This film was a complete failure, and disowned by Dreyer, who later refused to acknowledge its existence. It rarely appears in Dreyer filmographies or retrospectives, and is not typically discussed by critics. For the longest time almost no one had seen it. The only copy was in the Swedish Film Institute archives. It has been published on VHS and DVD. It is still little known and only has 115 votes here on IMDb, the lowest of all his feature films.
The film was made in Sweden (and in Swedish) between Day of Wrath and Ordet. It is based on a play by W.O. Somin and was meant as an experiment. Dreyer wanted to make the pure and ultimate chamber drama, where everything would take place in one room. A young researcher (Arne Lundell) is accused of plagiarizing the work of an older rival (Professor Sander). He comes home to his wife Marianne and wants to give up. No one believes in his innocence. Then they hear that Professor Sander has been killed and everything points to Arne Lundell being the killer.
We only see Arne and Marianne in the film, except for one flashback where we see the shadow of Sander. This is also the only time the camera leaves the apartment of Arne and Marianne. Dreyer breaks most rules in this film. In his camera placements, Dreyer pays no heed to eye lines and plot axes, and consequently some of the film's cuts appear to break the classical conventions of dialog editing. This makes the film quite expressionistic. The expressionism is taken to an extrema in the flashback when we only see the deformed shadow of Sander, like something out of Nosferatu (1922) by Murnau.
Dreyer did not get the actors he wanted and said that the ones he got had all the wrong qualities. Arne was supposed to have been delicate and naive, Marianne hot-blooded and erotically experienced. Instead, he was forced to use two actors with the exact opposite qualities.
He had also decided to cut out the flashback scene and replace it with dialog. The producer put the scene back in and added a melodramatic score without Dreyers consent. Dreyer subsequently disowned the film and it was never shown outside Sweden.
While this is not a masterpiece it is far from bad. We can see Dreyer work out some of the technique (camera movements) he would use in Ordet, it has some quite nice scenes and it is suspenseful. I did guess the plot but the film still managed to surprise me in the end. It is also beautifully filmed, with a soft dreamy aura, obtained by pulling a lady stockings over the lens. This film is well worth your time!
