A Man There Was
About A Man There Was
Terje Vigen lives with his wife and daughter on a Norwegian island. In 1809 a British blockade cuts off food, and he rows toward Denmark for supplies. A British ship takes him, and he sits out the rest of the war in an English prison. Freed, he learns that his wife and child have starved. Years later, in a storm, he pulls in a British yacht. The captain is the officer who imprisoned him, and the captain's wife and child are aboard. Terje saves them instead of taking revenge.
Cast & crew
More about A Man There Was
Victor Sjöström directed, co-wrote with Gustaf Molander, and plays Terje. Charles Magnusson produced. At 60,000 SEK it was the most expensive Swedish film yet made. It opened on January 29, 1917, the same day in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Copenhagen.
Themes
Background
Sweden was neutral in 1917. The story is set in the British blockade of Norway during the Napoleonic Wars.
Making
Magnusson put more money into fewer films. Sjöström staged the blockade and the wreck as sea scenes rather than as a studio tank.
Look
Julius Jaenzon shot Terje's rowing and the storm rescue on open water.
Music
Silent. A score was written for the four-city opening on January 29, 1917.
Preservation
The Swedish Film Institute's 2016 restoration uses a German tinted 35mm nitrate print, with gaps filled from a Norwegian duplicate negative held by the institute. That version runs about 53 minutes.
Notes
- The Swedish title is Terje Vigen, after Henrik Ibsen's 1862 poem.
- Edith Erastoff plays the English lady. August Falck plays the lord. Bergliot Husberg plays Mrs. Vigen.
- Julius Jaenzon photographed it.
- The opening program printed Ibsen's poem in full and used posters by Eigil Schwab.
- Writers date the rich period of Swedish silent film from this picture through Gösta Berlings saga (1925).
Scenes
- Terje is taken off his rowboat by a British warship.
- He comes home to an empty house.
- In the storm he hauls in the officer, the officer's wife, and their child, and lets them live.
Influenced by
- Terje Vigen (Henrik Ibsen poem, 1862)
Also available
- Internet Archive (AManThereWas1917)
