Molander had already tried his hand at sound films in 1930, with the Selma Lagerlöf adaptation Charlotte Löwensköld (which had sound effects, music and a few lines of dialogue, but was mainly told by intertitles) and Fridas visor (a string of musical numbers). In the following year, he made En natt, a drama about two brothers on opposing sides when the Russian revolution spreads towards a neighbouring country (obviously Finland, though never clearly stated).
Though cleverly using the advent of sound (as in the opening travelling shot with out-of-frame diegetic music), En natt could easily be envisaged as a silent film, with its poignant imagery (and at times awkward delivery of dialogue). The striking camera angles, startling close-ups, and fast editing echo Soviet filmmaking rather than Swedish classic cinema. The widowed mother of the brothers, isolated in her mansion during the border turmoil, is played by Gerda Lundequist (the mistress of the mansion in Stiller’s 1924 Gösta Berlings saga), and as the loyal son we see Uno Henning, another actor more famous for his performances in silent films (for instance in G.W. Pabst’s 1927 The Love of Jeanne Ney and in Anthony Asquith’s 1929 A Cottage on Dartmoor).
En natt was Molander’s first collaboration in the sound era with cinematographer Åke Dahlqvist (who had been assistant cinematographer to Julius Jaenzon on Ingmarsarvet). They would continue to form one of Swedish cinema’s finest and most prolific partnerships well into the 1950s, making almost 30 films together.

Jon Wengström