When Connie met Jenny (Mona and Lars) … Ingmar's Inheritance (1925), Selma Lagerlöf Part II

This Hanson man

We’re back in Sweden and five years after the second of Victor Sjöström’s planned adaptations of Selma Lagerlöf’s epic two-part novel Jerusalem failed to meet expectations, director Gustaf Molander picked up the thread with a different cast and agenda. Whilst the English translation of the books I’ve been reading have been criticised for too much authorial intervention from well-intentioned but over fussy, Velma Swanston Howard, which of these two directors translated the author’s meaning to best effect?

According to Paolo Cherchi Usai in The Oxford History of World Cinema, it was the author’s admiration for Sjöström’s films that led her to sign over the film rights for all her books to Svenska Bio and he adds that the director “found in her work the ideal expression of the active role played by nature in the destiny of characters torn between good and evil.” The author was certainly not low on opinion and was initially unsure about The Phantom Carriage (although pleased with the result) and berated Mauritz Stiller for his adaptation of The Gosta Berling Saga calling it “cheap and sensational”.

With that in mind, you wonder what she made of the changes made to the latter part of her first volume of Jerusalem by Gustaf Molander who had form in this respect having co-scripted Sir Arne’s Treasure (1919) with Stiller and made a number of alterations to Lagerlöf’s original. It was ever the case in film making and the public houses would need to be re-opened and with a very late licence to allow a fuller discussion of the relationship between books and their films. Sjöström followed his author’s text more closely and made two feature films out of less than 105 pages whereas Molander crafted one from remaining 240 including adding some of his own inventions. The feeling is much the same but the pace has changed and the cinematic vision of the narrative is one aimed at creating a hit film with hot actors (in terms of box office and, oh yes, all that….).

Mona Mårtenson

Ingmar’s Inheritance (Ingmarsarvet) steps back a few chapters and starts with Strong Ingmar (Ivan Hedqvist) taking young Ingmar (Arne Lundh) to the death bed of his father (not Victor in this case) and telling him of the family’s ranking and importance. Elias (John Ekman) is married to Karin Ingmarsdotter (Märta Halldén) and his decent into an abusive alcoholic wastrel is shown again but, unlike book and Sjostrom film, he causes his own demise by riding his trap too hard, hiding what remains of his wife’s wealth – little Ingmar’s inheritance - in the pillow on his death bed.

The years pass and Ingmar (now Lars Hanson) is fully grown and a teacher at the school run by Schoolmaster Storm (Nils Aréhn), looking longingly across at the old homestead, which is managed by Karin and the man she was always destined to marry, Halvor (Mathias Taube). Ingmar himself has his eyes set on Storm’s daughter Gertrude (Mona Mårtenson) who is almost despairing of his romantic instincts until he agrees to accompany her to the village dance.

At the dance, Ingmar impresses not only Gertrude but Strong Ingmar who challenges him to honour the family traditions of farming and hard word. He takes him to the fast-flowing river at Langforsen’s Gap and persuades him to build a sawmill there which he can use to make a fortune and thereby buy back the family farm.

Ivan Hedqvist, Mona and Lars Hanson

“Let us sing a hymn to make the Devil angry!”

Across the village, the faithful have gathered to pray, not dance and Pastor (Albion Örtengren) leads his fragile flock in hymns and routine religious rhymes at the missionary house. A storm is brewing and will bring unexpected fantasy and glamour in the form of Conrad Veidt’s wandering preacher, Hellgum, who takes refuge from the wind and rain and immediately takes command of the pulpit. In the book Hellgum is married to one of the women in the village but here he is more sensationalised with a not entirely trustworthy magnetism and religious passion – I’m not sure that Selma would have approved; her Hellgum is far subtler. Still, this is Conrad Veidt, and he’s absolutely the man for this gig and plays the febrile duality for all it’s worth every second on the screen as the “ lone wanderer who brought a message from the Holy City of God…”

Meanwhile, the storm begins to terrify the revellers at the dance as Strong Ingmar talks about the myth of the wild hunt of Odin come to reap the souls of the unwary and Molander indulges in some very Germanic fantasies as ghouls, gods and wild animals sweep unnaturally through the woodlands. Ingmar is missing amongst all this … probably held back by Selma appalled by this unscripted insertion, but he returns and looking from the window appears to see the ghost of his father looming large in the darkened sky telling him to honour the family traditions.

Conrad Veidt makes an entrance as only he can...

It is a very effective change in pace and signals Ingmar’s pursuit of both his family farm and Gertrude’s love as well as the beginning of Hellgum’s religious conversion of many in the village. The storm stops as Hellgum speaks – is he/isn’t he a prophet? - and he tells them of the faith that will bring safety during the storm… a new belief he acquired during the sinking of the liner L’Univers. This is another well-directed segment and harrowing still as men try desperately to pull women and even children off the lifeboats after the ship goes down, there’s little nobility on show and the fight to survive is grim.

Hellgum volunteers to jump off the lifeboat to save the women and children and survives after a vision from God showing that unity, brotherhood and sacrifice will save the world. He is moved to gather brethren and follow a path to a life in Jerusalem in a new Christian community. Undoubtedly, the notion of powerful new faith was something much closer to the contemporary audience, indeed, Lagerlöf partially based the story on an emigration that took place in 1896 from Nås in the Dalarna County.

Ingmar and Gertrude are much more convincing to modern eyes in their love and in his desire to restore his birth-right. But the path to true love must never run smooth and, as Ingmar is off building his water mill, Gertrude attracts the not entirely holy interest of Hellgum…  

Conrad Veidt and Mona M

“It’s true, he’s captured you too with his gaudy words!”

Once again Strong Ingmar is on hand to set things in motion and after he warns Ingmar, the young man races back home to confront his sweetheart. He duly gains the wrong impression and appears to have assaulted Hellgum only for the preacher to explain that Ingmar fought off two attackers. Ingmar forgives Gertrude’s momentary doubt and their balance is restored but for how long?

Spoilers ahoy!

The story turns as Karin, so practical and therefore previously resistant, is cured of her unexplained inability to walk during one of Hellgum’s gatherings at Ingmarsfarm… she agrees to sell the farm to fund the Hellgumists’ exodus to the Holy Land thereby leaving an opportunity for Ingmar to buy back the family farm. Sadly, the farm is slightly out of his price bracket and it is here that we find Sweden’s multi-talented superstar Jenny Hasselqvist as Barbro the daughter of rich Berger Sven Person (Knut Lindroth) who was once a farm boy for the Ingmars. Barbro has been disappointed in love and looked on with considerable interest in the direction of Ingmar, so Dad does what all fathers might and offers to loan Ingmar the money as dowry for Barbro’s hand in marriage.

So now we have a classic Lagerlöf moral conundrum and Ingmar is not just driven by familial pride, he feels a responsibility to all those workers on the farm, especially the elderly who look on him with pleading eyes as he wrestles with his conscience. If you don’t want to know the result, please look away now.

The Ghost of Ingmar Past

“Ingmar, as long as your heart is bound to earthly matters, it is bound to sorrow.”

Ingmar follows his head and not his heart and, although neither solution would give him peace, he feels he has betrayed Gertrude who is devastated. His ensuing wedding with Barbro is not a happy occasion and he can barely look at his new bride, but his misery is about to be compounded as his former love, flees to the woods in desperation, has visions of putting his eyes out in revenge before seeing a vision of Christ and undergoing a conversion.

The real kick in the tale is when, seeking rest at a peasant’s cottage, Gertrude sleeps on a pillow bought at auction from the Ingmar’s Farm… she finds the money hidden by Evil Elias and a note explaining that it’s Ingmar’s inheritance. In a heart-breaking final meeting, Gertrude calls Ingmar away from his wedding to tell him that she has transferred her love to Jesus and that she has found his money. Realising that this find could have enabled him to have his love and his farm, he collapses in a sad rage… but the worst is that Gertrude is in a rapture beyond his earthly love.

As the Hellgumists leave for the Holy Land, the young woman joins them, a blissful expression on her face and, in the book, Ignmar swears to somehow win her back setting things up for the finale in Jerusalem II and Molander’s second film, Till österland (1926) of which more later…

The under-used Jenny Hasselqvist

So, is it any good?

Ingmar's Inheritance is a dynamic and entertaining film from Molander who, whilst he takes liberties with the source material, condenses the sweep of the book into a faster-moving film of faith and fantasy. The cinematography from Åke Dahlqvist and maestro Julius Jaenzon is superb and I’d love to see this one the big screen. The key performers do not disappoint and it’s good to see Conrad Veidt playing alongside Lars Hanson, two of the finest leading men in silent Europe. Molander’s expansion of Strong Ingmar’s significance also gives us an opportunity to see more of the excellent Ivan Hedqvist, a very authoritative presence at a time when Swedish film had some of the finest naturalistic actors.

Young Mona Mårtenson is also impressive and shows real subtlety beyond her striking good looks, especially among so many powerful and more experienced players. Sadly, the genius Jenny Hasselqvist has less to do other than look longingly at Lars, triumphantly haughty, and then massively depressed but there’d be more demanding work to follow in the sequel… Which makes it all the more upsetting that the film is mostly lost with only some 600 metres – around half an hour – surviving. Still, needs must, and with Jerusalem II in hand and a stack of publicity stills, I’ll make what I can of that next time.