''The Night Visitor'' (Swedish title: ''Papegojan'') is a 1971 Swedish psychological thriller film in English, starring

Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

, Liv Ullmann,

Trevor Howard Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith (29 September 1913 – 7 January 1988) was an English stage, film, and television actor. After varied work in the theatre, he achieved star status with his role in the film ''Brief Encounter'' (1945), followed by ''T ...

Per Oscarsson Per Oscar Heinrich Oscarsson (28 January 1927 – 31 December 2010) was a Swedish actor. He is best known for his role in the 1966 film ''Hunger'', which earned him a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. Early life Oscarsson was born, along ...

Rupert Davies Rupert Davies FRSA (22 May 191622 November 1976) was a British actor. He is best remembered for playing the title role in the BBC's 1960s television adaptation of '' Maigret'', based on Georges Simenon's novels. Life and career Military s ...

and

Andrew Keir Andrew Keir ( né Buggy, 3 April 19265 October 1997) was a Scottish actor who appeared in a number of films made by Hammer Film Productions in the 1960s. He was also active in television, and especially in the theatre, in a professional career ...

, and directed by Laslo Benedek.

Plot

Salem is an

insane asylum The lunatic asylum (or insane asylum) was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. The fall of the lunatic asylum and its eventual replacement by modern psychiatric hospitals explains the rise of organized, institutional psychiatry ...

inmate after being forced to take an

insanity plea The insanity defense, also known as the mental disorder defense, is an affirmative defense by excuse in a criminal case, arguing that the defendant is not responsible for their actions due to an episodic psychiatric disease at the time of the cr ...

when wrongly convicted of murdering his farmhand. Salem escapes confinement from the fortress-like asylum in the dead of winter. Driven insane from being institutionalized for the last two years, he reaches his family farm, now run by his younger sisters Emma and Ester and the latter's husband Dr. Anton Jenks, who accused Salem of the murder. As revenge, Salem kills the people he believes responsible for his unfair conviction and subsequent confinement. He starts with Emma, arranging the murder to appear that Anton is the killer. A local police inspector begins to see foul play and resolves to uncover the truth of the murders and Salem's conviction. Salem has barrister Mr. Clemens as his next target. Following a visit from the inspector, the bedridden Clemens calls Anton to his home and confronts him about certain inaccuracies during the trial. Anton leaves after giving Clemens a sedative, and Salem enters his lawyer's room and kills him in his sleep with a lethal injection. Salem proceeds to the farmhouse where he acquires a fur coat, biding his time as Ester called the inspector. Salem reveals that Anton murdered the farmhand when he caught him and Emma attempting to burn down the farmhouse which they could not sell because of Salem. After the police leave, Ester is cornered and hacked to pieces by Salem when she attempts to flee. Anton arrives as Salem proceeds to wipe the blood on the doctor's clothes before running back to the asylum. Broken, Anton confesses his crime to the inspector as he hurries to the asylum. Salem manages to return to his cell before being discovered. But his alibi is ruined in a completely unexpected, spectacular way. This bang also forms the final punch line of the film.

Cast

Max Von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...

: Salem *

: Inspector * Liv Ullmann: Ester Jenks *

: Anton Jenks *

: Mr. Clemens *

: Dr. Kemp * Jim Kennedy: Carl *

Arthur Hewlett Arthur Hewlett (12 March 1907 in Southampton, Hampshire – 25 February 1997 in London) was a British actor. Hewlett made his stage debut in 1930 at Plymouth Rep, and his theatre work included the original British production of Bernard Shaw ...

: Pop * Hanne Bork: Emmie *

Gretchen Franklin Gretchen Franklin (7 July 1911 – 11 July 2005) was an English actress and dancer with a career in show business spanning over 70 years. She was born in Covent Garden, Central London. She played Ethel Skinner in the long-running BBC 1 soap ope ...

: Mrs. Hansen * Bjørn Watt-Boolsen: Mr. Torens * Lotte Freddie: Britt Torens * Erik Kühnau: Police Doctor

Production

Christopher Lee was first choice to play Salem, but was not available. The film is notable for its unusual score by renowned Hollywood film and TV composer

Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini, ; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flautist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Award ...

. The music was arranged for synthesizer, 12 woodwinds, organ, two pianos and two harpsichords and Mancini achieved an unsettling effect by having one of the harpsichords tuned a quarter-tone flat.

Release

The film was released theatrically in North America in 1971 by Universal Marion Corporation (UMC). It was re-released in 1981 under the title ''Lunatic'' by 21st Century Film Corporation. The film was released on DVD by VCI Entertainment in February 2000. This version is currently out-of-print.

References

External links

* 1971 films 1970s psychological thriller films English-language Swedish films Films scored by Henry Mancini Swedish films about revenge Films directed by László Benedek 1970s English-language films 1970s Swedish films {{psychological-thriller-film-stub