1920s Swedish Movies

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.

An alcoholic, abusive ne'er-do-well is shown the error of his ways through a legend that dooms the last person to die on New Year's Eve before the clock strikes twelve to take the reins of Death's chariot and work tirelessly collecting fresh souls for the next year.

Based on a Finnish poem, The Kingdom of Rye is a gorgeous romantic drama set in rural northern Sweden during the harvest. It features a young couple whose love affair is fraught with Hardy-esque complications and an unhappily married wife of the landowner.

A newly elected village parson is required to marry his predecessor's widow. However, he's already married, and the woman is old enough to be his grandmother.

The merchant Blomberg is out in the countryside with his daughters and housekeeper when the idyll is suddenly shattered. The daughters head off to have fun with two young guys from Copenhagen who are on a road trip, and the vagabonds Pat and Patachon seize the chance to interfere for their own gain. The preserved material is the original Swedish version titled 'Landsvägsriddare', translated to 'Tyvepak' in Danish. The film was a huge economic success to the then Swedish owned production company Palladium. It is the first film, in which Pat and Patachon appear as a team, although not in their final constellation: As always, Pat is played by Carl Schenstrøm, whereas Patachon is embodied by Aage Bendixen instead of Harald Madsen. There is another 'Tyvepak' from 1915, which is directed by Lau Lauritzen Sr. as well. This film is a heavily revised version of the 1915-film. (stumfilm.dk)

A married writer's luck turns when he gets a play produced at Théâtre de Paris. He meets the femme fatale who should play the lead in his play. Passion and conflict occurs.

Greta Garbo in her first feature "Luffar-Petter" (Petter The Tramp) 1922. Only a 10-minute fragment of the film has survived. She plays one of the three daughters of a fireman who is robbed by the vagrant Peter. The two leading male roles—the fireman and the vagrant—are played by Eric Petschler, who is also the film's director and screenwriter.

A house in Paris happens to have two families living there with the same last name. In one apartment lives opera singer Gambetta Duval with his two daughters, Jeanne and Nita. In the second apartment lives old lady Duval with her grandchild Philippa and an her lodger, the physician Leon Monnier. Jeanne is secretly in love with Dr. Monnier who is secretly in love with Nita, who is secretly having an affair with the great playwright Armand de Marny.

Even though Elisabet's mother has remarried with the friendly dr Bärn it's impossible to cure Elisabet of her depression because she had to give away a child she gave birth to out of wedlock. Her mother and step father are the only people who know about the circumstances and they are keen to keep it secret so there is no scandal against the family.

Paul Rosenkrans is a Captain of the Swedish Navy and has been married to his Signe for six years. They are still as in love as if they were newly engaged. But when Paul's leave is over for this time, Signe meets an old good friend, the plucky suffragette Annie Behrman, chairman of "Women's Political Freedom Party". Annie has written a book about the woman's slavery in marriage and begins to process Signe with her ideas that soon makes Signe see her marriage in a whole new light.

Erhard Malm is studying to become an engineer, but support himself as a tutor at Consul Frendin. The consul's daughter Ruth and Erhard get interested in each other.

The wife of a dull-witted miller is in her deathbed and the miller must find a new woman to marry. He is expected to marry the sister of a local forester, a refined woman he wants to love. She is gentle and motherly, though a rather austere Christian. But the miller lusts after his maidservant, Lise, a ruthless and calculating woman determined to climb up the social ladder. Lise tries to use her lower class sensuality and a bit of magic to entice the miller.

On a farm in up-country Sweden, an enigmatic stranger comes to a conservative peasant community and seduces a farmer's wife.

Baron Brusenhielm at castle Tröstehult in Skåne dislikes how his young son Karl Oscar is playing “mother and father” with the tenant’s daughter Ann-Marie, as he anticipates the beginning of a future misalliance. Years pass, and Karl Oscar is about to graduate high school. He pretends to study church history but reads in fact “The Seducer’s Diary” and thinks of Ann-Marie, who is now grown up into a woman.

Gunnar works at a rail road in the woods and blasts a large boulder. Out of the ashes comes Satan himself - with cloven hoofs and a big mean grin.

Mr. Vinner's daughter, Lillan, accidentally breaks her mother's brooch and tries to catch a dragonfly as a replacement for the destroyed jewelry.

The prince of a small state amuses himself by temporarily switching roles with a cobbler, partly to avoid a visit from a princess, to whom his minister wants to marry him off. In his new role as prince, the cobbler causes one scandal after another.

