Lågor i dunklet (Flames in the Dark). 1942. Sweden. Written and directed by Hasse Ekman. In Swedish; English subtitles. 94 min.
With Edvin Adolphson, Stig Järrel, Inga Tidblad. Eva (Inga Tidblad), a beloved housemistress at a boys’ boarding school, returns from summer vacation married to Birger (Stig Järell), the school’s new Latin professor, whose superficial charm disguises a sadistic, psychotically controlling personality. Ekman claimed his inspiration was Richard Thorpe’s 1937 Night Must Fall, but the stranger-in-the-house theme also alludes to the German threat to Sweden’s wartime neutrality. Järrel would essentially repeat his role in Alf Sjöberg’s 1944 Torment, from a screenplay by Ingmar Bergman.