Dreyer's Once Upon a Time was thought to be a lost film until 1964 when this fragment, consisting of approximately two-thirds of the original film, was found in the vaults of Nordisk Films. Though Dreyer has frequently dismissed the film, Tom Milne, in “The Cinema of Carl Dreyer,” finds this hard to justify. “It is clear,” Milne writes, “that the film marks yet another important step forward: in the extreme sophistication of the camerawork.... Once Upon a Time is a sort of variation on ‘The Taming of the Shrew,' part folklore and part fairytale, about a bored princess who rejects all her suitors until confronted by a prince who whisks her off to a humble cottage in the forest, maltreats her, makes her do menial chores, and finally awakens the love and humility that lie dormant in her heart so that they live happily ever after.” Milne notes Dreyer's concentration on a whimsical, magical atmosphere and the texture of George Schneevoigt's photography which already captures something of the influence of German Expressionism. Finally, Milne cites this film as marking the close of the first phase of Dreyer's work, before the director began his “descent into the human soul.”