Swedish actor Lars Hanson, best known to American audiences for his sensitive performances in such silent classics as The Scarlet Letter and Flesh and the Devil, heads the cast of Intill Helvetets Portar. The title translates as Till the Doors of Hell, a not-so-oblique reference to the precariousness of the postwar Atomic Age. Hanson plays Victor Barring, who at the beginning of the film wins a Nobel Prize for his efforts in the field of atomic research. Barring's assistants, appalled by the possibility of an A-bomb apocalypse, band together to prevent him from continuing his work. Posing several controversial questions, Intill Helvetets Portar provides no easy answers, assuming that the audience is intelligent enough to formulate its own opinions.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
