Salem’s Plot

The Night Visitor (László Benedek, 1971)

Despite the sweltering heatwave around here, winter appears to have come early in the form of  The Night Visitor (1971); a somewhat obscure gem starring the inimatable Swedish actor and chess champion, Max Von Sydow. 

Framed by his relatives and forced to take a plea of insanity by his corrupt lawyer, Salem (Von Sydow) is condemned to a life in a remote, medieval-style asylum for the criminally insane somewhere in the Scandanavian frozen tundra.

Right from the start, The Night Visitor manages to be engrossing thanks to Henning Kristiansen's impressive photography of the beautiful, but bitterly cold Danish and Swedish locations. Von Sydow gives an impressive physical performance; climbing and running through the freezing terrain with an atmospheric howling wind, in only his underwear. Traumatic flashbacks of having to do cross country running for P.E.

 

These feats are accompanied by a suitably twisted score courtesy of film composer Henry Mancini. The off key and bizarre sounds really compliment Salem's mental state.

Other than the wintery conditions, the film's chill factor comes from Salem breaking into his potential victim's homes, while still dressed in nothing but his underwear, and observes them asleep in their beds. The thought of a stranger in his pants breaking into your home and watching you sleep is the stuff of nightmares.

László Benedek spends much of The Night Visitor's running time Salem. Taking account that it's a revenge plot, Salem is almost portrayed as an anti-hero. A highly intelligent and creative inmate; one who is able to carve twisted figurines in his cell and use them as chess pieces when secretly playing against his elderly guard during the nights. It isn't until the final act, where the film goes into more horror territory, that Salem displays his villainous tendencies. Ironically becoming into the very person he was innocent of being.

Another Ingmar Bergman veteran, Liv Ullman, plays one of Salem's odious siblings, but much like everyone else who isn't Von Sydow, she's for the most part superfluous, and it could have been anyone playing her supporting role. That's not exactly a bad thing given the context of the film, as it's blatantly obvious the mental ingenuity and physical effort involved with breaking in and out of the insane asylum to carry out these revenge murders, makes for Salem's perfect alibi and the very allure of the film. This is profoundly the core of The Night Visitor.  

However, something is rotten in the state of Denmark/Sweden; an Edgar Allen Poe style macguffin, involving a comical parrot serves as a convenient contrivance. Therefore, when the game is up during the final moments of the film, it's more of an eye-rolling twist; a stark contrast to the gotcha moment from Martin Balsam's incriminating sneeze in the classic, heist caper The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974). By no means is the feathered annoyance terrible per se, but it does slightly tarnish what's otherwise a well produced and highly atmospheric crime thriller.

Despite the inclusion of several British actors: the esteemed Trevor Howard as the police inspector; Frightmare's Rupert Davies as Salem's shady lawyer; and Gretchen Frankilin, better known for playing Ethel Skinner on the thoroughly depressing, soap opera EastEnders, The Night Visitor was never a British co-production, nor was it released theatrically in the UK. This is all rather odd, as the film has a distinctively British flavour in terms of its visuals and atmosphere. The asylum scenes alone could have come from a Hammer production. That's another reason why I find the film so enjoyable.

Overall, The Night Visitor is a charming and engrossing thriller. Surprisingly shocked to discover this in the very late hours, randomly on TV. At the time of writing, there's a YouTube rip of this film which looks drastically better than the washed out version I caught on the gogglebox. Doesn't seem to be a blu-ray available in my territory, unfortunatley. Definitely one for the wishlist, in my opinion.