Bergman was married to journalist Gun Grut when he made Sawdust and Tinsel, but he was also in the midst of an affair with Harriet Andersson, so themes of loyalty and betrayal pervade the film. Andersson is at the story's center as the voluptuous temptress of traveling circus ringmaster Albert Johansson (Åke Grönberg), a rather unflattering director surrogate. Albert is having moral qualms about leaving his wife for a demanding career on the road while also struggling with the temptations and erotic games played by Andersson. It’s a plot whose autobiographical overtones are nakedly apparent, and yet the film, despite its displays of sexual humiliation and suicidal rage, ultimately has a warmth that’s uncommon whenever Bergman writes so frankly from the gut, a sense of real affection for its wandering, lowbrow entertainers. A year before La Strada, Bergman portrays backstage camaraderie and the ruthlessness of circus life in his own inimitable manner, offering studio-set expressionism where Fellini would bring a lyrical neorealism, and experimenting with formal maneuvers later employed in Hour of the Wolf and Persona.