Arne Mattsson (2 December 1919 - 28 June 1995) was a Swedish film director, born in Uppsala.
His early movies were mostly comedies. His biggest success was Hon dansade en sommar (1951, aka. One Summer of Happiness), which earned him the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival[1] and a nomination for the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952.[2] It caused some controversy at the time because it containined nudity.
His 1953 film of Peder Sjögren's second novel, Bread of Love (Kärlekens bröd), based on Sjögren's experiences as a volunteer in the Finnish Continuation War of 1941-44 angered the author, was banned in Finland and incurred the wrath of the Soviets at the Cannes Film Festival. In spite of all this, Sjögren grudgingly admitted that as a study of men under severe pressure it was impressive [3].
In 1958 he directed Mannekäng i rött, the first in a series of murder mysteries, considered by some to be a precursor of the Italian giallo films.
The popularity of his mystery movies declined and in the 1970s and 1980s he made mostly low-budget thrillers - some in collaboration with Mats Helge - which got mostly bad reviews.