One of the most famous and popular Czech film musicals tells the story of Emperor Charles IV and his castle Karlstein, where women were not allowed to live because of his ban. This ban was meant to allow the monarch to attend to male affairs. One night, however, it was violated twice... So not only Charles IV and two uninvited guests, King Peter of Cyprus, and Duke Stephen of Bavaria, but also two women in male disguises appear at Karlstein. One of them is the Emperor's wife, Eliska Pomoranska, who out of love and longing broke the ban so that she could at least catch a glimpse of the Emperor. The other is the castellan's niece Alena, who bet her father that she could spend the night in the castle in a man's disguise... The Czech film musical was directed by Zdenek Podskalsky and is based on the play of the same name by Jaroslav Vrchlicky. The main roles are played by Vlastimil Brodsky (Charles IV) and Jana Brejchova (Eliska Pomoranska). Eliska's protector, Archbishop Arnost of Pardubice, is played by Karel Hoger and the brave and stubborn Alena by Daniela Kolarova.
The best intelligent Czechoslovak musical, thanks to which this not very expressive play became probably Vrchlicky's best-known work. The plethora of songs that have literally become folk is the main reason for the timelessness and popularity of this film. Vlastimil Brodsky clearly showed that the range of his acting abilities is incredibly wide.
In 2007, this film took first place in the "Best Czech Musical Film" poll, where it received 34% of the votes. It is also interesting to note that the filming took place at Karlstein and Krivoklat castles. At Karlstein it was filmed in full traffic, so the footage was often spoiled by stray tourists.
The filming did not always go exactly as planned, but Zdenek Podskalsky stayed on top of things and never lost his head. If something was bothering him, he just confided in his diary. "Day five. We didn't shoot anything today, it was raining. Hala and Stedry got pretty drunk, they should have sung and didn't." As you can see, everyone had a good time.