A cruel teacher, nicknamed Caligula, rules his classroom like a kingdom. He is exceptionally hard on Jan-Erik, one of his students. One night Jan-Erik is returning home and finds a girl crying on the street. He recognizes her as the clerk in a cigarette store near the school, and he walks her home.

The girl, Bertha, is of easy virtue, and he spends most of the night with her. He becomes very involved with her, and his work suffers. The girl also has an older man whom she fears, although she will not reveal his name. He is Caligula, and he learns of his student's involvement. He makes life harder yet for Jan-Erik, and he forces the girl to do his will by the threat of flunking Jan-Erik.

But he is too violent with the girl. Jan-Erik arrives to find her dead. In a corner, he finds Caligula hiding and calls the police. Caligula is released. He arranges for the expulsion of Jan-Erik, who strikes him before the principal of the school. The boy then goes to live in Bertha's apartment. Caligula comes to the apartment seeking some strange sort of forgiveness, but Jan-Erik spurns him and instead walks out into the day to a view that overlooks all Stockholm.

"A vaguely rebellious teenager (Kjellin), bullied by his sadistic Latin master (Järrel), falls for a young prostitute (Zetterling) who tells him she is being persecuted by a sinister man; when the boy finds her dead, he also discovers the teacher hiding in the room... As scripted by Ingmar Bergman (it was his first filmed scenario), Sjöberg's film is a relentlessly cruel study in sadomasochistic relationships, structured as a bleak, sordid thriller. Full of superb expressionist shots which serve to highlight the intensity of the film's highly emotional subject matter, it also benefits from the excellent performances of Järrel and the young Mai Zetterling. Interestingly, Järrel was made up to resemble Himmler, prompting interpretations of the film as an allegory on Fascism; more crucially, however, its harsh pessimism anticipates the spiritually tormented universe of Bergman's own work."

"Some of Bergman's pet problems were introduced in Torment, the conflict of the old generation with the young; the vulnerable nature of true love; the struggle of good and evil. But Sjöberg in his direction added much more; his feeling for pictorial values, his experience in handling actors, his sense of dramatic continuity. Through the fortunate interplay of two great talents, the film Torment emerged as one of the best products yet to leave Swedish studios."

Torment: Dialogue Script (English subtitles transcript)

Leonard Quart: "DVD Review: Early Bergman"

Philip Strick: "Film Notes"