In the Fetters of Darkness
About In the Fetters of Darkness
Elinor Petipon is arrested on suspicion of murdering her husband, the doctor. She does not know his body, and the examining judge holds her for observation. In jail she talks to the prison chaplain. She can remember a happy marriage and a party at which an old admirer, Count Xavier, pressed his court, and she remembers fainting. Then nothing, until the police find Petipon dead in her boudoir. When the chaplain brings his own son, she says she had a son once. Count Xavier, dying, tells his doctor that he killed Petipon. At the trial Elinor's memory comes back, and the doctor's report matches what she says.
Cast & crew
More about In the Fetters of Darkness
Georg af Klercker directed from a script by Willy Grebst. Carl Gustaf Florin photographed it in the summer of 1916 at the Hasselblad studio on Otterhällan in Gothenburg. The censor, on 22 December 1916, cut the film from 829 meters to 796 and rated it from age 15, shortening the display of the corpse after the title "Konfrontationen." An alternate title was Hypnotismens makt.
Themes
Making
Af Klercker made the film for Hasselblad in Gothenburg, not for Svenska Biografteatern. The story is told in pieces of memory: the party, the faint, and the body in the boudoir, with the gap left in place until the trial.
Look
Carl Gustaf Florin shot the film at the Hasselblad studio on Otterhällan. The murder is withheld and then shown as what Elinor can and cannot remember.
Preservation
The film was shown again in Swedish cinematheque programmes from 1992 onward, so a projection print existed then. A digital copy is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- The Swedish title is I mörkrets bojor. Finnish release titles were Himmeä menneisyys and Det förflutnas dunkel.
- It opened at the Scala in Malmö on 26 March 1917 and at Rådhusbiografen in Stockholm on 23 April 1917.
- Sybil Smolova plays Elinor. Carl Barcklind plays Dr. Petipon. Artur Rolén plays their son Arthur. Ivar Kalling plays Count Xavier.
- Frans Oscar Öberg plays the prison chaplain. Hugo Björne plays the examining judge. Karl Gerhard plays the tall criminal. Ludde Gentzel plays the count's doctor.
- The Swedish Film Database records cinematheque screenings in 1992, 1994, and later.
Scenes
- Elinor is shown her husband's body and does not know him.
- She tells the chaplain the party, Count Xavier's pursuit, and the faint, and then nothing.
- Dying, Xavier tells his doctor that he killed Petipon.
- In court her account and the doctor's statement meet.
Also available
- Internet Archive (silent-i-mrkrets-bojor-aka-in-the-fetters-of-darkness)
Quotes
Jag hade också en son en gång!
