• Director: Urban Gad
  • Year: 1910
  • Starring: Asta Nielsen,Poul Reumert,Robert Dinesen,Hans Neergaard,Hulda Didrichsen,Emilie Sannom,Oscar Stribolt,Arne Weel,Johannes Fonss,Torben Meyer
  • Runtime: 0h 41m
  • Available on: YouTube

Remember to always marry the vicar’s son and not the circus cowboy or one day a movie might call you a slut.

So you can hardly blame the whining wet blanked Knud for reluctantly following the wilful Magda to the circus and then on to pet the donkey. She is a dark-eyed, fun-loving force of nature (although perhaps if he'd danced in the mud with her tragedy could have been avoided).

However, you absolutely can blame Rudolph, the aforementioned cowboy who she runs off with.

In a later scene, we watch from the wings as Magda publicly ties him up, then twerks like it's 1910 all over the stage and then all over him for a good couple of minutes of erotic screen time which got the film banned in some countries and yet he still runs off with the high-kicking girl with no sense of rhythm.

You have chosen poorly, son.

From a technical perspective there are some nice shots. We have pans that keep the characters mostly where they need to be, a tram-mounted camera that does a good job of selling Knud and Magda's budding flirtation, and some lovely framed moments (as well as some decidedly odd ones—like when they arrive at the vicarage and a full 50% of the screen is roof).

There are also multiple paragraphs of cursive as handwritten, plot-driving title cards are displayed on screen. Read 'em quick!

While the story is a bit of preachy morality tale, I found Afgrunden to be a compelling watch mainly because Nielsen gives it her all. I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest she has a bright future in cinema.