This picture begins with a group of Swedish characters embarking on a train journey to Berlin. We are soon introduced to the dark humour that is a main feature of the film, and then the simple plot is introduced, two lovers intending to murder the man's wife. Shades of Double Indemnity in that it's to be done on a train. A writer and critic who is also travelling, has encounters with his fellow passengers, especially a wounded soldier, whose injuries he gradually adds to in a series of accidental and increasingly bizarre mishaps. The other characters range from the fairly normal to the frankly weird, from the train conductor to the male couple and the two nuns, but the writer who blunders his way through the film causing mayhem is the central figure, and his encounters with the soldier will amuse or not depending on your taste in comedy and how seriously you take life.The murder plot is woven into the comedy nicely and the murderous couple become increasingly desperate as their plans seem to be failing. The B and W photography is crisp and as the train moves on the plot moves on with it at a nice pace. The postscript is quite clever too.Monsieur Hulot meets Hitchcock?

...and this movie easily exceeded my expectations. The fact that it is written and directed by Peter Dalle led me to believe it was in style with other films I'm used to (and bored with) seeing him in. Anyway, I grudgingly went along to see this flick and that I'm glad for. This stuff has humour and depth. 9 out of 10. See it!

`Skenbart' is one of the funniest movies to not only to come from Peter Dalle but from the Swedish cinema industry itself. It is a movie made in black and white to get something of the atmosphere from the days before Christmas in December 1945, which it does very well. Almost the whole plot takes place on a train, non-stop to Berlin. On the train is a mix of homosexuals, nuns, deported refugees, murderers, alcoholics and the failure literature critic 'Gunnar' played by the, in Sweden, famous actor Gustav Hammarsten. The leading role 'Gunnar' is the type of person that, although his intentions are for the best, seems to drag everyone near him, in a extremely funny way, into disaster and to a living hell, especially for a from the Finnish war, homecoming, wounded soldier played by the extremely funny comedian Robert Gustafsson. On the train is also a doctor, who cheats on his wife, with his mistress. They have together planned to murder the doctors wife that is also travelling with the same train without any knowledge about her husbands intentions. Will the wife of the doctor elude the plans to murder her and will everyone else survive the unlucky fellow 'Gunnar'?

This solid black and white slapstick comedy with a dark (but hopelessly contrived) plot is a true crowd pleaser that will have you howling with laughter (as well as rolling your eyes with disbelief).It's the old psychopath on a train story but that is of no big importance as the thriller portion of the film almost seems to be merely a counterweight to the antics of the great comedian Robert Gustafsson. His hapless, nearly incurably optimistic soldier invokes both compassion and schadenfreude in a fashion that almost rivals Chevy Chase.The thing about the film that appealed to me the most, however, is that wedged between the improbable and the hilarious are the accurately portrayed everyday joys and nuisances of train travel. They add a most welcome sense of realism and recognition.This thriller comedy has admittedly borrowed most of its "suspense" from Hitchcock and should, in my opinion, only be watched for its comedy value (which is high indeed). Besides Gustafsson, Lars Amble's solid performance as a delightfully cynical misogynist is worth the price of admission alone.Heartily recommend.