One hat, zero chill, and a wedding hanging by a thread — French farce done Czech style.
Slacker Maurice Fadinar wasted his whole inheritance and the only way out of this situation, as it seems, to marry Helen Nonankur - daughter of a wealthy farmer. At the last meeting with his mistress in a nearby forest Fadinar's horse eats straw hat which belongs to a married lady, spending time in the company of young and hot Lieutenant Emil. Emil literally puts a knife to Maurice throat - or the lady will get back the exact same hat immediately, or he will arrange such a scandal that no wedding will not happen ...
Direction
Lipský's clockwork precision — every exit is an entrance somewhere else.
Production
Belle Époque visual splendor on what had to be a shoestring budget.
Acting
Kopecký's sweating desperation — physical comedy as survival mechanism.
Director
Oldřich Lipský
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This is actually the FIFTH film adaptation of Eugène Labiche's 1851 play 'Le Chapeau de paille d'Italie' — the French have been laughing at this hat for 120 years.
Director Lipský was a master of Czech absurdist comedy; this was his warm-up before the legendary 'Lemonade Joe' (1964) and 'The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians' (1981).
XC
