What I Have I Hold, Gentlemen...!

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1980

Production year

1980

Premiere

26 December 1980

Runtime

84 min

Category

film

Genre

comedy, satire

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionlong

Original title

Co je doma to se počítá, pánové...

Czech title

Co je doma to se počítá, pánové...

English title

What I Have I Hold, Gentlemen...!

Summary

Two cinematic families from one Prague building – the Bartáčeks and the Nováks – were reunited in 1980 after a successful debut in the comedy Zítra to roztočíme, drahoušku…! (We’ll Kick Up a Fuss Tomorrow, Darling...). In the first film from 1976, screenwriter-director Petr Schulhoff moved his characters from an old tenement to a new prefabricated building. The feuding families whose lives were flavoured with spite and malice are now neighbours who are both trying to get rich quick without any effort. This is primarily down to their relatives – Grandpa Novák and Rose, a rich aunt who has come from America to visit her family. However, the plans of these crafty wiseacres ultimately backfire… Like the first film, this is also a gentle small-community comedy, which humorously charts the vapid lives of people focusing on their vision of a “classy” existence. The Novák and Bartáček’s dream of wealth divests them of all their moral inhibitions. This time, the Novák’s son, Renek, is also involved in the action. He works as a taxi driver specialising in foreign clients…Set in the hard-line socialist reality of the 1980s, the film’s plot borrows the superficial notion of an affluent foreign capitalist country, but the calculating relatives end up being undermined by their equally devious American aunt. Naturally, the filmmakers didn’t name the roots of real problems in a society warped by socialism. Despite the fact that the sequel doesn’t scale the same heights of the first film, it is at least entertaining thanks to high-quality acting performances. In the role of Evžen Novák, Miloš Kopecký was replaced by Jiří Sovák. As Renek, Luděk Sobota moves away from playing scatter-brained ingénu roles, whose prototype was the protagonist in the comedy Jáchyme, hoď ho do stroje! (Joachim, Put Him into the Machine!, 1976). Stella Májová appears as Aunt Rose. In the previous film, she had played a completely different character – Ms Kočabová, who worked in a casting agency.

Synopsis

In a prefabricated house at the housing estate there live the Nováks and the Bartáčeks. The members of both families lack spiritual values altogether. The highest life aim is to gain as much money as possible and to show the others that they are more "posh". Renek, son of the Nováks, a taxi-driver who drives only foreigners with the western currency invents for his parents a plan: he founds a club of the Nováks and every Novák is to send an enrolment fee of 5 crowns to the address of the grandfather of the Nováks who lives in a small house. During the action they move him to their flat under the pretext of cleaning up. They success, the swindle returns thirteen thousand crowns. The Bartáčeks, for a change, pretend their poverty to their auntie Rosa who has come from America to visit them. For this opportunity they borrow from the Nováks the grandfather's small house. Rosa wants to help her poor relatives by giving them often dollars. The Bartáčeks keep the dollars and pay for auntie's visit in the Czech crowns, including the purchase of brilliant jewels. The Nováks reveal their initiation and want to buy dollars too. The Bartáčeks agree and a part of money, that auntie needed to exchange, sell them. After satisfied auntie leaves the Bartáčeks and the Nováks find out that auntie bluffed them. Their dollars were false. In addition both couples get a good thrashing of the fictive members of the club of the Nováks. It is only Renek and Naďa, niece of the Bartáčeks, planning a wedding, that take French leave.