A total of 13 framed vignettes – 14 if we count the two shots of rainy streets edited together – comprise Tavlor från London, an enchanting picture gallery of London scenes in 1922. In that year the British Empire was at its territorial height, covering a quarter of the globe and thus making London truly the world’s capital. It’s something of a surprise to learn that the film was made by the great Swedish cinematographer Julius Jaenzon, shortly after he shot Victor Sjöström’s masterpiece Vem Dömer?

In order to avoid ending up at the poorhouse, five orphaned children tries to make the best of their lives.

When silly inventor Svensson gets mistaken for Swedish/American aviator Smith, he is accidentally enlisted in the military and drawn into unexpected romantic affairs.

When Count Sebastian Furucrona dies, his will states that if his long lost son, Rickard, doesn’t reappear within the next decade, his estate will be inherited by it’s temporary caretaker, Joachim Harden.

In another early advertisement of her's, Greta and a group of friends have tea on the rooftop terrace of the Strand Hôtel and later have a picnic in the park.

Mr. Vinner gets shot in the back. To ease the pain, he tries to apply a cat skin to the painful area, but the skin is difficult to apply and forces Mr. Vinner into a series of embarrassing situations.

Young Miss Fob is blackmailed into marriage by evil banker Harry Fellips.

The young widow Louise von Winge and her mother-in-law are obsessed with hatred and revenge because the husband and son von Winge, the famous army aviator, were killed in air combat with the enemy's most feared aviator, August Ferrer.

The story of a man who makes a great sacrifice for his country and for his son. Based on the play of the same title by Tor Hedberg.

The young Baron Robert falls in love with his distant relative Helga.

Axel wants to marry his childhood friend Anna, but her father does not approve and kicks her out and sends Axel abroad on business.

Gösta Berling is a young and attractive minister. Because of his alcoholism and his daring sermons, he is eventually defrocked. He becomes tutor of countess Marta's stepdaughter and they fall in love. But the countess has a plan of her own.

Erotikon is a 1920 Swedish romantic comedy film directed by Mauritz Stiller, starring Tora Teje, Karin Molander, Anders de Wahl and Lars Hanson. It is based on the 1917 play A kék róka by Ferenc Herczeg. The story revolves around an entomology professor obsessed with the sexual life of bugs, and his easygoing wife who is courted by two suitors.

During a flight to Örebro, two childhood friends crash but survive. At the hospital, Karl-Johan experiences fever dreams where he lives in the Viking age.

The year is 1025 and Arnljot Sunvisson has returned home after a long journey to find that his betrothed has married another.

Baron Silverbuckla is a high-grade bachelor who, during his visit to the seaside resort of Kalvö, is surrounded by loads of married young ladies and their equally important mothers.

The young Tony will travel from Budapest to the countryside to marry his cousin Katinka, the oldest of the seven sisters Gyurkovics. Because Tony is already secretly married to another, the situation is problematic. Mizzi is the impish middle sister of seven who is glad to leave boarding school and has many adventures making her way back home. This includes impersonating a countess and meeting Count Horkay who is impersonating her cousin Tony, his friend whom Mizzi's mother intends to marry her oldest sister. The younger set all have their own ideas of who they love despite the plans of the older folks.

Katja is about to graduate, but she has nothing to wear for the graduation ball. Her father, the eccentric inventor Carl Axel Kock does not spend much of his income on Katja while her brother Curry gets everything he wants. So on the day of the ball, Katja simply dresses up in her brother’s brand new evening attire and attends the dance, smokes cigars, drinks brandy–and causes a scandal.

Åke Hjelm and Wilhelm Holt run a business together. Hjelm is honest and fair, but Holt takes every opportunity to gain some easy money – legal or not.

Brothers Österman at Svanö, after several years of bachelor life, say they need a housekeeper and announce the matter in the newspaper.

When Sten, at a mature age, is to study for his preliminary degree at the University of Lund, he is given a place to stay with Mrs. Lindgren on Adelgatan. His entrance into the city of learning is somewhat embarrassing,

When his ancestors seem to appear in the clouds during a storm of biblical proportions, young Ingmar decides to give up his career as the village teacher and to reclaim the land and farm of his fathers. The same stormy night, the charismatic preacher Helgum arrives in the village to spread the word about the promises of the Holy Land, which turns parents and children, men and wives, brothers and sisters, against one another. Ingmar is torn between his love for the headmaster’s daughter Gertrud who is under the preacher’s spell, and the prospects of marrying the judge’s daughter Barbro in order to keep the farm.

Fredrik Mack (Gustav Ranft) owns a glue factory in northern Norway and Ove Rolandsen (Eugen Skjønberg), a great womanizer, works for him. When Mack's beautiful daughter Elise (Lilla Bye) returns from studies, Ove immediately flirts with her.