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The Golem, a giant creature created out of clay by a rabbi, comes to life in a time of trouble to protect the Jews of Prague from persecution.
The doomed love of a city girl caught in the vise of poverty is detailed in Vavra’s fluid, romantic work, one of the most elegant creations of the Czech Modernist era... The film lingers over its characters’ habitats and haunts, finding psychological truths in what each owns or desires, and countering every Hollywood-ready scene of gleaming restaurants and dazzling penthouses with realist moments of employment lines and crammed flats. Vavra’s classical camerawork and aura of romantic defeatism give Virginity a force comparable to the master of this genre, Hollywood’s Frank Borzage. (BAM/PFA)
A story of two story of two children tossed between their indifferent parents and a progressive boarding school.
Wealthy and ill Petr Kornel (Karel Hasler) is not pleased with the carousing lifestyle of his nephew. He stops supporting him financially and demands that he change his name. Out of gratitude Kornel bequeaths a substantial sum of money to his nurse Alice (Adina Mandlová) with the condition that she marries. Petr Suk (Hugo Haas), as the nephew is now named, visits the doctor. In the waiting room his X-ray is mistakenly switched with one of another patient's. On the basis of this he presently learns that he is seriously ill and has only one day of life left to him.
Professor Karas is widely known as enthusiastic propagator of the motto "Morality Above All Else". He guides his students as well as his own family to live a morally decent life. One day he has an unexpected visit. It's his illegitimate daughter Vera, who is proof of his thoughtless youth. Mr. Karas know that she can ruin his image, thus he decides to keep her a secret and asks her to leave. Instead of leaving she takes a position of a governess in his own family without letting him know. Mr. Karas realizes that he must reveal the truth sooner or later, but he doesn't have enough courage to do so. As he postpones it, he is more and more scared to come to his own home.
The Kráčmer couple work diligently in the vegetable garden. They are saving for a dowry for their only daughter, Betynce, who is in a serious relationship with the doctor Zdeborský. Inspired by a newspaper report, they decide to buy Kráčmer a lottery ticket. Kráčmerka brings it home crying because she feels like she has thrown away all her possessions. After a sleepless night, she goes to the store to return the ticket. However, it is too late, the draw has already been made...
One of the few European films of the 30s to criticize the Nazis, even if they couldn't be directly named due to censorship: Gangsters with gray hats stir up trouble in what is obviously the Sudetenland.
The war drama The Horse Patrol is an adaptation of the play of the same name by writer and military doctor František Langer. It takes place in 1919 in Russia and depicts the conflict between members of the Czechoslovak legions and Soviet agitators who are trying to forcibly integrate the legionnaires into the Red Army. Members of the legionnaire's horse patrol, led by sergeant František Matějka (Z. Štěpánek), befriend the inhabitants of a Russian village, but after a cunning attack they find themselves isolated in a lonely building. They are holding two Russian prisoners, while two of their soldiers have set out to report to their superiors. The horse patrol then loses its horse due to betrayal and must prepare for an unequal battle during a major Red Army attack...
Orphaned Zdeňka Štěpánová helps her foster parents in Moravia at an inn. One day she learns that she is to be taken in by the owner of a toy factory, Miloš Kavan, who will fulfill her father's last wish. At the same time that Kavan and his housekeeper Mrs. Julie are expecting Zdeňka, their caretaker's little niece Hanička arrives. Mrs. Julie initially considers her her protégé, because she has no idea that Zdeňka is already a grown-up girl...
The determined Mrs. Barbora Čápová, the owner of a goose farm in Brousilov, is trying to get her daughter married. The advertisement receives a whole box of responses, so the caring mother has plenty to choose from. Pavel Stehlík appears to be the most suitable candidate, and since her daughter also likes him, a famous party is held. The newlywed is not proud of the fact that he is literally drowning in debt. Moreover, he gets along suspiciously well with his father-in-law, and the two have all sorts of falling out. After some time, they set off on a trip to Prague together. As if by chance, Mrs. Barbora is on the same trip that same day - and meets her husband at a variety show, where she went with an old acquaintance. She promises cruel revenge on the unfaithful man, but her plans are thwarted by a completely unexpected event...
Věra Donátová has graduated from law school and wants to open a law firm. However, she is financially dependent on her parents. Her emancipated mother supports her efforts, but her father gives Věra money on the condition that if her practice is not successful within a year, she will marry the son of Consul Raboch. Věra has no clients. The first case is assigned to her ex officio. Věra visits her client Petr Kučera, known as Tygr, in a prison cell and achieves his release against his will. In an attempt to reform him, she offers him a position as a butler in his office. Tygr invites her to a pub to get acquainted with the mentality of the underworld. Věra likes his sovereign behavior. The one-year deadline has passed and Father Donát is throwing a feast. He wants Věra to choose from several invited suitors. Věra ridicules all the suitors, including Consul Raboch's son...
The story of high school students, talented Jan and Karel, who has a problem with math. Their life affects pedantic professor of mathematics Klec, that goes with them on a school trip, which escalates the conflict between them. Jan wants to escape, but Professor Donat will discourage him. Karel fails the exam of mathematics and decides to commit suicide.
Even though the heroine works as a seamstress, she would like to become a designer. And she really has the talent, even a businessman from Paris shows interest in her. But many things turn out to be different than they seem at first. This applies to people and love.
Humorous commentary over on and off-duty scenes of Czechoslovak Army soldiers, and some Czech airmen in RAF, shows how these allies have tried to adapt to the peculiarities of British life (food, language, weather) during their military training in Great Britain, while they wait until their country (symbolised by scenes from the Sokol of 1938) is free again.
