A period spy drama from 1965, this film tells the high-suspense story of the search for an archive hidden by the Nazis in the Czechoslovak Highlands of Vysočina before the end of the war. Members of the Czechoslovak counter-espionage service open a case previously shelved for two decades in order to solve the recent murder of a foreign intelligence resident and to capture his minions. In terms of craftsmanship, Anděl blažené smrti (The Angel of Blissful Death) was somewhat of a rarity of its time thanks in no small measure to esteemed screenwriter Jan Procházka, who also collaborated with director Karel Kachyňa when making the 1965 war drama Ať žije republika (Long Live the Republic). Director Štěpán Skalský attempted to increase the veracity of the film by employing an unusual documentary style and by casting lesser-known actors. Skalský later reaffirmed his interest in genre cinema by directing the A. C. Doyle-inspired parody Touha Sherlocka Holmese (Sherlock Holmes’ Desire, 1971) and spy drama Tichý Američan v Praze (Quiet American in Prague, 1977).
Czechoslovak counter-espionage intercepts a coded message from the West German secret service ordering death for an unknown person on Czech territory. Among the unusual deaths that follow in the course of the next few hours, a car mechanic and his girlfriend die in a car whose brakes were apparently damaged. The car belonged to a foreign citizen named Mertens and the car mechanic borrowed it without permission. Mertens is subsequently found dead in his room in a Brno hotel. He was electrocuted by his electric razor, which had been tampered with. The investigators believe a woman agent was involved and reveal that Mertens was in contact with a prostitute nicknamed Show Rose [Šaurůža]; she, however, has nothing to do with the case. The painstaking investigation leads the counter-espionage agents to Věra Weimannová and engineer Radek. The current piece of espionage turns out to be connected to a twenty-year-old unsolved case. Mertens was a spy. His stand-in is arrested on the border and a member of Czechoslovak counter-espionage is substituted. The investigators thus manage to discover the identity of Merten's murderer - the taxi driver Burda. Both he and Radek were personally interested in preventing Mertens from finding what he was searching for - a secret Nazi archive buried in a Moravian cemetery. When the particular cemetery is identified from an old photograph, it comes out that it had been flooded when a new dam was built. Burda, Radek and Weimannová are arrested.
vedoucí květinářství Věra Weimannová
rezident
prostitutka Růžena Šnajdrová zvaná Šaurůža
muž A
muž B
muž C
inženýr Vratislav Radek
muž jedna
muž dvě
muž tři
muž X
muž Y
muž Z
fotograf František Knoor
příslušník StB
příslušník StB
příslušník StB
příslušník StB
příslušník StB
příslušník VB
sekretářka
kunsthistorik
profesor Johann Mertens
náčelník
odborník VB
soudce
informátor
telefonistka
číšník Jindřich Sklenář
recepční
taxikář Alfred Burda
garážmistr
pumpař
technik odposlechu
muž
muž z garáže
celník
náčelník
bezpečnostní technik
muž s polaroidem
pokojská
demograf
Burdová
Radková
muž s klotovými rukávy
biletářka
rezident
laborant
žena v Ivančicích
mrtvý z fiatu
mrtvá z fiatu
hlas patologa
Miroslav Kolář (2)
Jiří Čermák, Emanuel Dvořáček, Eva Slívová
Ctibor Jeřábek, Jaroslav Vágner
Jiří Batelka, mjr. Vladimír Chylík
Emanuela Peterová (klapka), Karel Šebík (fotograf)
Anděl blažené smrti
Anděl blažené smrti
The Angel of Blissful Death
Anděl šťastné smrti
film
featuretheatrical distribution
drama, spy
Czechoslovakia
1965
1965
literary Screenplay approved 28 December 1964
start of filming 12 May 1965
technical Screenplay approved 30 May 1965
end of filming 5 October 1965
projection approval 9 December 1965
withdrawal from distribution 6 April 1973
premiere 4 March 1966 /unsuitable for youths/ (kina Sevastopol /3 týdny/, Revoluce /1 týden/, Flora /1 týden od 11. 3./, Svornost /1 týden od 18. 3./ a Veletrhy /1 týden od 25. 3./, Praha)
premiere 4 March 1966 /unsuitable for youths/ (celostátní)
Tvůrčí skupina Novotný – Kubala, Bedřich Kubala (vedoucí dramaturg tvůrčí skupiny), Ladislav Novotný (vedoucí výroby tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
83 min
2 354 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
black & white
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech
Event: Čestný diplom ministerstva vnitra Československé socialistické republiky
1966
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Štěpán Skalský
Event: Čestný diplom ministerstva vnitra Československé socialistické republiky
1966
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Jan Procházka
Event: Čestný diplom ministerstva vnitra Československé socialistické republiky
1966
Praha / Czechoslovakia
Stanislav Milota