Doggy and the Four

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1954

Production year

1954

Premiere

15 April 1955

Runtime

94 min

Director

Jiří Weiss

Category

film

Genre

children

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionlong

Original title

Punťa a čtyřlístek

Czech title

Punťa a čtyřlístek

English title

Doggy and the Four

Summary

In 1955, director Jiří Weiss added this children’s tale to his thematically varied filmography. The screenplay by then budding children’s story writer Ota Hofman – based on his own story – presents the protagonist as third grade schoolboy Toník Burda (Aleš Košnar), who tries to improve his image in the eye of his friends with a stray fox terrier. The cute dog, which the boy calls Punťa, helps to gradually embroil our young protagonist in a web of lies – the only possible way out is to tell the truth. For this tale of morals, director Weiss offered 12-year-old Václav Postránecký his first major acting role, while also taking on the year older Vladimír Pucholt. Košnar continued to occasionally appear on screen right until the late 1970s. Forty-three-year-old Nataša Gollová also appears. She only turned up sporadically on screen during the 1950s in her otherwise expansive career.

Synopsis

Third-grader Toník Burda is not very good at football so it takes a lot of persuasion for his friends Pepík and Karel to get him on the team, at least as a substitute. A fox terrier runs up to Toník on the way to the football field. As a dog owner, he suddenly gains in importance to the boys and is accepted into the game. Karel and Pepík borrow the dog - Punťa as Toník calls him - but the dog runs away. The boys find the runaway in the arms of little Lidka who calls him Asťa and refuses to let them have him. The boys take the dog off her and, in the tussle, the dog's nametag is lost. Toník is ashamed to admit that the dog isn't his and thus he causes a lot of worry for himself. At home he tells the fib that he is to look after the dog for a time for his teacher's friend. The lies start accumulating and the problems grow. By chance Toník is witness to a case which his father, a lawyer, has taken on for a boy convicted of theft. Toník's bad conscience eventually gets the better of him and he goes to the police. In the meantime Punťa runs off to his mistress and everything is explained, both at school and at home. Toník's parents, seeing how sorry he is, buy him a puppy.

Cast

Josef Bek

advokát JUDr. František Burda

Jarmila Smejkalová

Helena, Burdova žena

Aleš Košnar

Toník, syn Burdových

Nataša Gollová

Marie Prouzová

Václav Postránecký

Karel, syn Prouzové

Ema Skálová

Karlova tetička Růžena

František Roland

rozzlobený penzista

Zdeněk Dítě

strážmistr SNB Šimek

Miroslav Koukal

Pepík, Šimkův syn

Radovan Lukavský

železničář Svoboda

Věra Srbková

Lidka Čermáková, majitelka Punti

Rudolf Deyl ml.

učitel Hořejší

Běla Jurdová

prodavačka v hračkářství

Jiří Vršťala

příslušník SNB

Miloš Vavruška

příslušník SNB

Jan Maška

příslušník SNB

Gustav Heverle

velitel SNB

Rudolf Princ

úředník na ONV

Rudolf Křivánek

příslušník SNB Bureš

Dáša Neblechová

maminka Čermáková

Karla Svobodová

Helenka, dcera Burdových

Jarmila Pucholtová

žákyně

Čestmír Studna

kluk

Ruppert Dubský

V. Bobková

J. Turek

J. Holub

J. Šubrt

Z. Chalupník

J. Zelenka

V. Mikulášková

pes Broček

foxteriér Punťa vlastním jménem Asťa

Crew and creators

Director

Jiří Weiss

Second Unit Director

Bohumil Svoboda

Assistant Director

Milada Řeháková, Alena Nová

Screenstory

Ota Hofman

Director of Photography

Jaroslav Tuzar

Second Unit Photography

Jan Novák

Camera Operator

Adolf Hejzlar

Production Designer

Bohuslav Kulič

Costume Designer

Karel Postřehovský

Make-Up Artist

Josef Mann, Anna Mátlová

Film Editor

Miroslav Hájek

Assistant Film Editor

Magda Hájková

Sound Designer

Emil Poledník

Titles Designed by

Adolf Hoffmeister

Production Manager

Josef Ouzký

Unit Production Manager

Vratislav Innemann

Consultant

Václav Chmelíř

Music

Music Composed by

Jiří Srnka

Music Performed by

FISYO (Music Conducted by Milivoj Uzelac)

Songs

Když jsem husy pásala

Production info

Original Title

Punťa a čtyřlístek

Czech Title

Punťa a čtyřlístek

English Title

Doggy and the Four

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

children

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1954

Production Year

1954

Production specifications

start of filming 13 September 1954
the first film copy approved 20 December 1954
projection approval 04/1955

Premiere

premiere 15 April 1955 /suitable for youths/ (kina Moskva /6 týdnů/, Revoluce /1 týden od 29. 4./, Oko /1 týden od 6. 5./ a Arbes /1 týden od 13. 5./, Praha)

Copyright Holders

Národní filmový archiv

Studio

Barrandov

Technical info

Duration typology

feature film

Duration in minutes

94 min

Original length in metres

2 684 meters

Distribution carrier

16mm, 35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,37

Colour

colour

Sound

sound

Sound system/format

mono

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

Czech

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Opening/End credits languages

Czech