Walpurgis Night (1935)

Victor Sjöström: Fredrik Bergström

Photos 

Quotes 

• Gustav Palm : You can't expect us to sit idly by white Sweden's future goes down the drain.

  Fredrik Bergström : I wonder what would happen, if you and all the other bachelors with good salaries were to try to save the future and birthrate by marrying? But no, you don't want that. You won't even hear of it. Neither that nor the bachelor tax.

  Gustav Palm : Now you listen, if all the married people in Sweden were to do as much for the birthrate as we bachelors do, there would be no need to worry about our country.

• Lena Bergström : Aunt Lena will always be a Bergström, you'll see.

  Fredrik Bergström : Fiddlesticks. Why, you could have any fellow you want.

• Fredrik Bergström : The root cause of the whole problem - is the lack of love.

• Fredrik Bergström : That's the trouble with you young people. You know so damn much, but understand so damn little.

• Fredrik Bergström : [looking at a photo of his late wife]  Here we are once again, all on our own on Walpurgis night, my love. Do you recall that night 35 years ago and the words I wrote? "Love is more than a kiss in springtime. It's tenderness, a lifetime of sacrifice and caring." Sure, you remember.

• Photographer : Everyone knows VP Borg.

  Fredrik Bergström : You know him, do you?

  Photographer : A friend of my sister knew someone who worked for him. All the girls were nuts about him! But he was anything but a Don Juan. He never returned their flirty looks. But look at that sweet girl. She's got the devil in her eyes.

• Johan Borg : I had but one wish. To find happiness with her.

  Fredrik Bergström : You sure chose a strange way to find happiness.

• Fredrik Bergström : Didn't you once say that a man's morals are never lower than when his wife has made their marriage miserable?

• Fredrik Bergström : Lena is the very image of her mother. The same tender, devoted little lady, but she's also just as hot-blooded as she was.

• Gustav Palm : You can drive a man crazy with your Spring poetry when we're so short on space. A story like this drunken countess is real news, but we have Spring and Walpurgis every year. People get tired of it.

  Fredrik Bergström : People never get tired of Spring.

  Gustav Palm : Well, all right, have your three columns, and we'll cut the cultural page. But the countess will not be cut down, you Spring zealot, you!

• Fredrik Bergström : You're a ruthless egotist, who never knew what love is, a scoundrel who would sacrifice a young girl's happiness, just because she made the mistake of falling in love with you.

• Gustav Palm : We're awfully thin on real news. Just theater gossip and stale old royal engagement rumors. Not even one measly robbery to lend it some color. In deed, it's enough to make a man want to take a drink.

  Fredrik Bergström : Good heavens. Is that milk you're drinking?

  Gustav Palm : Shh. Don't shout it out for all the world to hear. I happened to try a glass the other day, the first since I was a toddler. I quite enjoyed it, as a matter of fact. But, I pour it into a beer bottle to avoid comments.

• Fredrik Bergström : You're not being sensible, Lena. You're hurting yourself by living in isolation like this. In order to live you need something to live for.

• Fredrik Bergström : Such a fool I've been. A damned, silly fool! For not knowing that my daughter was no better than a common trollop!