Czech film classic presents: Stolen Battle (1972)
Erwin Stranka, a native of Kadana in The Czech Republic, studied at FAMU in Prague, but he made his films mainly in what was then East Germany. In 1972 he became a screenwriter and director of a co-production historical comedy, the Czech version of which was contributed by Ludvík Žáček. The narrative takes place during the Seven Years' War and its protagonists are two men: The Prussian King Frederick II (Herwart Grosse) and the thief Käsebier (Manfred Krug). He forces the sly underwater wart to help his army penetrate the gates of besieged Prague. Käsebier, however, eventually takes the side of the city's defenders, led by Maria Theresa's brother-in-law, Karl Lorraine (Josef Kemr), and his wife Anna Marie (Helena Růžičková). The entertaining film, which, of course, ignores the real historical context, has taken as a model french and italian historical comedy.
The film is available here under the license of the National Film Archive and the State Fund of Cinema, respectively.
2 comments:
Looks fun! Shame it doesn’t have English subtitles.
The best aspect of these DEFA-Adventure-films was Manfred Krug in the leading role. (Although Rolf Hoppe as FW I is a cunning idea too.) It's Maybe better to don't understand the words as These films were from a modern (and even the contemporary) perspective complete nonsense with very old and odd jokes. "Husaren vor Berlin" and "Mir nach Canaillen" were very similar. The much too old Frederick II is typical for These production and the extra low Quality costumes. However the first Scenes of "Die gestohlene Schlacht" are at least somehow original and funny.
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