In a small Swedish town, the mayor’s son Mauritz falls in love with Anne-Marie, the daughter of a simple baker. (Her character’s nickname, “Dunungen”, literally means “a downy little bird”, but is also used to refer to someone innocent and inexperienced.)  Despite the difference in social status between their families, the engagement is soon announced. The “better” class of townsfolk, unremittingly snobbish, frown on the unconventional alliance, endangering the union. The young couple decide to seek support from Mauritz’s wealthy uncle Teodor, master of a great ironworks and a confirmed bachelor. During their stay at the uncle’s manor, Anne-Marie’s feelings gradually start to change as Mauritz neglects her in favor of his old childhood sweetheart Elisabet, the daughter of a neighboring squire. As her fiancée’s arrogance becomes more and more obvious to Anne-Marie, sympathy grows between her and the uncle.
In Quest of Happiness was the first film Svenska Bio made after the 1917 change in production policy (to making fewer but more prestigious works) which was not directed by either Victor Sjöström or Mauritz Stiller. The choice to adapt yet another work by Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf to the screen accords with the new production orientation. The choice of Ivan Hedqvist as director, however, might seem surprising considering his limited film experience. During the summer of 1910 he had acted leading roles in a handful of productions shot by Svenska Bio, but after that he had remained faithful to the theatre. According to a 1918 fan publication about Hedqvist, he even prided himself on being an actor who, unlike some colleagues, “would not desert the theatre and his artistic calling for movie gold”.
While Hedqvist lacked filmmaking experience, he had a deep knowledge of and familiarity with the literary source. Selma Lagerlöf’s tale “Dunungen” first appeared as a short story published in 1894, but was later adapted for the stage by the author herself. The play premiered at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm in 1914, with Hedqvist as Uncle Teodor – a part that became one of his signature roles and which he reprises in the film version. It is obvious when one compares Hedqvist’s film to the literary versions of the story that the director (and the uncredited and unknown screenwriter) brought a lot of the stage play into the film. Many of the film’s intertitles are direct reproductions of lines from the play, and the film keeps a number of characters that the stage version added to the more concise short story.
In Quest of Happiness was well received and got uniformly good reviews at its premiere. It also proved to be successful abroad: Swedish trade journals reported on the film’s triumphs in various countries around the world, including the United Kingdom, France, and even the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), where the local censorship authorities praised the film. Hedqvist would direct three more films after this one, all featuring the actress Renée Björling in leading roles. He mainly worked in films as an actor, however, frequently playing – as he does in both In Quest of Happiness and Sjöström’s  Vem domer? (Love’s Crucible, 1922; shown in last year’s program) – an older man in love with a much younger woman.
In Quest of Happiness is a charming film, but despite being one of the really successful “Golden Age” films of its time and a Lagerlöf adaptation to boot, it has remained largely overlooked in film historiography and screening practice. Unfortunately, the surviving version of the film is a severely abridged version that differs a lot from the original. The censors recorded the film’s length as 2698 metres at its premiere, but it was repeatedly re-edited and shortened; it was re-released in 1945 at only 1960 metres. The new restoration reconstructs the missing portions of the film with original text cards, production stills, and added explanatory titles.
About the restoration: An acetate fine grain master with flash-titles made from the abridged camera negative (now lost) as well as a short tinted nitrate fragment from the collections of EYE Film Institute, were scanned by the Swedish Film Institute in 2018. Full-length intertitles were created from the original text cards and the tinting scheme was recreated based on the nitrate fragment and known sources from other contemporary films. Missing sequences were reconstructed.

Magnus Rosborn & Casper Tybjerg