To catalog the visual and verbal gags in
The Dove would be to ruin this delightful short-subject spoof for the uninitiated viewer. Suffice to say that this "winner of the Golden Escargot Award" (and Oscar nominee) is a dead-on satire of Ingmar Bergman movies in general and
Wild Strawberries and
Seventh Seal in particular. An ageing professor named Viktor Sundqvist muses on his past while making a crucial stop at a roadside outhouse (the first of several gags involving waste products). He remembers that particular Summer in his youth when he and his beloved Inga were forced into a confrontation-and a badminton game-with Mr. Death. The film's dialogue is spoken in hilarious faux Swedish, with English-language subtitles "translating" the Scandanavian double-talk. (one character offers another a cigar, asking "Phalliken sym-bol?")
Madeline Kahn makes a brief appearance as a woman in love with a cow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide