Troll-Elgen

The information on this film is not quite satisfactory at the time I am writing this: It should be pointed out that it is based on two texts by Mikkel Fønhus.

I saw "Troll-Elgen" this night at the Oslo cinematheque with an improvised piano score. It's the second Norwegian silent film I have seen this spring along with the sublime "Brudeferden i Hardanger", and I am anxious to see other flicks like "Madame besøker Oslo" and "Bergenstoget plyndret i natt".

Less strikingly beautiful than "Brudeferden", "Troll-Elgen" offers a story split between the traditional rural life and the urban Oslo of the 1920s. The Magic Moose (literally the Troll Moose) of the title is a sort of Loch Ness monster that the farmers claim to have seen but none have been able to hunt down. The rather traditional intrigue involves a farm hand that wants to marry a rich farmer's daughter. The father says that the boy would have to kill the mythical moose if ha was to deserve his daughter's hand. Instead he ends up escaping to Oslo and working as a masked shotgun virtuoso in a circus after killing another suitor in a fight over the girl. Or did he?...

This is Fürst's first feature and a good one at that. Reliable sources tell me that he continued to make very decent films for the rest of his career. Only a tad sad for his part that some of them were made during the war and were called "We are of Vidkun Quisling's hird" and "Unge Viljer".