The Portrait of Captain Grogg

Name: The Portrait of Captain Grogg
Director: Victor Bergdahl
Genre: Animation
Released: 1917
Duration: 14 min
Cast: Victor Bergdahl

1917 Animation 14 minutes Directed by Victor Bergdahl

About The Portrait of Captain Grogg

Victor Bergdahl, live, works on a canvas that invisible hands keep painting. He wakes from the daydream. Captain Grogg, a drawn sailor, arrives to be painted. A squirt from a syringe lays the portrait on. Grogg hates the nose and demands new ones. He chases Bergdahl around the room. Bergdahl lands a blow that sticks Grogg into a picture on the wall, rolls the canvas up, and carries it out. Grogg tries to poke his head from the roll and is pushed back.

Cast & crew

Victor Bergdahl Director

More about The Portrait of Captain Grogg

Bergdahl drew the captain and appears himself. Svenska Biografteatern produced it and the company's film bureau distributed it. It opened in Stockholm and Malmö on August 13, 1917. It is the fourth Captain Grogg short, after Kapten Grogg och Kalle på negerbal and before Kapten Grogg vid Nordpolen.

Themes

A sitter who rejects his nose
A drawn captain stuck in a canvas
Captain Grogg
portrait
nose
Bergdahl
Svenska Biografteatern

Reviews

Svenska Dagbladet wrote that Bergdahl's mix of photographed and drawn film was both funny and startling.

Preservation

A print survives.

Notes

Live action and animation share the room.
Svenska Dagbladet called the mix funny and startling. Stockholms-Tidningen called it a very funny cartoon.
A circulating copy runs 4 minutes 47 seconds. The Swedish Film Database lists 14 minutes.
The shooting-log title was Kapten Grogg beställer sitt porträtt.