One night a car deliberately runs down a young man on a road by a small border town. The locals recognize the dead man as one of the students who were there on volunteer work some time before. Professor Hechtl of a Prague Graphic School then recognizes the man from a photograph of the corpse as a recent graduate called Coufalík. The police detectives, Major Kalaš and Lieutenant Varga can then get on the trail of the people with whom the victim was involved, especially at the photographic studio headed by Bohuslav Pacer. His son Bert was a fellow student of Coufalík's and the owner of the car that demonstrably ran over the young man. The detectives go to look for Bert at the Pacers' country cabin. The cabin has been robbed, and Bert's father, who clearly knows more than he is willing to tell, is taken to hospital with a heart attack. More detailed search reveals Bert's body, buried in the garden. According to the doctors, however, he died before Coufalík. Old Pacer, who is the major suspect, is allowed out of the hospital and immediately dies in his flat, where the gas has been left on and a confession to the murders is discovered in his handwriting. But the autopsy shows that he died of a heart attack and danger threatens Bert's girlfriend Věra, who owns a tape on which there is a recorded conversation between old Pacer and an unknown man about secret photographs. It is important evidence of the espionage committed by old Pacer, Professor Hechtl and the photographer Hadraba. They had been forced to spy by the war criminal Krüger, later the head of intelligence in West Germany, who has proof of their collaboration during the occupation. They were supposed to send him microphotographs of a military airfield. The inconvenient witnesses to the espionage had to be disposed of. Bert was murdered by Coufalík and was himself killed by Hechtl, who is finally convicted of the murder.
major Kalaš
nadporučík Varga
vedoucí Fotografie Bohumil Pacer
Voice by Jiřina Bohdalová
Věra Klímová
příslušník VB Suchánek
profesor Hechtl alias Horyna
Voice by Jaromír Spal
MUDr. Hanzl
Voice by Zdeněk Braunschläger
nadporučík VB Ondráš
předseda senátu
kapitán Pohraniční stráže
poručík VB Skála
učeň zvaný Domovníček
laborant z mechanoskopie
účetní Fotografie Milnerová
zástupce vedoucího Hadraba
podpraporčík VB Loubal
Grossová, Coufalíkova bytná
řidič František
fotograf Jan Coufalík
okrskář v Roudné
vedoucí obchodního domu
domovník u Pacera
nadstrážmistr VB
Voice by Gabriela Vránová
prodavačka, kamarádka Věry
policejní lékař
příslušník kontrarozvědky
řidič autobusu
odborník na mechanoskopii
laborant
muž s dmuchavkou
příslušník VB
Milan Kadlec
Eduard Fiker (Kilometr 19 – román)
Miroslav Sinkule
Jiří Haller, Ladislav Rada, Ivo Sýkora
Bedřich Poledník, Bohumír Brunclík (zvukové efekty)
Vlasta Kolbasová, Josef Mojžíš
pplk. Bohuslav Němec, mjr. Vladimír Chylík, dr. Bohumil Bárta
Věra Houšková (klapka), Jaroslav Trousil (fotograf)
FISYO (Music Conducted by Štěpán Koníček)
Strach
Strach
Fear
film
featuretheatrical distribution
detective
Czechoslovakia
1963
1963
literary Screenplay approved 8 January 1963
technical Screenplay approved 23 April 1963
start of filming 11 June 1963
end of filming 7 October 1963
projection approval 9 December 1963
withdrawal from distribution 31 December 1973
preview 27 March 1964 (kino Sevastopol /1 týden/, Praha)
premiere 3 April 1964 /unsuitable for youths/ (kina Pasáž /4 týdny/, Mír /1 týden/, Praha /1 týden/, Flora /1 týden od 10. 4./ a Revoluce /1 týden od 21. 4./, Praha)
premiere 3 April 1964 /unsuitable for youths/ (celostátní)
Tvůrčí skupina Novotný – Kubala, Bedřich Kubala (vedoucí dramaturg tvůrčí skupiny), Ladislav Novotný (vedoucí výroby tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
95 min
2 716 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
black & white
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech