A Life at Stake (1959)

  • NR
  • 06/22/1959 (SU)
  • Drama
  • 1h 41m

Overview

The year is 1941 and the German Nazis rule Bohemia with a free hand. Engineer Otakar Racek is an extremely cautious man who tries to avoid problems at all costs. While some of his colleagues are being arrested by the Gestapo, he receives an offer to become the director of a new department. When he refuses to help the wife of an arrested resistance fighter, his wife Vlasta is shaken. However, she loves him, to the point of even resigning herself to the hatred of Otakar's wealthy mother. One day, Vlasta lets her old acquaintance Ondřej Rýdl, who is on the run from the Gestapo, stay at her house for a few days. The wife passes him off to her husband as a distant relative. However, Otakar succumbs to jealousy and, on his mother's advice, hires a private detective to follow Vlasta. However, the detective is also a Gestapo informant and receives a hefty reward for every arrested resistance fighter...

Jiří Weiss

Director, Screenplay

Karel Josef Beneš

Novel, Screenplay

Cast

Karel Höger's headshot

Karel Höger

Engineer Otakar Racek
Vlasta Chramostová's headshot

Vlasta Chramostová

Vlasta, Racek's wife
Jaroslav Someš's headshot

Jaroslav Someš

Bedřich, the eldest son of the Raceks
Jaroslav Drahan's headshot

Jaroslav Drahan

Mirek, the younger son of the Raceks
Zdeněk Dítě's headshot

Zdeněk Dítě

resistance fighter Ondřej Rýdl
Soňa Neumannová's headshot

Soňa Neumannová

Racková, Otakar's mother
Otomar Krejča's headshot

Otomar Krejča

Deputy Rudolf Kadera
František Holar's headshot

František Holar

Gestapo

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