A Dangerous Courtship

1919 RomanceDrama 65 minutes Directed by Rune Carlsten

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About A Dangerous Courtship

In a mountain village every boy wants Aslaug, daughter of the rich farmer Knut Husaby. The wealthiest farmer, Thormund, offers his awkward son Ola. Aslaug refuses: she wants Tore Næsset, a smallholder's son. Husaby sends her to the summer farm and, after Tore visits, beats him on the only road home. He tells Tore that if he can slip past "the Husaby wolf and his cubs" next Saturday, the girl is his. Tore cannot get by the farm. He climbs the cliff above the river, nearly falls, and reaches the top exhausted. Husaby, impressed, lets him marry Aslaug.

Cast & crew

More about A Dangerous Courtship

Rune Carlsten's first film as director. He and Sam Ask wrote it from Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's story. Raoul Reynols photographed it at the Skandia studio in Långängen, with exteriors around the Hardanger Fjord. It opened in Gothenburg and Stockholm on 26 December 1919.

Themes

  • A rich farmer's daughter and a smallholder's son
  • The only road past Husaby farm
  • A climb up the river cliff
  • Aslaug
  • Tore Næsset
  • Knut Husaby
  • Ola Thormund
  • summer farm
  • cliff climb
  • Hardanger
  • Bjørnson

Making

The summer-farm road and the river cliff were shot in Norway, on the Hardanger Fjord, not in a Swedish studio tank. Husaby's line about the wolf and his cubs is the condition Tore has to meet.

Look

Raoul Reynols shot the studio scenes at Långängen and the fjord exteriors around Hardanger.

Music

Silent. The 2010 restoration carries Swedish and English intertitles.

Preservation

The Swedish Film Institute restored the film in 2010, with new Swedish and English intertitles.

Notes

  • The Swedish title is Ett farligt frieri. English titles also include A Dangerous Wooing and A Dangerous Proposal.
  • Lars Hanson plays Tore Næsset. Gull Cronvall is Aslaug. Theodor Blich plays Knut Husaby.
  • Hjalmar Peters is Thormund and Kurt Welin is Ola. Gösta Cederlund and Hugo Tranberg play Husaby's sons Eyvind and Sigurd.
  • Hilda Castegren is Tore's mother. Torsten Bergström plays a fiddler.
  • The Swedish Film Institute restored the film in 2010 and supplied intertitles in Swedish and English.

Scenes

  • Husaby and his sons catch Tore on the only road down from the summer farm and beat him.
  • Tore climbs the cliff above the river, nearly falls, and comes over the top so tired he can barely stand. Husaby gives him Aslaug.

Influenced by

  • Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson's story Ett farligt frieri

Also available

  • Internet Archive (silent-a-dangerous-wooing)

Quotes

Knut Husaby: "If next Saturday you manage to slip past the Husaby wolf and his cubs, the girl will be yours.