Quite a Lad
Frigyes Bán, 1943. A comedy evoking the spirit of old film burlesques.
Premiere: 8 April 1943
Genre: feature film, comedy, sound film
Director: Frigyes Bán
Status
Original length: 2132 m, 77 minutes
The film survived as a fragment.
Plot
A shy young man, having fallen out of grace with his fiancée, decides to become yet again the love of his disappointed lady by some brave deed. In the absence of real-life alternatives, he hires a few strolling players to assault them as a group of highwaymen while the two of them are hill-climbing. They are paid by the would-be-hero to be let driven away. However, the two young people and his friends are attacked by a group of real bandits, while the pseudo-highwaymen attack the unsuspecting members of a company. The young man drives his attackers away, and his fiancée is now a happy woman who feels she can rely on her man.
What makes it interesting?
The film has been likened to the old burlesques, among them movies starring Buster Keaton. Ferenc Pethes and Rózsi Csikós formed a great comic duo in a story packed with crazy gags, which allegedly caused painful and long-lasting laughter spasms among viewers of the day.
Cast & Crew
Production Companies: Siker Film, Magyar Filmiroda
Writer: Kató Bán Frigyesné Timár
Cinematographer: Barnabás Hegyi
Cast: Ferenc Pethes (groom), Rózsi Csikós (bride), József Juhász (father of the bride), Piri Vaszary (mother of the bride), Miklós Hajmássy (leader of highway-men), Zoltán Makláry, László Pálóczy, Mária Désy, Erzsi Rév
Photo: poster by Endre Vas. Source: NFI