Friedrich Dürrenmatt's original play is brought to the screen by Austrian-born director Bernhardt Wicki, whose most notable previous film was DIE BRUCKE (THE BRIDGE, 1959).
I did not feel comfortable with the notion of an "independent" town in the 20th Century. The town of (? Gallan) is not identified on the map, but it is supposedly within reach of Trieste, in Italy, to where then 17-year-old Karla Zachanassian (an Armenian surname) flees in shame and with her reputation tarnished after being made pregnant by Serge (Anthony Quinn), who found two male witnesses to claim that they had slept with Karla (Bergman) so that paternity could not be established.
Interesting parallel with Bergman's personal life: in 1946, she watched the Italian neorealist film, PAISÁ, directed by Roberto Rossellini, and promptly left for Italy to shoot STROMBOLI under Rosselini. She also fell under his amorous spell, and pregnant, and puritanical Hollywood ostracized her for 10 years for her morally questionable conduct, until she made a glorious comeback with an Oscar for ANASTASIA in 1957. The whole incident, including the shunning of the great actress that Bergman was, reeked of cinema industry and social hypocrisy.
I think Bergman found points of personal contact with the story of Karla, and an opportunity for a veiled attack on the morals driven by the Hays Code and even HUAC communist witch hunt.
Going back to the screenplay, pregnant Karla flees to Trieste where she earns her living as a prostitute. That Bergman was one of the most beautiful actresses ever to grace the silver screen is common knowledge, but even beautiful prostitutes seldom get to be wealthy. In Karla's case, she amasses such a fortune that she buys the "independent" town of (? Gallan) - sounds like Rome, Venice, Florence, other city states that would eventually become Italy - and kills its industries in order to reduce the population to such dire poverty that its officials have no option but accept her money offer of 2 million (currency not specified).
She sets one condition, though: Serge (Quinn) must be tried for the harm he did to her good name, for the child born out of wedlock who subsequently died, and the punishment must be death. The town officials first reject her harsh demands but then money talks louder than any social and moral values.
To me, that harsh demand removed credibility from the film. Sequences of Quinn, his family and shop under fire in the dark, and his attempt to flee Gallan on a train only to be blocked off by the town's entire male population, all because he had made Karla pregnant and defamed her, seems too over the top.
Karla eventually gets the quickly put together kangaroo court of town elders to meet her wishes, only to tell them that that is not enough, she actually seeks revenge on the whole town for allowing those tragedies to be visited on her.
Bergman certainly displays chilling venom and vindictiveness. She powers into town in a top luxury limousine, complete with a compartment for her "panther" (actually a cheetah), and starts dictating terms.
Serge hardly rates better. After making her pregnant, rejecting her, paternity of the fetus, plus defaming her, he can only rate contemptible, but at least he faces town and trial. He does more than that: he gets into Karla's quarters and they still love each other, despite all the contrariness of the situation. Well, another nail in the credibility coffin.
I found the acting of a superior standard, especially from Bergman, Quinn and Stoppa. Though competent, cinematography comes across as rather plain, and the editing unmemorable.
The script could and should have been better. In the end, I felt nothing for any of the town's citizens. Karla often addresses Serge as "panther", and when she commands the town's armed men to "shoot the panther between the eyes" I thought she meant Quinn, but it turned out to be the cheetah - and that is the sole creature I ultimately felt sorry for as Serge's wife riddled it with bullets. For the human being to prevail, the rest of creation suffers.
In the end, I felt that I had seen a delicious-looking cake hollowed out by its improbability. 6/10.
I did not feel comfortable with the notion of an "independent" town in the 20th Century. The town of (? Gallan) is not identified on the map, but it is supposedly within reach of Trieste, in Italy, to where then 17-year-old Karla Zachanassian (an Armenian surname) flees in shame and with her reputation tarnished after being made pregnant by Serge (Anthony Quinn), who found two male witnesses to claim that they had slept with Karla (Bergman) so that paternity could not be established.
Interesting parallel with Bergman's personal life: in 1946, she watched the Italian neorealist film, PAISÁ, directed by Roberto Rossellini, and promptly left for Italy to shoot STROMBOLI under Rosselini. She also fell under his amorous spell, and pregnant, and puritanical Hollywood ostracized her for 10 years for her morally questionable conduct, until she made a glorious comeback with an Oscar for ANASTASIA in 1957. The whole incident, including the shunning of the great actress that Bergman was, reeked of cinema industry and social hypocrisy.
I think Bergman found points of personal contact with the story of Karla, and an opportunity for a veiled attack on the morals driven by the Hays Code and even HUAC communist witch hunt.
Going back to the screenplay, pregnant Karla flees to Trieste where she earns her living as a prostitute. That Bergman was one of the most beautiful actresses ever to grace the silver screen is common knowledge, but even beautiful prostitutes seldom get to be wealthy. In Karla's case, she amasses such a fortune that she buys the "independent" town of (? Gallan) - sounds like Rome, Venice, Florence, other city states that would eventually become Italy - and kills its industries in order to reduce the population to such dire poverty that its officials have no option but accept her money offer of 2 million (currency not specified).
She sets one condition, though: Serge (Quinn) must be tried for the harm he did to her good name, for the child born out of wedlock who subsequently died, and the punishment must be death. The town officials first reject her harsh demands but then money talks louder than any social and moral values.
To me, that harsh demand removed credibility from the film. Sequences of Quinn, his family and shop under fire in the dark, and his attempt to flee Gallan on a train only to be blocked off by the town's entire male population, all because he had made Karla pregnant and defamed her, seems too over the top.
Karla eventually gets the quickly put together kangaroo court of town elders to meet her wishes, only to tell them that that is not enough, she actually seeks revenge on the whole town for allowing those tragedies to be visited on her.
Bergman certainly displays chilling venom and vindictiveness. She powers into town in a top luxury limousine, complete with a compartment for her "panther" (actually a cheetah), and starts dictating terms.
Serge hardly rates better. After making her pregnant, rejecting her, paternity of the fetus, plus defaming her, he can only rate contemptible, but at least he faces town and trial. He does more than that: he gets into Karla's quarters and they still love each other, despite all the contrariness of the situation. Well, another nail in the credibility coffin.
I found the acting of a superior standard, especially from Bergman, Quinn and Stoppa. Though competent, cinematography comes across as rather plain, and the editing unmemorable.
The script could and should have been better. In the end, I felt nothing for any of the town's citizens. Karla often addresses Serge as "panther", and when she commands the town's armed men to "shoot the panther between the eyes" I thought she meant Quinn, but it turned out to be the cheetah - and that is the sole creature I ultimately felt sorry for as Serge's wife riddled it with bullets. For the human being to prevail, the rest of creation suffers.
In the end, I felt that I had seen a delicious-looking cake hollowed out by its improbability. 6/10.