Cast

Jiří Sovák

Evžen Novák

Iva Janžurová

Alena Bartáčková

Stella Zázvorková

vedoucí skladu Božena, Evženova manželka

Luděk Sobota

Renek, syn Novákových

František Peterka

Karel Bartáček, Alenin manžel

Stella Májová

teta Rosa Bartack

Dagmar Veškrnová

Naďa, neteř Bartáčkových

Helena Růžičková

uklízečka Hortenzie

Zdeněk Dítě

Karel Novák

Jiří Lír

Quido Novák

Jindřich Narenta

rakouský turista

Jiří Šašek

zpěvák dechovky

Lucie Žulová

zpěvačka dechovky

Václav Štekl

pokladník ve směnárně

Vladimír Hrubý

odmítnutý Renkův zákazník

Eva Trunečková

odmítnutá zákaznice/uklízečka

Milada Ježková

babička odmítnutých zákazníků

Luba Skořepová

Hermína Nováková

Vlastimil Bedrna

řidič u benzinové pumpy

Jan Kraus

chuligán

Vítězslav Černý

konferenciér

Mirko Musil

dělník

Jiří Růžička

Harry Novák, syn Hermíny

Nina Popelíková

listonoška Háblová

Oto Ševčík

francouzský turista

Gabriela Osvaldová

úřednice v inzerci

Jiřina Bílá

Nováková

Ronald Heller

Novák

Marie Landová

Nováková

Ludmila Neumannová

Nováková

Svatava Smoláková

Nováková

Olga Světelská

servírka

Miloslav Homola

strážný

Karel Vavřík

strážný

Milan Kindl

Fanda, manžel uklízečky Hortenzie

Jiří Med

taxikář

Vlastimila Vlková

kolegyně uklízečky Hortenzie

Štěpán Alexa

hudebník

L. Čadek

hudebník

František Domín

hudebník

František Hřídel

hudebník

Josef Chábek

hudebník

K. Jenčík

hudebník

J. Kadlec

hudebník

J. Kahánek

hudebník

Josef Kencl

hudebník

A. Kuchař

hudebník

J. Pavlišta

hudebník

Miroslav Podval

hudebník

Karel Vízner

hudebník

Jaroslav Vocílka

hudebník

L. Zdeněk

hudebník

Crew and creators

Second Unit Director

František Matoušek

Assistant Director

Zdeněk Pazdírek

Continuity

Jana Goetzová

Screenstory

Petr Schulhoff

Screenplay

Petr Schulhoff

Shooting Script

Petr Schulhoff

Dramaturg

Karel Cop

Director of Photography

Jiří Macák

Second Unit Photography

Stanislav Kautský

Camera Operator

Jan Hanzal

Production Designer

Jindřich Goetz

Assistent Production Designer

Jaromír Švarc

Set Designer

Bedřich Čermák, Josef Müller, Bohuslav Varhaník

Costume Designer

Jitka Polednová

Film Editor

Jan Chaloupek

Assistant Film Editor

Alena Chvojková, Anna Mejtská

Sound Designer

Roman Hloch

Production Manager

Ladislav Novotný

Unit Production Manager

Milan Brabec, Jaroslav Smola

Unit Production Manager

Jiří Potsch

Cooperation

Zuzana Plecerová (klapka), Miloš Schmiedberger (fotograf), Otakar Fuka

Music

Music Composed by

Milan Dvořák

Music Performed by

FISYO (Music Conducted by Štěpán Koníček)

Choreographer

Frank Towen

Songs

Já čekám telegram

Song Composer Milan Dvořák
Writer of Lyrics Petr Schulhoff
Singer Dagmar Veškrnová [dab]Jana Robbová

Večer když celičký

Song Composer Milan Dvořák
Writer of Lyrics Petr Schulhoff
Singer Lucie ŽulováJiří Šašek

The Star-Spangled Banner /několik tónů americké hymny Hvězdami posetý prapor/

Song Composer John Stafford Smith

When the Saints Go Marching In

Song Composer tradicionál

Production info

Original Title

Co je doma to se počítá, pánové...

Czech Title

Co je doma to se počítá, pánové...

English Title

What I Have I Hold, Gentlemen...!

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

comedy, satire

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1980

Production Year

1980

Production specifications

withdrawal from distribution 31 May 1993

Premiere

premiere 26 December 1980 /suitable for youths/

Studio

Hostivař

Creative Group

Dramaturgická skupina Drahoslava Makovičky, Drahoslav Makovička (vedoucí dramaturgické skupiny)

Technical info

Duration typology

feature film

Duration in minutes

84 min

Original length in metres

2 391 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