1946, Czechoslovakia
Aka… Pancho se žení / ‘Pancho is Getting Married’ (Cz)
Ex… Pancho’s Wedding
T: 88m (Cz)
Pc: Ceskoslovenská Filmová Spolecnost S.R.O. (Pra)
Dist: Státní Pujcovna Filmu [Edvard Beneš] (09/27/46, Cz), Filmexport (09/18/13, Cz, DVD), YouTube (10/2013, 04/2020 and 06/2020, respectively).
D & Sc: Rudolf Hrušínský & František Salzer; Ph: Ferdinand Pečenka; Ed: Jirí Sobotka; M: Jiří Srnka
C: Rudolf Hrušínský (Pancho), Vlasta Matulová (Rosita), Josef Kemr (Pedro),Frantisek Klika (Old Deputy Mayor), Rudolf Deyl (Hotel clerk), Jindřich Plachta (Francisco Fernando Rodriguez, Rosita's father), Jindra Hermanová (Spanish Woman), František Kovářík, Jarmila Májová, Eva Klenová, Saša Rašilov, Miloš Nedbal, Bohumil Bezouska, Vítězslav Boček, Alois Dvorský, Vladimír Michael Hlavatý, Stanislav Vyskocil, Jindrich Fiala, Rudolf Hrusínský, Robert Vrchota, Vjaceslav Irmanov, R.A. Strejka, Antonín Jirsa, Anna Steimarová, Zdenek Kampf, Jan W. Speerger, Zdenek Kampf, Antonín Solc, Jaroslav Seník, Ella Šárková, František Kreuzmann, Jarmila Kurandová, Jarmila Kurandová, Bohumil Machník, Bolek Prchal, Vlasta Matulová, F.X. Mlejnek & Josef Pehr
Syn: Mexico. 1910’s. Silly Pedro is supposed to marry beautiful Rosita, whom the adventurer Pancho, has also fallen in love with. During his journey to her, Pancho ends up in prison, where a cunning desperado [Pedro?] deceives him and then tries to win Rosita for himself. [both synopses are not that clear]
Comm: [Filmed in 1944] Comedy. PANCHO’S WEDDING was filmed in late 1944, but it was not released until 1946. Most likely the war had something to do with that.
The first Czech western was always thought to have been LEMONADE JOE (1964), but with the rediscovery of PANCHO’S WEDDING that isn’t so. Made a good-twenty years before Oldrich Lipsky’s masterful parody, Rudolf Hrušínský’s film has more in common with Eduardo Garcia’s Maroto’s Spanish comedy DIRTY GOLD (1941). Both were made during the second world war and set in Mexico. All three films contain high levels of exaggeration and touches of parody. LEMONADE JOE was more of a gentle sendup of American westerns and PANCHO’S WEDDING is not.
The producers deserve kudos for setting both films (PANCHO’S WEDDING and DIRTY GOLD) in old Mexico, when others hadn’t. Most likely Wallace Beery’s performance in “Viva Villa!” (1934, US, 03/35, Sp and 10/35, Cz) had been the inspiration for both films getting made. One can see Hrušínský mugging at parties’ years after seeing Beery, and before making his film.
Plot wise PANCHO’S WEDDING involved forced marriage, [¿] a series of mix-ups [?], and colorful bandits. To keep the costs down, it was heavily reliant on being shot in studios (said to be half the film’s length). At times PANCHO’S WEDDING, which has bits and pieces on display on YouTube (04/2020), looks hastily shot, but still has its charm for being there first. Local audiences may have laffed, but critics weren’t amused.
The reception
for PANCHO’S WEDDING weighed heavily on its creators: It was actor Rudolf
Hrušínský second, and last attempt at directing. His first was the romdramcom
‘Spring Song’ aka “Jarní písen” (11/17/44). He went back to acting and appeared
in over 200 films. Co-scripter, also an actor, František Salzer was a theater
director, and this was his only film writing credit. Still, it’s worth picking
up the Filmexport DVD.
By Michael Ferguson
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