Mr. Lundgren (Per Oscarsson) is Night Watchman 137 for a large department store. He lives in a boardinghouse run by Ms. Karlberg (Elsa Prawitz). Lundgren is a lonely guy who is a bit of an introvert. He spends his nights walking his rounds and his days sleeping alone in his room. The other tenants of the boardinghouse, other than the landlady, seem to have partners of one kind or another. Even Mr. Fredriksson (Tor Isedal), who also lives alone, has a sexual relationship with Annie Hakansson (Marie-Louise Nordgren), the daughter of another family living in the building. Ms. Karlberg is interested in Lundgren but her facial deformity keeps her from expressing her thoughts.
One night, while Lundgren is making his rounds, he interrupts a burglary. The would-be thieves escape and manage to knock over one of the store’s female mannequins that are stored in a large room. Lundgren finds the mannequin (Gio Petre) beautiful so he takes it home with him and keeps it in his room. Over time Lundgren begins talking to the mannequin and starts to have feelings for it. Slowly, the doll begins to respond and move. Lundgren accepts the mannequin’s coming-to-life as if it were normal.
Lundgren continues to go to work every night leaving the mannequin in his room. When he returns each morning the mannequin misses him and starts to become possessive of Lundgren’s time. At first her devotion is what he believes he wanted but it doesn’t take long for it to become more demanding of him to the point where Lundgren starts to feel suffocated by the mannequin’s constant need for attention. The other boarders see the change in Lundgren’s personality and start to believe he either has a woman hidden in his room or that he is going a little off the deep end from loneliness.
Things come to a head when his neighbors, especially Fredriksson, find out about the mannequin and begin to tease and mock him for being weird. Between the demands of the mannequin and invasiveness of his neighbors, Lundgren lashes out at everyone. What Lundgren wished for ends up being a tragic nightmare that will never end.
“The Doll” AKA “Vaxdockan” was released in 1962 and was directed by Arne Mattsson. It is a Swedish horror fantasy and psychological thriller. There were quite a few movies made, from various countries, which were titled “The Doll”. Two of them were done in 1962, one of those was a Spanish and French concoction and the other was this film.
Swedish fantasy and horror, especially from the sixties, is sometimes similar to American noir except that they are usually more artistic than they are gritty. Sweden does have its own form of noir, and the fantasy horror movies sometimes also insert some of the same moodiness, but on more of a psychological level than a realistic one. They sometimes have a bleak and depressing mood and the emotions expressed often have a gothic feel along with hints of social commentary. Some of Ingmar Bergman’s films illustrate similar elements. They are heavily influenced by drama and suspense. The film also has a somewhat of a twilight zone feel to it.
I have to say that Gio Petre did a great job of playing the mannequin. There were times where I wasn’t sure if Per was acting with the dummy or with Gio herself. Both Gio and Per were excellent as was the entire film.
Elsa Prawitz, who played the landlady Ms. Karlberg, was married to Director Mattsson