Port of Call (1948)
"Hamnstad" (original title)

A suicidal factory girl out of reformatory school, anxious to escape her overbearing mother, falls in love with a sailor who can't forgive her past.

Director:

Ingmar Bergman

Writer:

Ingmar Bergman (screenplay)

Stars:

Nine-Christine Jönsson, Bengt Eklund, Mimi Nelson

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Nine-Christine Jönsson	...	Berit
Bengt Eklund	...	Gösta
Mimi Nelson	...	Gertrud
Berta Hall	...	Berit's Mother
Birgitta Valberg	...	Mrs. Vilander
Sif Ruud	...	Mrs. Krona
Britta Billsten	...	Prostitute
Harry Ahlin	...	Skåningen
Nils Hallberg	...	Gustav
Sven-Eric Gamble	...	Eken
Yngve Nordwall	...	The Supervisor
Nils Dahlgren	...	Gertrud's Father
Hans Strååt	...	Mr. Vilander
Erik Hell	...	Berit's Father
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Edvard Danielsson	...	Man (scenes deleted)

Storyline

Berit is a young woman with problems. She is suicidal and depressed. Since it has been impossible for her to live with her mother, she has spent many years in institutions. She has now gotten a job in an industry on the condition that she can live together with her mother again. Their relationship is very tense however. One night at a dance she meets stevedore Gösta. Will he be able to give her the support she needs?

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Plot Keywords:

reformatory | factory | girl | sailor | overbearing mother | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Sweden

Language:

Swedish German

Release Date:

1 August 1963 (USA)

Also Known As:

Port of Call

Filming Locations:

Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden

Company Credits

Production Co:

Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The book which Gösta reads on his bed is 'Resor utan mål' ('Journeys Without Destination') by Swedish author and future Nobel laureate in Literature (1974) Harry Martinson. Martinson was, indeed, a sailor before becoming an author, and the book, published in 1932 as Martinson's first prose volume (his greatest fame would come for his poetry), was a document of his own experiences as one, written at twenty-eight after he had given up the sea due to a combination of lack of employment and a bout of tuberculosis. A sailor like Gösta would indeed have found much interest in the book, as it dealt realistically with the life of a sailor from his country living a life very similar to his own. The book itself has sadly never been published in English, but Martinson's second novel, 'Kap Farväl!', somewhat similar to 'Resor utan mål', was translated as 'Cape Farewell'. Director Ingmar Bergman was indeed an admirer of his countryman Martinson and, in 1964, he staged the premiere of Martinson's play 'Tre knivar från Wei' ('Three Knives From Wei'), although, unfortunately, he considered the production an unmitigated disaster.

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Connections

Referenced in The Killing Floor (2007)

User Reviews

Good Beginning

This is really a film about an unhappy woman,the people around her and her journey to find happiness. The other characters are props but props devised with imagination and played quite well. She has been sent to reformatory time and again and her attempts to find sexual love frustrated at every attempt. We feel for her and sense that she is a good human being who has simply not seen a break. In flashback we see the reason for her unhappiness - an abusive, unsympathetic mother, people willing to exploit her...

There is little of anything we have come to associate with the older Bergman. The camera movements are in Hollywood-style and the editing invisible. The girl's desolation is mainly private, even from the viewer, but the film is one about her and not the other characters. This is one of Bergman's central points throughout his career. I'm glad I saw this but now it's time to move on.

Curtis Stotlar