Summary
This film is based on the 1851 Art Nouveau farce Un Chapeau de paille d'Italie (The Italian Straw Hat) by French dramatist Eugène Labiche. The play was popularised in Czechoslovakia thanks to a transcription by Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich and a run at their Osvobozené divadlo (The Liberated Theatre) in the 1930s. When Werich revived the play at Divadlo satiry (The Satire Theatre) in 1975 he was assisted by Oldřich Lipský who had previously directed a film version of the play scripted by his regular collaborator Miloš Macourek. The comedy Slaměný klobouk (Straw Hat, 1971) stars Miloš Kopecký as the idle dandy Maurice Fadinard who hopes to remedy his financial inadequacy by marrying Helenka (Iva Janžurová), the daughter of a rich greengrocer. However, complications arise in the run up to the wedding when Fadinard’s horse eats a straw hat belonging to a flirtatious lady (Květa Fialová). Her quick-tempered lover (Pavel Landovský) compels our flawed hero to hunt down an exact replacement. The film was a welcome apolitical entertainment, allowing Macourek and Lipský to pursue their favoured genre of farcical comedy.
Read more
