Cinema
Præsten i Vejlby
George Schnéevoigt · 1931
Synopsis
In the seventeenth century, in a village in Jutland, the pastor Søren Qvist is as kind as he is hot-tempered. His daughter Mette rejects the wealthy farmer Morten Bruus and becomes engaged to the young district judge, Erik, and Morten becomes the pastor's enemy. One day, Qvist strikes Niels, Morten's simple-minded brother, whom he employed in the garden, with a spade; Niels runs away and disappears. A blacksmith says he saw the pastor digging at night, an unrecognisable body wearing Niels's clothes is found in the garden, and Erik has to investigate the case.
Context
The film is released on 7 May 1931. Its director had shot a talking feature in Greenland the year before, co-produced with Norway and spoken in Norwegian; the Danish public had known short talkies since 1923 and foreign sound films for two years, but hearing its own language was enough to make this one a great success. Fleming Lynge's screenplay adapts Blicher's short story of 1829 and softens its ending. The film remakes a silent by August Blom released in 1922 and would be remade in 1972. The pastor is played by Henrik Malberg, whom Dreyer would cast in 1955 as the old farmer in Ordet.
Who it is for
About an hour and forty minutes, in Danish, with the picture and sound of 1931 and acting still marked by the silent era. Know before watching that the case is real and dates from 1626.
Prizes and reception
The first feature film spoken entirely in Danish, and for that reason a great popular success; the short story it is based on is a classic of Danish crime fiction.
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