The Man from Majorca (1984)

In Stockholm, on St. Lucy's feast day, a bandit daringly robs a crowded post office. Within a fortnight, two witnesses are dead. Two cops from vice squad, Johansson and Jarnebring, who were... See full summary »

Director:

Bo Widerberg

Writers:

Leif G.W. Persson (novel), Bo Widerberg (screenplay)

Stars:

Sven Wollter, Tomas von Brömssen, Håkan Serner

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Sven Wollter	...	Inspector Jarnebring
Tomas von Brömssen	...	Inspector Johansson
Håkan Serner	...	Inspector Andersson
Ernst Günther	...	Dahlgren
Thomas Hellberg	...	Berg
Ingvar Hirdwall	...	Fors (as Ingvar Hirdvall)
Niels Jensen	...	Roger 'Rogge' Jansson
Tommy Johnson	...	Inspector Rundberg
Rico Rönnbäck	...	Kjell Göran Hedberg
Hans Villius	...	Minister of Justice (as Hans Willius)
Sten Lonnert	...	Olsson, Alcoholic
Nina Gunke	...	Eva Zetterberg
Margreth Weivers	...	Alva Wiström
Gun Karlsson	...	Mrs. Forsberg, Witness at the Post Office
Marie Delleskog	...	Janna, Roger's Fiancée

Storyline

In Stockholm, on St. Lucy's feast day, a bandit daringly robs a crowded post office. Within a fortnight, two witnesses are dead. Two cops from vice squad, Johansson and Jarnebring, who were the first to the crime scene, pursue all leads and identify a suspect, an arrogant member of the elite secret police, a man assigned to guard the country's Minister of Justice. Just as the beat cops think they've tightened the noose around the suspect, loose ends appear, witnesses lose their certainty, alibis crop up, and even the cops doubt what they've seen. Who's protecting the suspect and why?

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Plot Keywords:

poliziottesco | swedish poliziottesco | view through binoculars | saint lucia | security police | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Did You Know?

Trivia

For the scene where Rundberg tries to question the alcoholic Olsson, Sten Lonnert, playing the latter, deliberately kept "forgetting" his lines, in part secretly instructed to do so by the director Bo Widerberg. This caused the shooting of the scene to drag on for hours and hours. Thus, Tommy Johnson's (Rundberg's) frustration is genuine.

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Goofs

When the inspectors respond to the alert about the robbery, they fail to identify themselves by unit number, which is compulsory. (Later in the film, we learn that their unit number is 1648.)

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Quotes

Inspector Jarnebring: Sometimes the blindfold of Justitia can fall down and clog her mouth. It is called "national security".

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Crazy Credits

There are no end credits for this film. All credits are shown at the beginning, and at the end, the film simply fades to black.

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Connections

Features Clown of the Jungle (1947)

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Soundtracks

Santa Lucia/Ute är mörkt och kallt
(uncredited)
Written by Teodoro Cottrau
Swedish lyrics by unknown
[Sung by the children that visit the post office]

User Reviews

Thriller held in a firm grip

Director Widerberg could do very well in widely separate genres. He did a few crime stories on cinema, but never just for the 'who dunnit'. There had to be a burning social message, something rotting in the kingdom.

Here it sure is. The Leif GW Persson novel, on which the film is based, is about misuse of power, all the way up. The novel is actually loosely based on a political scandal in Sweden, which Persson was involved in revealing.

Widerberg's movie has got several qualities, way beyond that of creating a thrill. With a very firm grip, of the kind only somebody that skilled as a director can have, he tightens the suspense, intensifies the conflict, broadens the importance of what takes place, until the film becomes an unpleasant, but in its own way accurate, revelation about modern society. And it's a good thrill, too.

A trivia of interest to none but me, I guess, is that one of the locations is my apartment at that time.

Details

Country:

Sweden Denmark

Language:

Swedish

Release Date:

12 October 1984 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

The Man from Majorca

Filming Locations:

Solsundavägen 26, Nacka, Stockholms län, Sweden

Company Credits

Production Co:

Drakfilm Produktion, Svenska Filminstitutet (SFI), Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Stereo

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1