The Price of Betrayal
About The Price of Betrayal
Holk (John Ekman) has been out of work and his wife is ill. His friend Blom (Egil Eide) is no better off. They poach a grouse on an estate. The gamekeeper hears the shot. Blom gets away. Holk is caught, and in the fight his gun kills the keeper. He runs, leaving the gun. It is marked "A. Blom," so the hunt turns on Blom, who hides in Holk's attic. A reward of 200 kronor is posted. Holk resists, then his wife dies and he has no money to bury her. He tells the doctor where Blom is. Blom, watching through a crack in the attic floor, hides her body in a sack, lies under the sheet, and is missed by the police. When they leave, Holk sees the corpse sit up. It is Blom.
Cast & crew
More about The Price of Betrayal
Victor Sjöström directed Axel Frische's script. Julius Jaenzon and Henrik Jaenzon photographed it. The Swedish censor, on 5 October 1915, passed it for age 15 at 799 meters after cutting 28 meters from the original 827: the footbridge scenes in which Holk takes off his coat to drown, and the later search that fishes up his body. It opened at the Palads Teatret in Copenhagen on 16 November 1915 and at Röda Kvarn in the Auditorium, Stockholm, on 13 December 1915.
Themes
Making
The exteriors were shot on Östra Varvsgatan and at the far end of Långa gatan in Djurgårdsstaden, with interiors at the Lidingö studio.
Look
Julius Jaenzon and Henrik Jaenzon shot the Lidingö interiors and the Djurgårdsstaden streets.
Music
Silent. Swedish release prints used Swedish intertitles. A surviving Swiss copy carries French and German titles.
Preservation
Long treated as lost. In October 2017 a nearly complete print was identified at the CNC in Paris. The Swedish Film Institute took part in the restoration. The Swedish censor's 1915 cut removed the footbridge drowning scenes.
Notes
- Kaja Eide plays Blom's wife. Stina Berg plays a milk seller. Gabriel Alw plays the district constable's clerk.
- The Danish title is Judaspenge and a Swiss version is called L'argent de Judas.
- A nearly complete print was found at the CNC in Paris in October 2017. The Swedish Film Institute joined the restoration.
- Filmhuset in Stockholm showed it on 27 October 2018.
Scenes
- The gun beside the dead keeper is inscribed A. Blom.
- Blom takes the dead wife's place under the sheet while the police search the attic.
- Holk watches the body sit up.
Also available
- Internet Archive (judaspengar_1915)
