Day of Wrath ***** (1943, Thorkild Roose, Lisbeth Movin, Preben Lerdorff Rye, Sigrid Neiiendam) – Classic Movie Review 10,818

Director Carl Theodor Dreyer’s second sound film, the 1943 black and white Danish drama Day of Wrath [Vredens Dag], is a formally constructed tableau (with images based on 17th-century Dutch paintings) studying suspicion, witchcraft, a strange love story and a merciless witch hunt in the 1620s.

Thorkild Roose stars as a small town’s aging pastor, the Reverend Absalon Pederssøn, whose young Danish second wife Anne Pedersdotter (Lisbeth Movin) falls in love and has an illicit affair with his son from first marriage, Martin (Preben Lerdoff Rye), leading her to be branded a witch.

[Spoiler alert] When the pastor dies suddenly, his mother (Sigrid Neiiendam) denounces the widow as a witch, but will the son defend his lover?

Based on a Norwegian play (Hans Wiers-Jenssen’s Anne Pedersdotter), it deals with the erotic undercurrents pushing through a constricting society that seeks to repress positive emotions. Though challenging and not always easy to view, Day of Wrath is an outstanding work of art that haunts the mind long after watching.

Also in the cast are Anna Svierkier, Albert Høeberg, Preben Neergaard and Olaf Ussing.

Day of Wrath [Vredens Dag] is directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, runs 110 minutes (or 97 minutes), is made by Palladium Film, is released by Filmcentralen Palladium (1943) (Denmark), Film Traders (1946) (UK) and George J Schaefer & Son (1948) (US), is written by Carl Theodor Dreyer, Poul Knudsen and Mogens Skot-Hansen, based on the play Anne Pedersdotter by Hans Wiers-Jenssen, is shot in black and white by Karl Andersson, is produced by Carl Theodor Dreyer and Tage Nielsen, is scored by Poul Schierbeck, and is designed by Erik Aaes (Art Direction) and Lis Fribert (Set Decoration).

Carl Theodor Dreyer died on 20 March 1968, aged 79. His 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc is considered one of the greatest films ever made. His other best known films include Michael (1924), Vampyr (1932), Day of Wrath (1943), Ordet (1955) and his last film Gertrud (1964).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,818

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