The Grey-Eyed Demon

Country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1919

Production year

1919

Premiere

29 June 1919

Category

film

Genre

drama

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Film state

lost film

Original title

Sivooký démon

Czech title

Sivooký démon

English title

The Grey-Eyed Demon

Synopsis

A young man brings a wooden coffin containing a wax figure into a house in Malá Strana. The next day a funeral is held of a child whose beautiful young mother suddenly disappears. The grave-digger then by chance discovers that he had buried the wax figure instead of the child. The search for the mother ends without result. The young student is living in the house of his landlord, an older man and opponent of the regime who has to remain in hiding for his political declarations. On the invitation of his uncle the student goes to visit him at his home in the Šumava mountains. The strange old uncle has a beautiful young wife called Regina whom he had taken under his wing when she was a little girl; her father had been killed, the uncle had caused his death. When Regina had grown up she had refused his offer of marriage and had subsequently lived for two years in Prague. After this time she returned to Šumava and now lives with her uncle in a platonic relationship; to the outside world they pretend that they are married. One day the student accidentally finds a glass coffin in the lake containing a dead child; Regina tells him that, during her time in Prague, she had fallen passionately in love with a man and had borne him a child out of wedlock. The child, however, died shortly afterwards. It is now buried in the lake but its mother is always close by. The police are looking for a traitor in the area around the estate and Regina is mortally wounded after a shooting incident. The student recognises his former room-mate in the persecuted man, the latter is also the father of Regina´s dead child. Ten years later, the former student discovers that Regina´s friend had committed suicide immediately after her death.

Note

The film materials are believed lost.

Crew and creators

Based on

Jakub Arbes (Sivooký démon – romaneto)

Screenplay

Hana Temná

Director of Photography

Tommy Falley-Novotný

Production Designer

Josef Košák, František Veselý

Production info

Original Title

Sivooký démon

Czech Title

Sivooký démon

English Title

The Grey-Eyed Demon

Category

film

Typology

featuretheatrical distribution

Film state

lost film

Genre

drama

Origin country

Czechoslovakia

Copyright

1919

Production Year

1919

Premiere

preview 26 May 1919 (kino Lucerna, Praha)
premiere 29 June 1919 /unsuitable for youths/ (kino Lucerna, Praha)

Production

Weteb

Copyright Holders

Národní filmový archiv

Studio

Weteb

Distribution

Biografia

Technical info

Distribution carrier

35mm

Aspect ratio

1:1,33

Colour

black & white

Sound

silent

Versions

Czech

Dialogue languages

without dialogue

Subtitles languages

without subtitles

Intertitles languages

Czech

Opening/End credits languages

Czech