Summary
Seasoned director Josef Mach directed this comedy based on Zolotoy telyonok (The Little Golden Calf), a satirical novel by Ilja Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov. In the process, he transposed the original 1920s Soviet setting into 1960s Czechoslovakia. The result was a contemporary “communal satire” in which the protagonist Folta – a man who never completed his law studies, and officially makes a living as a lorry driver but actually operates a successful business on the side acting as a legal consultant to all manner of wheeler-dealers – decides together with the butcher Pejša to swindle money from Drtílek, a millionaire who gained his fortune through fraud and deceit. Ultimately, however, Folta becomes a victim of his own cunning plans… Appearing in the main parts of this predictable story, which conforms to what was deemed to amount to social criticism at the time, are a host of well-known Czech actors. The part of Folta the trickster was assumed by Karel Höger, a then much-favoured performer of character roles. He was ably supported by Ilja Prachař, Vladimír Menšík and Čestmír Řanda.
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