near Stockholm and Mölle, Skane, while interiors were shot at the Skandia studios in Stockholm. The film premiered on 20 September 1920 simultaneously at the cinemas Victoria in Göteborg, Skandiabiografen in Norrköping, Skandia in Västerås and the Sture-Teatern in Stockholm. The full film can be seen on Swedish Wikipedia.


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/4. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Jessie Wessel in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/5. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Pauline Brunius in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/6. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Pauline Brunius in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/7. Photo: Skandia Film. Nils Asther and Violet Molitor in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).

Sources: The Swedish Film Database, Wikipedia (Swedish), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 31 July 2024.

Thora van Deken (1920)

In the first half of the 20th century, Pauline Brunius (1881-1954) was the grand old lady of the Swedish theatre. In the late 1910s and early 1920s, she also focused on film directing and film acting. In the silent psychological drama Thora van Deken/A Mother’s Fight (1920), she was directed by her husband, John W. Brunius. The film was based on 'Lille Rødhætte: Et Portræt' (Little Red Riding Hood: A Portrait) by Henrik Pontoppidan.


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm. no. 1095/11. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/2. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Hugo Björne in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/3. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/4. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Gösta Cederland in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).

A Testament and Rumours

Thora van Deken (Pauline Brunius), the divorced wife of estate owner Niels Engelstoft (Hugo Björne), is called to her husband's deathbed by pastor Bjerring (Gösta Ekman), who tries to achieve a reconciliation between the spouses before the man dies.

Thora knows through the newspapers that Engelstoft in his will ordered the estate Sofiehöj to become a resting place for women and would be managed by rector Brandt (Oscar Johanson), brother of Sophie, the newly-deceased young woman with whom the landlord lived after his divorce.

Thora is determined to change this shameful relationship in favour of Esther (Jessie Wessel), her own daughter with Engelstoft. The meeting between the spouses becomes hesitant and suspicious. Thora reminds him of their common past, and the break-up of their marriage because of Engelstoft's infidelity with Sofie Brandt. Thora urges him to change his will for their daughter Esther's sake. The quarrel becomes awesome and ends with Engelstoft dying.

Thora then declares that the landowner, in her presence and out of free will, burned the testament and immediately before his death declared that his daughter Esther with Thora as guardian would take over Sofiehöj. This statement is faced with the distrust of the locals. The disputed Rector Brandt, along with his lawyer, takes steps to make the original testament valid.

Despite the rumours, Thora and Esther move into the manor house, where Pastor Bjerring becomes a frequent visitor, eventually becoming increasingly affectionate with Esther. Love is answered, which Thora sees with great concern because she does not want her daughter to give her life a great deal. She is full of self-denial.


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/5. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Jessie Wessel in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/6. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Jessie Wessel in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/7. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Jessie Wessel in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/8. Photo: Skandia Film. Jessie Wessel in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).

The breath of shame

When the courtesy's folly goes hand in hand, finally, Thora van Deken accepts district steward Lars Sidenius's (Gösta Cederlund) proposal to get the testament legally tested. Sidenius reminds Thora of that time long ago when he loved her but became so cruel when she married rich Niels Engelstoft. Sidenius has never ceased to love her and wishes nothing higher than to get her free from all unhappy suspicions.

Interrogation at the town hall follows, where Thora's duties are seriously asked, mainly by the nurse who cared for Engelstoft during his last day. Thora is forced to swear to her story: when she puts her fingers on the Bible, she sees the breath of shame. At the same time as the interrogation is in progress, two crucial events occur. Pastor Bjerring is asked to be accepted as an Asian missionary by a missionary company thanks to a donation from an anonymous donor (who is, in fact, Thora van Deken). Esther discovers that her father's will has never been burned but is being stored in the secretary of Thora. This insight convinces Esther to follow the pastor and the couple embarks on a steamer that will bring them to Asia. Thora no longer has anything to live for. She surrenders the hidden testament of her husband, confesses and goes to prison.

In his article for Kosmorama, Casper Tybjerg writes: "The Swedish film Thora van Deken from 1920, though little-known and rarely seen, is a strikingly well-made and well-acted psychological drama. Based on a short novel by Henrik Pontoppidan, it is consistently structured around its title character, a hard and uncompromising woman who commits a crime for her daughter’s sake. (...) the film’s staging and the performance of the lead actress, Pauline Brunius, presents her to us in a gratifyingly non-judgmental and unsentimental way. 

