Case of the Dead Man

Director Dušan Klein made a sequence of popular crime dramas during the 1970s. However, Případ mrtvého muže (The Case of the Dead Man, 1974) stands apart from Jeden z nich je vrah (One of Them Is the Murderer, 1970), Zatykač na královnu (A Warrant Against the Queen, 1973) and Sázka na třináctku (A Bet on Thirteen, 1977) in that it was set during the 1950s and draws on the decade’s heightened Cold War themes. The film was also inspired by a real murder case which had not been solved. This spy-crime thriller centres on efforts by police to uncover the identity of a Western spy. Among the suspects is a deaf-mute man with amnesia, as doubts emerge that Karel Neumann is feigning his impairments... An actor of Slovak descent Július Vašek stars in this mostly unremarkable feature. The role of the investigator trying to uncover Neumann’s true identity was a familiar one for Jaroslav Moučka.