Summary
Jan Drda belongs among those favourite authors whose books were turned into films – mainly fairytales in his case. Along with the film adaptations of Zdeněk Troška (O princezně Jasněnce a létajícím ševci [Princess Brightness and the Flying Shoemaker], Z pekla štěstí [Helluva Good Luck], Nejkrásnější hádanka [The Loveliest Riddle]), this comedy shot in 1959 by the experienced Martin Frič (who in the same year introduced another of his fairytale projects to cinemas, namely Princezna se zlatou hvězdou [The Princess with the Golden Star]) has also gained favour with viewers. In the stylised story, Jiří Sovák plays the poor mine worker Dařbuján, who for his twelfth descendant chooses a scythe, consequently Death (Václav Lohniský), as a godfather. Death helps Dařbuján to become a rich doctor, who with the secret help of his miracle-working godfather can guess what ails each patient. But the mean and wealthy Pandrhola (Rudolf Hrušínský), whom Dařbuján gets involved with, decides to get rid of Death and imprisons it. The absence of the Grim Reaper in the world thus causes a series of comical catastrophes.
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