Jiřina Pokorná-Makoszová

A little-known adaptation of Jaroslav Vrchlický's play is returning to the television screen, full of humorous plots, telling the story of the courage of two women in love who, because of their love, infiltrated Karlštejn Castle, where women are forbidden to enter by order of the monarch. It was created with a number of star actors eight years before the now legendary film adaptation by Zdeněk Podskalský. When it premiered in 1965, it aroused a stormy, positive and negative response. Quite naturally, because Filip's concept of this classic play, albeit in the authentic setting of Karlštejn Castle, was completely new and unconventional at the time. This adaptation of the classic original uses the melodies of popular Czech and foreign hits with lyrics by P. Kopta. For example, the ruler's arrival at the castle was announced by the melody of the popular song Jó, třešné zrály. However, professional singers mostly sing for the actors here.

A fairy tale in which the devil can make hell for people on earth, but is powerless against common sense.

The cheerful fairy tale takes us to the first category of hell, inhabited by mischievous devils, and the second category of hell with dirty devils. And this is where the village youth Kája Fousek falls as punishment for his arrogance... The devils decide to correct him. But one of them falls in love with Kája, and he falls in love with her.

A host of actors in the classic national fairy tale by A. Jirásek. Jirásek's "Lucerna" is the best-known and most performed of his plays. It was also used by television producers. In the second half of the 1960s, a successful transcription was created with a remarkably well-captured atmosphere of the realistic-fairytale motif of the original. The film captures the acting mastery of Jan Pivec in the role of the castle's headmaster, the musicians played by Bohuš Záhorský and Vladimír Menšík, Zdeněk Štěpánek and Josef Kemr in the roles of the watermen Ivan and Michal. The television version of Lucerna premiered on Christmas Eve 1967, and each rerun only confirms that it is an excellent production.