Snushanerne: Writers and Smugglers, What Could Go Wrong?

Is it worth your time?

If you like old black-and-white stuff that doesn't try to change your life but knows how to keep things moving, sure. It’s for the crowd that enjoys a bit of harmless peril. If you’re looking for high-stakes tension or, god forbid, realism, you will probably roll your eyes into the back of your head within ten minutes. Honestly, it’s a bit of a relic.

The whole setup is so meta it hurts. Two writers go to Bornholm to study smugglers for their manuscript, which is basically the 1930s equivalent of a TikToker going to a crime scene for content. It is aggressively charming in how dumb the premise is. Watching these city types try to navigate real-world danger is like watching someone try to grill a steak with a hair dryer.

The island of Bornholm looks gorgeous, though. They clearly loved filming the cliffs. There’s this one sequence where the camera just sort of wanders off to look at the rocks while the characters are supposedly busy having a vital plot conversation. It felt like the cinematographer just got bored. I loved that.

The customs police are about as intimidating as a librarian on a Sunday, but they have these uniforms that look like they were ironed five minutes before the cameras rolled. It’s stiff, proper, and weirdly wholesome. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Ha! Ha! Ha!, where the stakes feel high but you know deep down everyone is going to be fine by the credits.

There is a lot of dialogue about manuscripts and writing that rings totally false, but that’s the point, isn’t it? These guys have no business being on a boat chasing bad guys. Every time someone pulls a gun, it looks like they are holding a heavy sandwich. Nobody looks comfortable with a firearm.

I caught myself noticing the background extras in the harbor scenes. Half of them are clearly just local people standing around watching the film crew and trying not to giggle. There’s a guy in a flat cap who walks past the frame three times in the same scene. He really wanted his moment.

The ending is pure convenience. The bad guys just sort of... give up? It doesn’t feel earned, but at that point, you’ve spent enough time in the salt air that you don't really care. It’s not like The Acquittal where you’re holding your breath for a verdict. Here, the verdict is just that everyone needs a drink and a nap.

It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not even a particularly good mystery. But it’s a weird little window into a time when movies were just about hanging out on an island and pretending to be heroes. 🌊

Quick notes from the notebook:

• The sound of the waves is louder than the dialogue half the time.
• The smugglers are way too polite to be actual criminals.
• I think one of the writers is wearing the exact same sweater through the whole movie.
• The transition between scenes is sometimes just a hard cut to black, no fade, just *bang*.