Night Terror

Country

Austria-Hungary

Copyright

1914

Production year

1914

Premiere

25 December 1914

Runtime

19 min

Category

film

Genre

comedy

Typology

featuretheatrical distributionshort

Original title

Noční děs

Czech title

Noční děs

English title

Night Terror

Synopsis

The name day of Mr. Fiala: The husband catches his wife with his friend. In the ensuing argument the husband is insulted and attacked. The lovers believe him to be dead and carry him from the house out into the street. Drunkards find him there and they think they have have killed him. They stand him against a wall with his face in the window of a miser who has just been counting his money. The miser punches the man in the head and takes the "corpse" to river and throws it in. The police arrest him. Suffering from pangs of conscience he confesses to the commissioner about his actions. He is imprisoned. When the drunkards read the story in the newspaper they go themselves to confess to the murder in order to protect the innocent. Next, the unfaithful wife and her lover appear at the commissioner's office to confess. They tell the commisioner what really happened. The allegedly dead Mr. Fiala regains consciousness in the water and is lying on the river bank. He finds out in the newspaper that his wife is in prison. Immediately he runs to the commissioner's office and there he becones reconciled with his wife and friend.

Note

The screenstory of the film was a real night story that František Langer experienced on a Prague street with the writer Jaroslav Hašek. The film was made with actors from the Vinohrady theatre. It was the first film which was shot that received a sunbstantial mention in the newspapers. During the filming of the scene on the Emperor František I. bridge (now Legion bridge) in which Alois Charvát waves and shouts that he is not dead, the actor was arrested by the police and police counsellor Viktor Chum, taken to the commissioner´s office and fined 50 crowns. The news story was a good advertissement for the film release in the cinema.

Cast

Alois Charvát

soukromník Fiala

Růžena Šlemrová

Fialová, Fialova žena

Richard Menšík

Zoubek, přítel Fialových

František Havel

policejní komisař

Jan Zelenka

strážník

Vladimír Marek

soudní sluha

Eduard Pražský

rybář na loďce

Crew and creators

Screenplay

Jan A. Palouš

Director of Photography

Max Urban

Production Designer

Otakar Štáfl

Production info

Original Title

Noční děs

Czech Title

Noční děs

English Title

Night Terror

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Genre

comedy

Origin country

Austria-Hungary

Copyright

1914

Production Year

1914

Production specifications

projection approval 1963
withdrawal from distribution 31 December 1991

Premiere

premiere 25 December 1914 (kina Minuta a Lido bio, Praha)
renewed premiere 1 October 1963 /unsuitable for youths/ (filmové kluby)

Production

ASUM

Copyright Holders

Národní filmový archiv

Distribution

ASUM (původní 1914), Ústřední půjčovna filmů (obnovená 1963)

Technical info

Duration typology

short film

Duration in minutes

19 min

Distribution carrier

35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,33

Colour

tinting, black & white

Sound

silent

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

without dialogue

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Intertitles languages

Czech

Opening/End credits languages

Czech