What do I mean with "The Worlds Greatest Karlsson"? I am referring to the movie "Världens bästa Karlsson", 1974, based on two books by Astrid Lindgren. The title of this movie, "Alla tiders Karlsson", can incidentally be translated to "Great Karlsson". It was therefor possibly an inspiration for Astrid.
The movie follows Karl Magnus "Kalle" Karlsson (played by Sigurd Wallén) and the traveling theater that he is the manager of. Like many comedies of the time this is a farce, so the plot is not the focus here. Instead of a deep plot we get slapstick jokes, some entertaining music, and characters who may not be the smartest, but are happy and at good spirits.
The plot is as follows: Karlsson travels with his nephew Åke Berggren (played by Sture Lagerwall) with a revue show. They have antagonists in a rivaling show consisting of a magician, his female assistant Cleo, and the Strong Man Albin. As it happens the two groups both perform in the same city, and the city isn't big enough for both of them to get an audience.
Karlsson gets friends with the Count Rummel, who thinks Karlsson is a splendid person. The count is splendid too -- he is a real caricature: degenerated, bored and drunk. And also, the nephew Åke has a crush on Cleo.
Fill out with slapstick jokes and comical situation and you have the movie.
Kar de Mumma wrote most of the story, in this his second screenplay according to IMDb. All other crew members and actors were experienced, and often hired in this kind of films at the time.
Looking at the CD-ROM "Den svenska långfilmen", we see that the film critic from SvD praised the film as unusually witty and cultured for a farce. I have to agree with him, I get the feeling the 30's were a happy time when watching this movie. The main characters Karlsson is ever-cheerful, and the tempo is fast and easy going. Karlsson is a round, happy man in his best years, with many bright ideas and a great confidence in himself. (You see why I compare him to Karlsson from Astrid Lindgren's books.) Nothing is taken seriously. Karlsson's song "A little happier if I may ask", summarizes it very well. This is a comedy and nothing else. And it excels at that. Yes, it makes you happy.
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