Employees in a Stockholm law firm need to find a new way to make their living after their boss is sent to jail for embezzlement. Under the direction of the firm’s former secretary, they start a company providing miscellaneous services. In order to retrieve a hideous glass sculpture for a client, the new company’s director agrees to act as the fiancée of a well-to-do businessman, desperately wanting to get rid of his boyhood girlfriend.
This fast-moving comedy was long overlooked in Molander’s filmography because of its unavailability. The nitrate negatives were preserved in the late 1960s when a duplicate positive was made, but it was not until a print was struck in 2009, from a newly made duplicate negative, that the film could again be seen.
The oblivion is unfortunate, as Fästmö uthyres proves the versatility of Molander, equally at ease directing this screwball-like comedy as he is making contemporary dramas, thrillers, or period pieces. Again we see his ability to bring out the potential in his actresses: Eva Dahlbeck, until then mainly acting in dramas, often in rural settings, excels with her sharp delivery of dialogue, outwitting the other characters in the film, foreshadowing her characters in Ingmar Bergman’s 1950s comedies such as Waiting Women (1952) and A Lesson in Love (1954), for which she is mostly known.

Jon Wengström