The Downy Girl
About The Downy Girl
Mayor Fristedt's son Mauritz wants to marry Anne-Marie Ehinger, the baker's daughter called Dunungen. The town calls it a mismatch, but the mayor agrees if Mauritz will try to unload a packet of worthless shares on rich bachelor uncle Teodor during the engagement trip. Anne-Marie warms to the stern uncle while Mauritz treats her coldly. Teodor, after talking with his mother, offers Mauritz the manager's post at Laxåhyttan if he marries her, hoping his own feeling will cool. Mauritz then tries to sell him the shares. Anne-Marie stops the deal. Mauritz turns on her, and she stays in Teodor's arms.
Cast & crew
More about The Downy Girl
Ivan Hedqvist directed, his first film. Ester Julin wrote the screenplay from Selma Lagerlöf's novella in Osynliga länkar (1894) and from the 1914 play, which Hedqvist had played as uncle Teodor at Dramaten. Julius Jaenzon photographed it for Svenska Biografteatern. Censors passed all 2,698 meters, certificate 22967, on 27 November 1919. The Swedish Film Database notes that the published plot follows a surviving copy without intertitles and a program leaflet.
Themes
Making
Hedqvist already knew the part: he had played uncle Teodor on stage since the Dramaten opening in 1914. The print was black and white and tinted, 35mm, 1.33:1.
Look
Julius Jaenzon shot the six-reel film at 1.33:1. Release prints were tinted.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
The Swedish Film Institute holds the materials and released a digital restoration in 2018, running 102 minutes. Tinting was matched to a nitrate fragment at the EYE Filmmuseum.
Notes
- It opened the same day, 1 December 1919, at Cosmorama in Gothenburg, Metropol in Malmö, and Röda Kvarn in Stockholm, Helsingborg, and Gävle.
- A technical sheet gives 124 minutes at 19 frames per second for the 2,698-meter, six-reel negative. A 1945 re-censorship of the same certificate lists 1,960 meters.
- Renée Björling's Dunungen was her first large film part. Hedqvist plays Teodor.
- Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson is Teodor's mother. Ernst Öberg is the mayor, Mia Gründer the mayoress, Ragnar Widestedt is Mauritz.
- Weyler Hildebrand remade Dunungen in 1941, again with Jaenzon as cinematographer.
- The 2018 restoration rebuilt tint colors from a short nitrate fragment at the EYE Filmmuseum in Amsterdam and filled missing scenes with texts and stills.
Scenes
- On the engagement trip Mauritz offers uncle Teodor the worthless shares, and Anne-Marie stops the sale.
- After Mauritz turns on her, Anne-Marie steps into Teodor's arms and stays.
Influenced by
- Selma Lagerlöf's novella Dunungen (Osynliga länkar, 1894)
- Lagerlöf's play Dunungen (Dramaten, 1914)
Influenced
- Dunungen (1941), directed by Weyler Hildebrand
Also available
- Filmarkivet.se (Dunungen, 2018 restoration)
