It's an irony of film history that the maligned and ridiculed exploitation films of yesteryear have morphed into the survivors over the past decade or two, under the influence of Waters, Tarantino and young fans who revere sleaze and reject quality or mainstream values. The French went through a similar transition at the end of the '50s when the "Cinema of Quality" (Carne, Autant-Lara, Delannoy, etc.) was rejected in favor of Nouvelle Vague experimentation.
So this vintage Swedish drama was released mid-'50s in America as an exploitation type of film and survives today via Something Weird Video. But it is a sincere, mainstream effort, co- existing at the time with a lot of local comedies, Arne Mattsson thrillers and romances, Alf Sjoberg dramas and the just- beginning-to-take off serious cinema of Ingmar Bergman (SUMMER WITH MONIKA and NAKED NIGHT were his first hit movies).
Very sympathetically told from the woman's point of view, story revolves around the mistreatment of women by men who either by design or thoughtlessness get their girl friends in trouble and disappear when the child appears on the scene. Central character is Irene (subtly portrayed by Eva Stiberg), who in 1950 has a one-nighter with a handsome guy she meets dancing at a Midsummer festival. They don't meet again and she can't locate him when she becomes pregnant.
Key plot device is that he is a prominent doctor in another town. and as we encounter other women in similar straits when Irene goes to a special home for expectant and new (unwed) mothers it turns out that Doc knows and has cared for many of them.
Several subplots are interesting in limning the various reactions of family and the dads in question to the birth of a baby. There is even some extremely mild sex-tease involving the most forward (slut in Swedish has a whole different meaning, as cinema fans know) of the girls. Resolution of the issues and the fate of our heroine and the Doc are satisfyingly presented.
Hardly in the camp of PHILOMENA, this film is well-crafted and acted and boasts quality visuals courtesy of Rune Ericson, a cameraman who would later work for the great Mai Zetterling and even shot the infamous unfinished Jerry Lewis opus THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED. Again, not reaching the heights of Bergman but generally in the same genre as some of his "women's" pictures like WAITING WOMEN and BRINK OF LIFE.
