Lucy Again

Summary

The director Jindřich Polák and screenwriter Ota Hofman worked together frequently on television and film series for children. Besides the stories of Pan Tau (Tau) and Chobotnice ze II. Patra (Octopuses from the Second Floor), they also made two film comedies about a little girl called Lucie. These had been preceded by the television series Luzie, der Schrecken der Straße, which had been commissioned by West German television and made in 1980. These six half-hour stories, which Czech Television did not screen at the time, were not seen in this country until 1984, when they were compiled into two feature-length films – Lucie, postrach ulice (Lucy, Terror of the Street) and ...a zase ta Lucie! (Lucy Again). In the second of these films, the six-year-old heroine gets into more scrapes with the plasticine men called Ferda and Ferda. In the previous work, the young girl, who is supposed to be entering first grade after the holidays, met with the two playdough chaps in a shopping centre. This resulted in her taking over the leadership of a kid’s gang from Osvald, a nasty boy from the neighbourhood. He is now set on having his revenge. However, when he takes possession of the magical playdough men, it only complicates matters. The homunculi continue with their roguishness even after returning to Lucie... Besides the animated plasticine men, who are the main attraction of the popular children’s film, Žaneta Fuchsová also shines in the title role. She was already an experienced film actress at that time, who also worked with Jindřich Polák while shooting the aforementioned Octopuses and the film Tau (1988). The role of Osvald was played by Michael Hofbauer, whom the director had already tested out in those films about the magical man with a bowler hat. The popular actor who played Mr Tau, Otto Šimánek, appears in the film as a store detective from the shopping centre. A young Mahulena Bočanová can also be seen in one of the smaller children’s roles. The playdough men were dubbed by Jiřina Bohdalová and Josef Dvořák while Daniela Kolářová and Jaromír Hanzlík played the young heroine’s parents.

Synopsis

Note

The film Lucy, the Bugbear of the Street and its sequel Lucy Again were cut for cinema screening from the originally six-episodes series filmed by the Film Studio Barrandov for West-German television. The series was first shown under the title Luzie der Schrecken der Strasse by Westdeutscher Rundfunk in October 1980. The individual epizodes are listed in German sources as follows: 1. Luzie der Schrecken der Strasse, 2. Luzie kommt zur Schule, 3. Luzie und der Sommerschnee, 4. Luzie geht durch die Stadt, 5. Luzie und die schönen Zahnschmerzen, 6. Luzie und Friedrich & Friedrich.