Brink of Life

A taut, harrowing, unsparingly clinical drama about childbirth, told in an al- most documentary style.

Miss Dahlbeck's performance is one of the really memorable tours de force I've seen on film, and her brutally convincing scenes in a labor room will come as a shock to most American males.

The simplest version of what would become the dominant Bergman style over the next several years: watch a human face and see what you find there.

An unhappy combination of sentimentality in the plot and dialogue and coldness in the direction.