In his half-a-century-long career in cinema, Gustav Molander directed farces and comedies, dramas and period pieces, films for children and young people, biopics and films depicting the war and its aftermath. In Kvinna utan ansikte – one of Molander’s finest efforts of the 1940s – he made a full-fledged film noir, with chiaroscuro lighting, startling camera angles, smoky bars, shady hotels, voiceover narration and a femme fatale with a dark secret. This atmospheric drama, whose story is propelled by the random encounter of two ex-friends, was shot in the spring of 1947 and released in September of the same year. However, the story is set during the war, and in one scene the protagonist stops his car in front of a cinema where Molander’s 1943 Ordet is playing.
The film was also the first of two collaborations between Molander and a young Ingmar Bergman as the scriptwriter (the other being the 1951 Frånskild/ Divorced), and the voice of the author is heard in the film, with its angst-ridden young protagonists in (post-)war society. In a later interview Bergman acknowledged his respect for Molander and admitted that at the time he would not have been able to turn out a film of such quality himself.
Gunn Wållgren, whose performance in the title role was hailed by contemporary critics, had already worked with Molander in Ordet, whereas Anita Björk as the loyal wife was still a relative newcomer to the screen (her major breakthrough was in Alf Sjöberg’s 1950 Strindberg adaptation Miss Julie). They were two of the many actresses whose careers would take off thanks to Molander’s direction.

Jon Wengström