The Cinematheque

Bergman’s first popular success came with his fourth feature, a moody melodrama adapted by writer Dagmar Edqvist from her own best-selling novel. Birger Malmsten, an early Bergman regular, plays Bengt, a young pianist combatting bitterness and self-pity after being blinded—in an accident involving a puppy!—during his military service. Rising star and future director Mai Zetterling, in her only role for Bergman (excepting the Bergman-penned Torment, directed by Alf Sjöberg), shines as Ingrid, the young servant hired to care for him. Class differences provide an obstacle to Bengt and Ingrid’s burgeoning romance. Striking Expressionist images, and a delirious dream sequence as Bengt undergoes surgery, anticipate the Bergman to come. Like much of the director’s work of the time, the influence of American film noir is also apparent. Watch for Bergman in a Hitchcock-style cameo as a train passenger near the film’s end.