Martin Beck

For other uses, see Martin Beck (disambiguation).

Martin Beck is a fictional Swedish police detective who is the main character in a series of ten novels by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, collectively titled The Story of a Crime. The stories are often seen largely from his perspective and are frequently referred to as the Martin Beck stories.

Character

Throughout the novels, he goes from being an unhappily married man and father to two young teenagers, to a divorced man in an unmarried relationship. Beck also gets several promotions, seemingly much to the chagrin of everyone involved, including himself.

In the novels he is a tall man who smokes. In The Abominable Man he is shot and severely wounded.

All of the novels have been produced as movies, although some appeared with different titles and three have been filmed outside Sweden. In the movies, the first actor to play Martin Beck was Keve Hjelm in 1967. Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt also portrayed Beck in 1976. In 1993 and 1994, Gösta Ekman played the character in six movies based on the novels, as of 1997^[update] Martin Beck is played by Peter Haber. The most notable actor (to American audiences) to play Martin Beck abroad was Walter Matthau, who in 1973 played him in the movie called The Laughing Policeman, though his character was called "Jake Martin". Martin Beck has also been played by Jan Decleir and Derek Jacobi. Roseanna is the only novel that has been filmed twice.

Novels

Title - Year - English title

1. Roseanna (1965) (Roseanna)
2. Mannen som gick upp i rök (1966) (The Man who Went Up in Smoke)
3. Mannen på balkongen (1967) (The Man on the Balcony)
4. Den skrattande polisen (1968) (The Laughing Policeman)
5. Brandbilen som försvann (1969) (The Fire Engine That Disappeared)
6. Polis, polis, potatismos! (1970) (Murder at the Savoy)
7. Den vedervärdige mannen från Säffle (1971) (The Abominable Man)
8. Det slutna rummet (1972) (The Locked Room)
9. Polismördaren (1974) (Cop Killer)
10. Terroristerna (1975) (The Terrorists)

Movies

Movies based on the novels

• Roseanna (1967) (starring Keve Hjelm)
• The Laughing Policeman (1973)' (starring Walter Matthau, this movie had the setting changed to San Francisco and changed the names of the characters)
• Mannen på taket (1976) (The Man on the Roof, based on The Abominable Man starring Carl-Gustaf Lindstedt)
• The Unfinished Dinner (1979) (based on Polis polis potatismos!, starring Romualds Ancāns)
• Der Mann, der sich in Luft auflöste (1980) (starring Derek Jacobi)
• Beck - De gesloten kamer (1993) (starring Jan Decleir)
• Roseanna (1993) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Brandbilen som försvann (1993) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Polis polis potatismos! (1993) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Mannen på balkongen (1993) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Polismördaren (1994) (starring Gösta Ekman)
• Stockholm Marathon (1994) (starring Gösta Ekman)

Movies only based on the characters

Season 1

Most of these were written by Rölf Börjlind, all starring Peter Haber and Mikael Persbrandt as Martin Beck's colleague and friend Gunvald Larsson. Some of them were released theatrically, but most went direct-to-video

• Beck 1 – Lockpojken (June 27, 1997) (The Bait-Boy)
• Beck 2 – Mannen med ikonerna (December 17, 1997) (The Man With the Icons)
• Beck 3 – Vita nätter (February 27, 1998) (White Nights)
• Beck 4 – Öga för öga (March 27, 1998) (Eye For An Eye)
• Beck 5 – Pensionat Pärlan (April 8, 1998) (The Pension House Pearl)
• Beck 6 – Monstret (May 20, 1998) (The Monster)
• Beck 7 – Moneyman (June 3, 1998) (Moneyman)
• Beck 8 – Spår i mörker (October 31, 1997) (Trails In Darkness)

Season 2

• Beck 9 – Hämndens pris (June 27, 2001)
• Beck 10 – Mannen utan ansikte (November 7, 2001)
• Beck 11 – Kartellen (December 12, 2001)
• Beck 12 – Enslingen (January 16, 2002)
• Beck 13 – Okänd avsändare (February 13, 2002)
• Beck 14 – Annonsmannen (March 20, 2002)
• Beck 15 – Pojken i glaskulan (April 10, 2002)
• Beck 16 – Sista vittnet (January 4, 2002)

Season 3

• Beck 17 – Skarpt läge (June 28, 2006)
• Beck 18 – Flickan i jordkällaren (December 6, 2006)
• Beck 19 – Gamen (January 17, 2007)
• Beck 20 – Advokaten (February 21, 2007)
• Beck 21 – Den japanska Shungamålningen (June 5, 2007)
• Beck 22 – Den svaga länken (March 23, 2007)
• Beck 23 – Det tysta skriket (September 19, 2007)
• Beck 24 – I Guds namn (October 10, 2007)

Season 4

• Beck 25 – I stormens öga (August 26, 2009)
• Beck 26 – Levande begravd (June 22, 2010)

See also

• Maj Sjöwall
• Per Wahlöö
• Author Henning Mankell's Swedish detective character Kurt Wallander. Both Sjöwall and Wahlöö and Henning Mankell are focussed on the social issues in the Swedish welfare state. Similar issues prevailed in the 1960s and 1970s of the Martin Beck character and in the 1990s of the Wallander character.

External links

• Martin Beck series on Internet Book List