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Film historians, especially now (when current cinema is in such creative doldrums) are constantly straining for significance where there is none. Such is the case of might-have-been-a-contender Swedish filmmaker Arne Ragneborn and his oft-censored projects.DET HANDLER I NATT was a crime potboiler he made in 1956, promptly banned by the local censors. It has been resurrected on DVD, along with its re-shot/re-edited release version ALDRIG I LIVET and it's difficult to see what all the fuss was about.Not so with the "experts"; a 29-minute interviews (plus clips) documentary short is included wherein Arne's producer, cameraman and a film prof rehash the issues of the '50s, from this film project and notably an Arne exploitation movie about prostitution FLAMMAN (released in America with a funny campaign as GIRLS WITHOUT ROOMS).Ragneborn ended up acting in small roles in soft porn films by Torgny Wickman, but his place in the history of censorship is way, way overstated here. As a film buff who lived near the Heights Art Theatre in Cleveland Heights, Ohio (site of the first big movie censorship battle of the modern era re: exhibition of Louis Malle's THE LOVERS), having been a big fan of Bergman's breakthrough THE SILENCE, and even been in attendance at the NYFF at Lincoln Center both when LAST TANGO IN Paris had its premiere showing and later when IN THE REALM OF SENSES was canceled (THE CEREMONY by Oshima substituted) after being seized in customs, I know about more significant milestones.The 77-minute HANDLER emerges as a thick-ear imitation of American tough-guy movies, rather crudely presented and coming off fake, much in the manner of the overrated (and similarly resurrected recently on DVD) British version of James Hadley Chase's NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH. The gangsters are not threatening enough to be convincing and the "nice family" contrasting subplot is lame.SPOILERS ALERT: Lars Ekborg and Sven Eric Gamble portray bumbling criminals who get involved in a safe cracking heist, aided by inside man Gunnar. Ragneborn plays Gunnar (rather well), presenting an ingénue boy friend for the film's heroine Margit (appealing 1-shot actress Margareta Nordin), who ends up being the real villain of the piece, especially after his underhanded efforts result in the death of Margit's lovable night watchman father (Elof Ahrle).The reason I bought the film (available only from Sweden currently) was to see Ingrid Thulin in a relatively early role (she was already impressive in her American debut on TV and big screen in FOREIGN INTRIGUE during this time period). She succeeds in stealing the picture, singing a couple of torch songs in English, French and Swedish, and with big, fake beauty mark on her cheek, clad only in black undies, is as sexy as expected.Unfortunately the rest of the film fails to live up to Thulin's presence. Some okay night photography impresses, but the studio-bound interiors present a dull story, far better told in those American Bs Arne is aping. Just take the classic THE BIG COMBO as your starting point for comparison, or any of Phil Karlson's '50s work.Comparing the original with the reshaped-as-comedy 1957 release version ALDRIG is an interesting exercise. The movie has been re-jiggered by adding bookend footage of behind-the-scenes shooting of a dumb service comedy starring Ekborg and Gamble. Since they're already doing comic relief in the original film this isn't too great a stretch, but their dumb antics in the re-shoot are poor. Gimmick is to present the "thriller" film running about an hour as all a dream, as Ekborg fell asleep reading a pulp novel.The comedy release runs 74 minutes, with about 10 minutes cut from the original film and seven minutes of dumb comedy added to start and finish. The cuts are instructive, mainly showing how little it took to get a censor's hackles up. An early scene running 3 minutes is excised to get rid of debauchery: Ekborg playing "strip spin the bottle" with a couple of girls who we see naked from the rear, and then taking a bubble bath together which he joins (fully-clothed however); plus a sexy, ultra-busty girl named Debra sporting deep décolletage and flirting on a couch with a portly neighbor. Gamble also is seen attempting to rape a fully-clothed girl on a bed, but he gives up when she cries.The entire ending of the gangster film is dropped, almost seven minutes long, with Arne as Gunnar overacting as he becomes particularly ruthless, concluding with a nihilistic final shot that fits the film noir mold. It's a shame this was scrapped.Ironically, the very sexy actress playing Debra is uncredited, even though she occupies considerable (and diverting) screen time in both versions.I come away with a vague interest in ordering FLAMMAN from Klubb Super 8 based on the film clips included here, but cannot consider Ragneborn even a minor re-discovery.
