Director: Borje Larsson
Year: 1942
Country: Sweden
Rating: 7.0
Aka - En trallande
jänta
I enjoy coming across obscure musicals like
this. Or at least obscure in America. For one thing you get to hear a different
style of music and you are introduced to new artists - new to me but from
long ago. This is a Swedish musical produced in 1942 and there is not even
a hint that a World War is going on all around them. Sweden was neutral to
the bone. So they put out sweet innocent puffery like this that I found delightful.
Not a mean bone in its body. The 27 people on IMDB who rated this 3.8 out
of 10 must stomp on kittens in their spare time. Admittedly, there is less
drama here than a walk around your room but damn the music is good and the
singer is Alice Babs. Alice Babs I said. Ok, so I had never heard of her
either. Back in Sweden she was the cat's meow and the swingingest girl in
Stockholm. No kidding. She was an enormously popular singer - had fan clubs
so excitable that adults were worried and called it a cult. She sings swing.
Is she any good you might ask - well Duke Ellington thought so and wrote
music specifically for her and her more than three octave range. I'll trust
Duke on this. There is a bunch of her music on the Internet to buy. I may
dip.
In this one she plays Inger. She lives in
a small town far to the north of Sweden. She likes to go up into the mountains
and yodel. That had me a bit nervous initially. A yodel musical would be
tough to get through. She does her Julie Andrews number in the mountain and
comes down to earth. She lives with a foster family and is hitting 18 soon
when the government will no longer support her family. Everyone knows she
loves to sing and so the town gathers up enough money to send her to the
big city to take singing lessons. She leaves with everyone at the train station
- even the boy who loves her. The voice coach tells her that she can never
make it. Ah, good. This is where she will spiral into hell - take up drink,
become a prostitute and die of a broken heart. Right?
Nah. Not this film. Her neighbor in her
boarding house is an out of work jazz conductor. His girlfriend piano player
(Annalisa Ericson) dumped him and the band broke up. He gets a few musician
friends together to try out a new song and as they are playing it, Inger
joins in from her room and she is an overnight sensation. Will her village
accept jazz? Sinful music. Of course. Not a bump in the road and that was
just fine with me.
