Chalk and Cheese

This tragicomedy – the story of an aloof factory owner who adopts a new perspective on life after an encounter with the good-hearted quarryman Fábera – constitutes an important entry in actor Jindřich Plachta’s filmography from the era of the Nazi Protectorate. Presented with the role of a simple and loving common man in this 1941 motion picture, Plachta was given the opportunity to underscore the acting skills that had kindled and buoyed his popularity among domestic audiences going right back to the 1920s. Experienced director Vladimír Slavínský offers the audience a high-quality genre spectacle without any surprises; even the cast was thus essentially predictable. By embodying factory owner Bartoš, Jaroslav Marvan portrays yet another of his unpleasant heroes who discover their inner kindness thanks to elements in their surroundings. The narrative leads to lovers from the opposing sides – Bartoš’s nephew Oldřich and Fábera’s daughter Anča, embodied by Raoul Schánil and Jana Romanová, respectively – clashing on the barricades of the social struggle.