Walpurgis Night (1935)

Erik 'Bullen' Berglund: Gustav Palm

Photos 

Quotes 

• Gustav Palm : You can't expect us to sit idly by white Sweden's future goes down the drain.

  Fredrik Bergström : I wonder what would happen, if you and all the other bachelors with good salaries were to try to save the future and birthrate by marrying? But no, you don't want that. You won't even hear of it. Neither that nor the bachelor tax.

  Gustav Palm : Now you listen, if all the married people in Sweden were to do as much for the birthrate as we bachelors do, there would be no need to worry about our country.

• [first lines] 

  Gustav Palm : There are hundreds of reasons, no, thousands, that demand a quick solution to the birthrate problem, or Sweden will begin depopulating in 20 years. Sweden must be saved.

• Svensson : Morning! Some great news items! A stonemason got run over on Östermalmstorg at 6:00 AM. Five ribs, his femur and 25 bottles of beer shot to hell. The bottles were empty.

  Gustav Palm : All right. Svensson, it's 50 öre a piece for the ribs and 1.25 krona for his femur. The empty beer bottles you'll throw in for free. Here you are.

  Svensson : I see. I forgot the most important part. He was run over by a society dame, a drunken countess.

  Gustav Palm : Are you serious?

  Svensson : Sure! She's sleeping it off at the precinct, while the police check out Thalia, the nightclub she visited before the mason came into her sights.

  Gustav Palm : You get 20 kroner extra for the drunken countess. There you are.

• Gustav Palm : You can drive a man crazy with your Spring poetry when we're so short on space. A story like this drunken countess is real news, but we have Spring and Walpurgis every year. People get tired of it.

  Fredrik Bergström : People never get tired of Spring.

  Gustav Palm : Well, all right, have your three columns, and we'll cut the cultural page. But the countess will not be cut down, you Spring zealot, you!

• Gustav Palm : We're awfully thin on real news. Just theater gossip and stale old royal engagement rumors. Not even one measly robbery to lend it some color. In deed, it's enough to make a man want to take a drink.

  Fredrik Bergström : Good heavens. Is that milk you're drinking?

  Gustav Palm : Shh. Don't shout it out for all the world to hear. I happened to try a glass the other day, the first since I was a toddler. I quite enjoyed it, as a matter of fact. But, I pour it into a beer bottle to avoid comments.