The Sausage-maker Who Disappered ("Den forsvundne pølsemaker") was directed by Toralf Sandø, and is his second movie. He later on became one of the grand film makers in Norway when it comes to numbers.
This movie became a huge hit in the newly nazi- German occupied Norway when it premiered december 26th 1941, though not at all as big as most other war movies. But later on it has held as one of the most important ones when it came to bringing laughter in war time.
The movie's main selling pont was the tall comedian Leif Juster who's comical talent not only was immense, but is still linger in Norway due to among other movies this one. This was the movie that he really showed his slapstick talent for the first time.
The movie has some bad editing, and maybe also some bad dialog, but still this is much beloved. It's made on a minimal war budget, and you could also say it's supposed to be a litt chaotic.
The movie has a lot of gags of what you lack during war time, without addressing the war. It's all about food, sigarettes, chocolate and alcohol, and even ration cards.
The story is about a well known sausage-maker, Herman Brand (H. Brand is read out like "håbrann" in norwegian, which was the fish Norwegians had to see their sausages filled with n the lack of meat during the war), famous for his great sausages. But one day he disappears without a trace, except some broken glass and some blood on the floor. His wife hired the two hopeless private detectives Gløgg (which translates to Smart) and Rask (Quick) to find out what has happend. And the sillyness begins.
The film is based upon basert på the crimeparody-novel "Den forsvunne pølsemaker" written by lawyer Lorentz Normann Kvam (under the pseudo Rocambole Pedersen).
This film was made by the Nazi director Leif Sinding's old company Merkur Film, which is quite astonishing. Sinding was willingly put in control on Norwegian film industry by the Nazis,but had to sell his company Merkur Film. This movie went through the censorship.
Director Toralf Sandø was a political opponent, and just after the war went to make another classic "Englandsfarere" ("We Lave for England") in 1946.
This film is also famous for it's title cut, "Pølsemaker , pølsemaker hvor har du gjort av deg" ("Sausage-maker where are you") which became a huge hit.
Is this film funny? Well, a little, but not at much as you would wish. But if you put it into the setting of war, and also that this was a comic relief under the war, this movie becomes important in the Norwegian movie canon.
This movie is made available through DVD recently, and in 2023 was released on interregional Blu-Ray Disk by Norwegian Film Classics as the fourth release in a new series on classics, NFK0004, with subtitles in English, and is supposed to be held in stock for film lovers.
