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The first sound films in Bohemia were made in 1930. At first it was a drama called Tonka Šibenice (Tonka the "Gibbet"). However, since there was actually only one sound scene, the really first sound movie was C. & K. polní maršálek (Imperial & royal field marshall) with Vlasta Burian in the title role. It is paradoxical that the majority of the most known Czech movies of this era was filmed during the World War II. Cinema was one of the areas, where the Nazi policy of "sugar and whip" worked very well. Nevertheless, the biggest merit for this film bloom had Willy Söhnel, the director of the Barrandov studios, who was a Czech of German nationality. The biggest stars were Oldřich Nový, Vlasta Burian, Jaroslav Marvan, among women the "big four" Adina Mandlová, Nataša Gollová, Lída Baarová and Hana Vítová and others. In general, the average quality of actors was not exceptionally good. Except leading parts there were a lot of roles performed by actors of amateur calibre (but I think that at that time it was a common feature almost everywhere in the world). After WW II many of the biggest stars had very serious problems, some were accussed of collaboration, others had to go away from Prague or couldn't work at all. The year 1948 (the communistic plot) meant another big break. Since 1948 there were only roles of young brigade-workers, miners, labourers, tractor drivers or engaged communists. Really no perspective for men like Oldřich Nový. Hardly anybody of the former stars survived in cinema and their fate was often very sad. One of rare exceptions is Jaroslav Marvan, a performer of minor parts, who became the biggest film star of the fifties.

Since before World War II there existed no official statistics of the visit rate, I can't list them. The following list is my attempt to choose the top 15 most important movies of the time between 1930-1944, although their today's popularity may be very different from their then visit rate and it is natural that some people would disagree with this choice. Except these 15 movies there is the scandalous Extase (The Extasis, 1933) of Gustav Machatý, whose erotic scenes raised a scandal even abroad. Paradoxically, this piece is internationally perhaps the most known Czech movie of this time.

The most controversial, dominating a lot of scandals, drinking alcohol, taking drugs, undertaking love affairs and then almost lynched... Adina Mandlová is a legend. According to one source, her true first name was Jarmila, but she had more front names and later she chose Adina, probably because it worked more exoticly. She was born in Mladá Boleslav and grew in an unstable family. After changing several schools and jobs she eventually became a model girl. Her film carrer started in 1932 thanks to a second-rate movie Děvčátko, neříkej ne! (Girl, don't say no!), where she performed...a model girl. After another several movies she attracted Hugo Haas, who began to keep close company with her (closer than normally close) and recommended her to respected directors like Vávra or Frič. By the way, at that time she refused a role in Machatý's scandalous movie Extáze (Extasis, 1933), which was probably her life's fault, because the performer of the title role, Hedy Kiesler, later succeeded in Hollywood as Hedy Lamarre. However, during a short time Mandlová became an unofficial Number One among Czech actresses. The top of her carrer was Kristián (1939). I can also name Panenství (Virginhood, 1937), Mravnost nade vše (Morality above all, 1937), Přítelkyně pana ministra (9A girlfriend of the minister, 1940), Těžký život dobrodruha (A hard life of an adventurer, 1941), Noční motýl (The Night Butterfly, 1941) etc. During the WW II Mandlová led a wild life and rumours about her scandals caused a growing aversion against her. For example, there was a rumour that she was a mistress of the German protector K. H. Frank (which was not true, and Frank disliked her because of it.). She was also invited to Germany, where Goebbels promised her big career, if she chooses a better pseudonyme ("Lil Adina"). Mandlová refused and her stay in Berlin soon ended due to Frank's intrigues. After the end of the war it showed that popular "rumours" concerning her alleged contacts with Nazis were malicious fabrications and she actually helped her former boyfriend, who had escaped from a concentration camp. However, the public demand for her punishment was stronger than facts. In May 1945 she was arrested and according to her own memoirs, one warder, who was her big fan, saved her from lynching in the front of the prison. (That she can really thank him a lot can be illustrated by the fact that director Jan Sviták, a Nazi quisling, was then lynched and subsequently shot death in a Prague street.) Then she was strongly persecuted and eventually married British pilot Joe Knight, which enabled her to emmigrate to the Great Britain (1947). Here she tried to continue in her film career, but with changeable success. In 1948 she acted in a movie The Fool And The Princess, but that was practically everything, because soon after she was taken ill with tuberculosis and healed in Switzerland. Her marriage crashed and Mandlová was forced to earn money by different ways, among other things as a collaborator of a costume designer Bill Pearson, whom she later married. In the end, she lived in Malta together with her husband. Here she also wrote a bitter biography Dnes se tomu směju (Today I Am Laughing Over It, 1976). In 1991, she returned home after 45 years. Here the "old, sick and impatient lady" came to die. Despite the negative picture surrounding her figure, she was an excellent actress.


Eva tropí hlouposti (Eva Plays The Fool, 1939) - a classic. On the left Oldřich Nový.	František Kovařík and Nataša Gollová in Pohádka Máje (1940)

Nataša Gollová and Jan Pivec tried to revive Hotel Modrá hvězda (1941)	...and the real swang song of her career: Kateřina-Sirael in Císařův pekař (1951). On the right Jan Werich as the Emperor Rudolf II.