Vlasta Burian was a legendary Czech comic actor, who appeared in dozens of Czech language films from 1923 to 1956. His heyday in film was the 1930s, and he is a distinctive and amusing presence, with his great mustache and his penetrating eyes. To date I have only seen two of his films:"Katakomby" (The Catacombs) and "Duchácek to zarídí," (which if I remember correctly, translates as "Duchacek Will Fix It").
"Catacombs" is the lesser of these two films. The title refers to the office of records in the basement of a large company... sort of the place where a troublesome employee may be dumped in a dead end job. If fact, the story is a simple romantic comedy, with Burian as the kindly old stick-in-the-mud who helps the young man to sort out his romance with the daughter of the company's owner.
There are a few amusing bits with Burian, but the story is strictly by the numbers. I should also note that unless you can read subtitles VERY fast, you may find yourself pausing the DVD in order to catch the fast dialog.
"Catacombs" is the lesser of these two films. The title refers to the office of records in the basement of a large company... sort of the place where a troublesome employee may be dumped in a dead end job. If fact, the story is a simple romantic comedy, with Burian as the kindly old stick-in-the-mud who helps the young man to sort out his romance with the daughter of the company's owner.
There are a few amusing bits with Burian, but the story is strictly by the numbers. I should also note that unless you can read subtitles VERY fast, you may find yourself pausing the DVD in order to catch the fast dialog.
