Summary
Director Hynek Bočan spent six years barred from making feature-length films after earning the displeasure of the Prague Barrandov film studios' management thanks to his political stance and the motion pictures he had put out during the 1960s. Eventually, the ban was relaxed, but naturally, given the prevailing regime, Bočan was not free to select subject matter for his films. The appearance in his filmography of crime comedy Muž z Londýna (The Man From London, 1974) is a consequence of that uncomfortable situation. The narrative relates an unsuccessful attempt at a crime made by top professional safe cracker George Reiner (Jiří Sovák) from England. Things break down because of rather specific characteristics of the modestly-sized Czech gangland. Reiner is a Czech emigrant, who, after 30 years away has forgotten how things really are in the country of his birth. The robbery of golden twenty-dollar bills from a villa in Pilsen, which is due to soon disappear under the waters of a new dam, is also complicated by the acquisitive but “innocent” Sýkora couple (Lubomír Lipský, Květa Fialová). Despite excellent casting, Bočan’s film amounts to little more than an undemanding, relaxing entertainment.
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