#Harald Schwenzen

[byneddiedingo]

Harald Schwenzen, Alice O'Fredericks, Mona Mårtenson, and Peter Malberg in Laila (George Schnéevoigt, 1929)

Cast: Mona Mårtenson, Tryggve Larssen, Harald Schwenzen, Peter Malberg, Cally Monrad, Henry Gleditsch, Finn Bernhoff, Lily Larson-Lund, Alice O'Fredericks, Rasmus Christiansen, Inge Brekke. Screenplay: George Schnéevoigt, based on a novel by Jens Andreas Friis. Cinematography: Waldemar Christensen, Allan Lynge.

Exciting but overlong, Laila is a landmark film in Norway, but its cultural conflicts are universal. The story takes place in an unspecified past, when tensions between the Norwegians and the Sami (we usually call them Lapps, as do the intertitles, but that seems to have become a pejorative) have reached a kind of uneasy truce. The Norwegians want to settle down and build towns, while the Sami remain nomadic, moving their reindeer herds about freely in search of feeding grounds. At the film's beginning, the Norwegian merchant Lind (Finn Bernhoff) and his wife (Lily Larson-Lund) set out to have their infant daughter baptized, but as they're traveling in their reindeer-drawn sleds across the winter landscape, they're attacked by wolves. The nursemaid Magga (Inge Brekke), who is carrying the baby, is separated from the others and her sled overturns; she loses her grip on the child, who is tossed into some bushes, but before she can cut the rope that tethers the sled to the reindeer, she is towed away. Night is falling, and the little company must wait until morning until they can search for the baby. They find only the empty basket in which the child was swaddled. Director George Schnéevoigt makes the most of this sequence, as he does with several other action scenes, including a hair's-breadth rescue when a boat traverses some rapids and goes over a waterfall later in the film. Fortunately, one of the Sami, Jåmpa (Tryggve Larssen), who works for the wealthy herder Aslag Laagje (Peter Malberg), comes upon the baby and takes it to be raised by the childless Aslag and his wife (Cally Monrad), who name the girl Laila. A year goes by before Aslag discovers that Laila is actually the Linds' lost child, and he reluctantly gives her up to them. But then the land is struck by an outbreak of plague which kills both of the Linds, and the elderly couple who are looking after Laila allow Aslag to take her home with him. She grows up with no knowledge of her birth parentage, traveling with the Sami as one of their own. Mona Mårtenson gives a boisterous, athletic performance as the grownup Laila, reminding me a bit of  Mary Pickford's inexhaustible energy in films like The Love Light (Frances Marion, 1921). She softens when she falls in love with Anders Lind, who runs a trading post the Sami visit during an annual market. But neither she nor Anders knows that they're really cousins -- his father and hers were brothers. Meanwhile, Aslag and his wife have been planning a marriage between Laila and Mellet (Henry Gleditsch), a foundling who had been taken in by the Laagjes even before Laila arrived. The rest of the film is a typical melodramatic stew of jealousy and prejudice: Norwegians, known to the Sami as "daro," don't marry Sami girls, Laila is told. There's a big Dramatic Moment when Laila is supposed to meet Anders at midnight by a cross-topped cairn, and when he fails to show (his father is dying and he can't leave the deathbed), she flings her arms out in a crucified pose. And there's a last-minute chase to reach the church after Laila agrees to marry Mellet: Jåmpa, who has always adored Laila, reveals to Anders her true parentage, and together they rush to tell her, only to be set upon by yet another wolf pack. Apparently, consanguinity is of less significance than intermarriage between Sami and daro, because Anders arrives in time to snatch his cousin Laila away from Mellet, who disappears in the general rejoicing. Even the conventional melodramatics, however, can't detract from the splendid documentary-like footage of life in the far northern mountains, the real reason to watch Laila.

[kansassire]

Pan, 1922, Harald Schwenzen

[reviewsphere]

Laila (1929)

FILM REVIEW: Laila (1929) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ @HippFestScot @FCTrust @MaritFalt @MaritandRona @laughandaguise #laila

Fate and conscience are prominent themes in the first half of writer and director George Schnéevoigt’s silent movie adaptation of a popular novel about the indigenous Sami people of northern Europe (Lapps) which due to its lengthy running time of 146 minutes is broken by a popcorn-munching intermission.

Regarding fate, the proverb “one man’s loss is another man’s gain” holds true when the…

[filmclingon]

Watched this again last night, but this time looked up some of the actors to see what became of them.  Turns out poor spurned Mellet was a true tragic hero in real life -- from the Wikipedia article on actor Henry Gleditsch:  "Henry Cochrane Williamsen Gleditsch (9 November 1902 – 6 October 1942) was a Norwegian actor and theatre director.  He was born in Kristiania [now Oslo].  In his young days he participated in skiing for SFK Lyn.  He made his acting debut in 1923, and in 1937 he established and took charge of Trøndelag Teater in Trondheim. He had a satirical style, provoking the authorities of the Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. People warned him and advised him to flee to Sweden, but he did not do so.  Following skirmishes in Majavatn and sabotages in Glomfjord and Malm, conducted by the Norwegian resistance movement, martial law was declared on 6 October 1942 in and around Trondheim, in Nord-Trøndelag and in Grane. In a speech held in the main square in the city center of Trondheims, Josef Terboven declared an imminent crackdown on 'those who pull the strings.'  Gleditsch was executed as a propitiatory reprisal, near Falstad, together with newspaper editor and politician Harald Langhelle and eight other people."  And his rival Anders Lind was also heroic, although spared the ultimate sacrifice: "Harald Schwenzen (18 May 1895 – 16 April 1954) was a Norwegian stage and film actor. Born in Glücksberg, Germany, he relocated to Norway where he made his stage debut at Nationaltheatret in 1918, and played for this theatre for many years. He was script writer and director for the 1922 film 'Pan.' He chaired the Norwegian Actors' Equity Association during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, and was arrested and sent to Grini and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. After his release and the end of the war, he continued appearing on Norwegian stages and in films until his death in 1954."  My God, I love Norwegians.

[manwithpipe]

Pan (Harald Schwenzen, 1922)

[lairreparablefugadeltiempo]

Pan (Harald Schwenzen, 1922)

[silentlondon]

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2014: Pordenone post No 1

Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2014: Pordenone post No 1

Das Frauenhaus von Rio (1927)

How much excitement can one person handle on a Sunday morning? For myself, the opportunity to see – finally – Raoul Walsh’s classic crime drama Regeneration(1915) and on 35mm no less, with music by John Sweeney, was more than reason enough to get out of bed. That it was preceded by a film packed with vice and violence (and fabulous clothes), made this a far-from…

[kansassire]

Pan, 1922, Harald Schwenzen

[kansassire]

Pan, 1922, Harald Schwenzen

[kansassire]

Pan, 1922, Harald Schwenzen

[lairreparablefugadeltiempo]

Pan (Harald Schwenzen, 1922)

[manwithpipe]

Pan (Harald Schwenzen, 1922)