Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)
Directed by Victor Sjöström
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Criterion Collection)
A drunkard dies on New Years Eve and is visited by his old drinking buddy, now "Death's driver", who has come to take him away in his run-down carriage. In a series of flashbacks, we learn how drinking ruined his life. He is given an opportunity at redemption by a kindly woman who runs the Swedish version of the Salvation Army. She sacrifices everything to reunite him with his wife and family. It's basically a variation of Dickens' Christmas Carol, with Death (or, more precisely, Death's driver) standing in for Dickens' ghosts. Instead of a miserly Scrooge we get a drunk "David Holm", equally despicable, but also with enough humanity to realize the error of his ways when shown how they impact other people.
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