Gustaf Molander had started out with mediocre films like
Bodakungen/ The Tyranny of Hate (1920),
Amatorfilmen (1922),
Malarpirates (1923),
Thomas Graals myndling (1923),
33.333 (1924) and
Constable Paulus' Easter Bomb (1925).
During the 1920s he specialized in adaptations of famous novels and
plays, notably the ones written by Lagerlöf, such as
Ingmarsarvet/ Ingmar's Inheritance (1925)
and
Charlotte Lowenskold (1930),
and by
Strindberg, such as
Synd (1928).
He soon turned to melodrama, in particular with the films scripted by German
director
Paul Merzbach:
Hans Engelska Fru/ His English Wife (1927),
Forseglade Lappar/ Sealed Lips (1927),
Hjartats Triumf/ The Triumph of the Heart (1929),
and
Parisiskor/ Parisiennes (1928).
After the advent of sound, Molander directed other generic melodramas like
Svarta Rosor/ Black Roses (1932),
Karlek och Kassabrist/ Love and Deficit (1932),
Vi som Gar Koksvagen/ Servant's Entrance (1932),
and Under Falsk Flagg/ Under False Flag (1935),
and launched actress
Ingrid Bergman in two adaptations of
Hjalmar Bergman's plays:
Dollar (1938)
and
Swedenhielms (1935).
After
Familjens Hemlighe/ The Family Secret (1936), adapted from
Pierre Wolff's play
"Polichinelle", Molander directed the sentimental comedy
Intermezzo (1936) which turned Ingrid
Bergman into an international star (the film was remade three years later in
Hollywood).
En Kvinnas Ansikte/ A Woman's Face (1938)
Anna (Ingrid Bergman), a woman whose face was
disfigured when she was still a child and who now leads a criminal gang, tries
to blackmail the wife of a plastic surgeon, but he, instead of retaliating,
offers to operate on her face, figuring that beauty would make her honest too.
Anna wakes up an attractive woman, but no less evil than before. She schemes
to rob an aristocratic family of their inheritance, but slowly comes to like
them and even marry the family's secretary.
Ingrid Bergman appeared also in the melodrama En Enda Natt/ Only One Night (1939).
But most of his films were mediocre, mostly scripted by his usual collaborator Gosta Stevens:
the biopic Emilie Hogquist (1939) about a 19th-century Swedish actress,
Ombyte Fornojer (1939),
En, men ett Lejon/ One, But a Lion (1940),
Den Ljusnande Framtid/ Bright Prospects (1941),
Striden gar Vidare/ The Fight Continues (1941).
After that collaboration ended, Molander made
I Natt - Eller Aldrig/ Tonight or Never (1941),
Rid i Natt/ Ride Tonight (1942), adapted from Vilhelm Moberg's 1941 novel "Ride This Night",
His masterpiece is Ordet/ The Word (1943), the first adaptation of Kaj Munk's 1925 play (before Dreyer's more famous one), a horror and metaphysical film.
His last films were:
Kvinna Utan Ansikte (1947),
Eva (1948),
Life Starts Now (1948),
Kvartetten som Sprangdes (1950),
Franskild/ Divorced (1951), co-scripted by Ingmar Bergman,
Karlek (1952),
Trots (1952),
Glasberget/ The Glass Mountain (1953),
Sir Arne's Treasure (1954),
Enhorningen (1955),
and
Sangen om den Eldroda Blomman/ The Song of the Scarlet Flower (1956).
He then focused on television.
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