In his first feature film, Juraj Herz established himself as an original auteur with a flair for refined style. In accord with Hana Bělohradská’s novel Poslední večeře (The Last Supper), he created a dark atmosphere filled with suspicion and despair around a criminal plot. Znamení Raka (1966) is set in the hospital where the crime will take place. In a consulting room, somebody will murder Dr. Hahn – and due to the physician’s reputation as a womaniser, the list of suspects grows… Herz filled the unusual setting with bizarre figures, among whom shines the character of the terminally ill Prokopa, as embodied by Iva Janžurová. Znamení Raka (Sign of the Cancer) faced a series of problems, as Herz was forced to change the post-synchronisation and to omit a series of sexually explicit scenes. Real-life physicians, outraged by the unqualified communist physician character (Ilja Prachř), also protested against the film.
The chief surgeon's round in a hospital begins in a men's hospital room where the most serious patients are Mr Kodýtek and old sclerotic Zima. In the women's room, it is twenty-two-year old Prokopa, suffering from lung cancer. Doctor Marie Nováková has an unpleasant discussion with her long-time friend, Doctor Hahn, who cheats upon her with young and pretty nurse Jiřina. After the quarrel, Hahn leaves for the inspection room and soon afterwards is found dead with a fountain pen lying next to his dead body. The criminologists come to the hospital. In the course of the investigation, the number of suspects gradually rises: Marie, Jiřina, Doctor Hošková, Zima, the Professor; each of them lied a little during the examination and each of them thus might be the murderer. During the night shift, Marie invites Prokopa to the inspection room for coffee. Prokopa is scared of death and Marie tries to encourage her with a merciful lie. Leafing through the clinical picture, she discovers an unfinished sentence written by Hahn's hand in ink. She immediately grasps that it was Prokopa who murdered the physician. At night, the unhappy, fatally ill patient commits suicide. The next morning, life in the hospital returns to the old track.
Voice by Alena Kreuzmannová
MUDr. Marie Nováková
profesor
Voice by Jiří Pleskot
docent
Voice by Jiří Sovák
MUDr. Karel Petera
MUDr. Diviš
Voice by Eva Klepáčová
MUDr. Heleny Hošková
asistent MUDr. Hahn
Rychtaříková
astrolog Hejna
Voice by Ota Motyčka
sklerotik Josef Zima
pacient Fabián
pacientka Prokopa Vlčková
pacientka Zemková
pacientka Lisá
pacientka Svitáková
Voice by Milena Dvorská
zdravotní sestra Jiřina Kotová
staniční sestra Božena
sekretářka Loulová
zřízenec Hyneček Háša
vyšetřovatel SNB
vyšetřovatel SNB
Zuzana, profesorova žena
Vlček, manžel Prokopy
trafikant
pacient Hošek, otec Heleny
vrchní sestra
zdravotní sestra Sylva
zdravotní sestra Anna
zdravotní sestra Eva
Voice by Eva Svobodová
pacientka Rybičková
Řezáč
Horák
pacientka
pacientka
pacientka
pacientka
pacientka
pacientka
pacient
pacient
pacient
pacient
pacient
Kodýtek
Kodýtková
Věra
medička
medička
medik
medik
medik
medik
lékařka
strážmistr VB
příslušník VB
civilní příslušník SNB
vrátný
zdravotní sestra Diana
sekundář
sekundář
asistent
asistent
asistentka
asistentka
mladík
Miloslav Čech, Zdena Pavlátová
Hana Bělohradská (Poslední večeře – román)
Vladimír Zajíc
Bedřich Čermák, František Straka, Rudolf Žofka
Eva Hrubá, Jaromír Lukáš
Jordan Balurov
F. J. Müller, MUDr. Miroslav Plzák, mjr. Jaroslav Šturma
Jitka Přibylová (klapka), Zdeněk Tmej (fotograf)
FISYO (Music Conducted by František Belfín)
Song Composer Ladislav Štaidl
Writer of Lyrics Jiří Štaidl
Singer Karel Gott
Znamení Raka
Znamení Raka
Sign of the Cancer
film
featuretheatrical distribution
drama, crime, psychological
Czechoslovakia
1966
1966
literary Screenplay approved 15 April 1966
start of filming 1 July 1966
technical Screenplay approved 12 July 1966
end of filming 7 November 1966
projection approval 21 January 1967
withdrawal from distribution 31 December 1991
premiere 26 April 1967 /unsuitable for youths/ (kina Praha /½ týdne/, Metro /3 týdny od 12. 5./ a Pasáž /3 týdny od 12. 5./, Praha)
premiere 5 May 1967 /unsuitable for youths/ (celostátní)
Tvůrčí skupina Šmída – Fikar, Ladislav Fikar (vedoucí dramaturg tvůrčí skupiny), Bohumil Šmída (vedoucí výroby tvůrčí skupiny)
feature film
87 min
2 460 meters
16mm, 35mm
1:1,37
black & white
sound
mono
Czech
Czech
without subtitles
Czech