The film lacks the folkloristic ambience which many contemporaries regarded as a key quality of films like Victor Sjöström’s The Sons of Ingmar. Nevertheless, Thora van Deken was explicitly presented and received as part of the same school or trend based on its psychological realism and the literary prestige of its source.

In 1920, Carl Th. Dreyer (then an up-and-coming young director) had written that the distinctive quality of the Swedish cinema of the post-Terje Vigen period – in contrast to both action-packed American movies and the crime thrillers and melodramas dominating the output of the Danish film industry – was its emphasis on psychology rather than physical action: "The Swedish art film (...) has acquired its distinctive character by becoming a medium for true and genuine human representation”. On this view – which was echoed by several commentators at the time – Thora van Deken was very much a film that shared this distinctive character."


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/9. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius, Gösta Ekman, Jessie Wessel and Oscar Johansson in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/10. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Jessie Wessel in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/12. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).

Sources: Casper Tybjerg (Kosmorama), The Swedish Film Database, Wikipedia (Swedish) and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 31 July 2024.

Pauline Brunius

In the first decades of the 20th century, Pauline Brunius (1881-1954) was the Queen of the Swedish stage. For a number of years, she also focused on film acting and directing. Later she became the first female managing director of Dramaten, the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/7. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Jessie Wessel in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/5. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Pauline Brunius in the comedy Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 291. Photo: Skandia-Film. Pauline Brunius and Paul Seelig in En vildfågel/Give Me My Son (John W. Brunius, 1921). Adapted from the play 'Skeppsbrott' (Shipwreck) by Samuel A. Duse. The title means literally 'The Wild Bird'. On 3 October 1921, En vildfågel premiered simultaneously in five cinemas in five different Swedish cities.


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/12. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).

Extremely successful in queen roles

Pauline Brunius was born Emma Maria Pauline Lindstedt in 1881 in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. She started as a ballet girl at the Opera in 1891 where she spent ten years. From 1899 to 1902, she had private acting lessons from actress Lotten Dorsch. In 1902, she made her debut as an actress at the Olympiateatern.

During the early 20th century, Pauline Brunius acted in Stockholm's major theatres, the Svenska Teatern, Vasateatern and Dramaten. She was considered 'The Queen of Swedish Theatre'. At Svensk filmdatabas, Mikaela Lindblom described her in 2012 as "a classically-educated actress with a magnificent posture, had a melodic voice and was extremely successful in queen roles." From 1926 to 1932, she was the managing director of the Oscarsteatern together with her husband, actor and film director John W. Brunius and with star actor Gösta Ekman. They changed the Operetta theatre into a respected and innovative scene for stage plays.

Pauline Brunius acted in only 13 film roles. Her cinema career started with Thora van Deken/A Mother's Fight (John W. Brunius, 1920), also with Gösta Ekman. The film was based on a short story by Henrik Pontoppidan about a divorced wife of a wealthy landowner who lies in court that her deceased ex-husband had destroyed his will to secure her daughter's inheritance. In 1914, Brunius had already performed this role on stage and the film focuses on her standout performance. Brunius would be paired again with Gösta Ekman in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (1920) - also with Nils Asther, Kärlekens ögon/A Scarlet Angel (1922), Karl XII/Charles XII (1925), and Gustaf Wasa del I/Gustaf Wasa, Part One (1928), always directed by her husband, John W. Brunius.

The silent historical film Karl XII/Charles XII (John W. Brunius, 1925) was released in two separate parts because of its long-running time of nearly six hours. The film depicts the life of Charles XII of Sweden (1682-1718) who oversaw the expansion of the Swedish Empire until its defeat at the Battle of Poltava. It was the most expensive production in Swedish history when it was made, and inspired a string of large-budget Swedish historical films. Pauline Brunius also acted opposite Renée Björling in En vildfågel/Give Me My Son (John W. Brunius, 1921), and opposite Einar Hanson in Gunnar Hedes saga/Snowbound (Mauritz Stiller, 1923).

In 1930, she appeared in the sound film Charlotte Löwensköld (Gustaf Molander, 1930) featuring Birgit Sergelius. It is an adaptation of the 1925 novel Charlotte Löwensköld by Selma Lagerlöf. The film is almost entirely silent, with only brief dialogue sequences and a few sound effects. The film was not considered a success, and no further adaptations of Lagerlöf's work were made in her lifetime. Brunius co-starred with Victor Sjöström in his sound film Markurells i Wadköping/Father and Son (Victor Sjöström, 1931). However, Pauline Brunius is today best remembered in Sweden for her role as the high-class Mrs. Lindberg in the social comedy Karl Fredrik regerar/Karl Fredrik Reigns (Gustaf Edgren, 1934) with Sigurd Wallén.


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/2. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Hugo Björne in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/9. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius, Gösta Ekman, Jessie Wessel and Oscar Johansson in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1095/10. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Jessie Wessel in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Verlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm. no. 1095/11. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius in Thora van Deken (John W. Brunius, 1920).

Ten stormy years of stage direction

In the 1920s, Pauline Brunius made a series of short comedies based on her own scripts about the charming Stockholm family Vinner. The series started with Trollsländan/The Dragonfly (Pauline Brunius, 1920). The parents were played by the true couple Frida and Olof Winnerstrand and the son Putte by Brunius' son Palle. Six episodes were made that were shown as short films at the cinema and reminded of the current situation and action comedies. Fragments are preserved from De läckra skaldjuren/The Delicious Shellfish (Pauline Brunius, 1920) and Herr Vinners stenåldersdröm/Mr. Winner's Stone Age Dream (Pauline Brunius, 1924), plus a complete version of Lev livet leende/Laugh Live Smile (Pauline Brunius, 1921).

In co-operation with her husband, Pauline Brunius directed her only feature, Falska Greta/The False Greta (John W. Brunius, Pauline Brunius, 1934). The film was inspired by the obsession with Greta Garbo's Swedish visit in 1928. The script is kept in the Swedish Film Institute's library. Svenska Film's production manager Vilhelm Bryde approved of making the film with the addition of "an entertaining summer anniversary".

In the end, the script was filmed without Svenska's participation in Finland as a Swedish-Finnish co-production. The film, with Karin Albihn playing the title role, is today considered lost. Brunius henceforth dedicated herself exclusively to the theatre. In 1938, Pauline Brunius was the first woman, who was appointed managing director of Dramaten, the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, since its opening in 1788. She succeeded Olof Molander, who had ruled Dramaten with an iron hand.

Brunius had ten stormy years at Dramaten. Leading Sweden's national theatre through the years of the Second World War can't have been easy. She was criticised for a performance by Dramaten in Berlin in 1941. Under Brunius' leadership, Marika Stiernstedt's anti-Nazi play Attentat (The Attack) was staged by Alf Sjöberg in 1944. She was praised for her consciously strong initiative at Dramaten and for her initiative to build a second stage, the Little Stage, to increase the competitiveness and capacity of the national theatre. In 1948, she resigned due to illness.

In 1954, Pauline Brunius died in Stockholm at the age of 73. She had been married to John W. Brunius from 1909 till 1935. Their children were actress Anne-Marie Brunius and actor Palle Brunius. Director Nils Brunius is Pauline Brunius's grandson.


Swedish postcard by Forlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/2. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Pauline Brunius in Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/4. Photo: Skandia Film. Pauline Brunius and Jessie Wessel in the comedy Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Förlag Nordisk Konst, Stockholm, no. 1096/6. Photo: Skandia Film. Gösta Ekman and Pauline Brunius in the comedy Gyurkovicsarna/Lieutenant Tophat (John W. Brunius, 1920).


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 288. Photo: Skandia-Film. Pauline Brunius, Tore Svennberg, Renée Björling and Paul Seelig in the Swedish silent drama En vildfågel/Give Me My Son (John W. Brunius, 1921). Adapted from the play 'Skeppsbrott' (Shipwreck) by Samuel A. Duse. The title means literally 'The Wild Bird'. On 3 October 1921, En vildfågel premiered simultaneously in five cinemas in five different Swedish cities.


Swedish postcard by Axel Eliassons Konstförlag, Stockholm, no. 289. Photo: Skandia-Film. Pauline Brunius and Paul Seelig in the Swedish silent drama En vildfågel/Give Me My Son (John W. Brunius, 1921).

Source: Mikaela Kindblom (Svenska Filminstitutet/Svensk filmdatabas - Swedish), Julie Rongved Amundsen (Store norske leksikon- Norwegian), Mette Hjort and Ursula Lindqvist (A Companion to Nordic Cinema), Wikipedia (English and Swedish), and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 19 August 2023.