NinadeL

A stupid romantic German two-part film.... at first glance. At second glance, however, it's a piquancy for connoisseurs of the Czech crime series Specialisté na vraždy because the three distinctive faces of the series (Hans Werner Meyer, Gudrun Landgrebe and Barbara M. Ahren) appear in this series in completely contrasting and endearing roles.

The backstage remakes bother me. Even if Frič, bred by Lamač, was in a way entitled to a remake. But Nataša couldn't act better than Anny Ondra even if she tore herself apart. Some people are good, some are not. Those who don't know what I'm talking about should watch the original from 1933.

After Adina Mandlová showed the entire tower block the nice things she’d bought from Podolská, my interest waned somewhat. Another way of looking at it is that Catacombs is the less boisterous of the Burian films, and while it is tasteful and mildly entertaining, it is also very moralistic and gives vent to bureaucratic mannerisms and blind following of authority. The melancholic mood is tempered to a lesser extent by the events at the ball and the teachers, but the overall experience is too bitter. This applies regardless of whether we perceive the premiere date or not.

Just as the film The Virgin has no beginning, this one has no ending, and I'm not going to let it go despite my best efforts. I can still remember the first time I saw it and immediately the trauma that came in the first few minutes. Goodbye is about as much as you can find here. And Zorka? She’s a tragedy, even if she's still alive today. It’s unfortunate that the only reputable Čeněk comes from this film.

For the last few years, I've been amused mainly by how many thousands of reviews this particular film is getting. Otherwise, it absolutely stands out in the awareness of the entire classic era of Czech cinema and overshadows all the otherwise supposed highlights like Christian or Eva swaggering with stupidity.

Burian's return after a nearly two-year hiatus was good commercially. The exoticism game is a little too strong, but what more can you ask for, when Novotný had already worked in Hollywood? Also, the film features Helena and Míla, and that makes up for everything.

The most interesting thing about the film is its reception in the most popular magazine at the time. In addition to the titular Zita Kabátová, the film also made the career of Nancy Rubens (making her debut as Lola Janečková), and Dohnal only reinforced his lover status of the time. Together with Steimar, they then just repeated their proven tricks from ND. The star also added a trio of readers to the film in Mary Šlégrová, Lída Ondrová and R. Bačáková, who played the smaller roles of Helena, Micky, and the doctor.

In order to have a full understanding, I also recommend watching the German version with Hans Moser. This is in fact a rare mirror version, which was always made only if the same director took on all the language versions. In the Czech version, equally worth admiring are Haas, Jedlička, Štěpánek, Svozilová, Vítová, Dohnal, and also Kabátová and Oličová. On their small/big dramas is based an enlightened melodrama responding to a world cinema theme that will forever be associated primarily with Chaplin's The Kid.

Slavínský only managed to set up Věra Ferbasová and Jirka Dohnal as a couple in several older films through their random meeting. It's a wonder that with his spectator's sense of smell, he hadn't thought of it earlier, because the idea was downright lucky. Minx was a film tailored to the temperament of the restless Věra and Jiří was gaining experience next to her. It’s a comedy full of excellent jokes and gags, freshened up with an airplane setting and a stuttering actor, and that is something I can watch all the time.

I really enjoyed this film quite recently, but then it suddenly became a frightening example of Slavic language. I'm sticking to my guns - it's funny and appropriately naive to just the right extent.