Otto imánek is a genius of European movie making behind the Iron Curtain. This charming film spawned a long-lasting television series that was seen also in many Western European Countries, including Austria, where I saw it first in the early 70s.
The concept is of a quiet angel in a bowler hat, dark suit, and umbrella, who mysteriously appears whenever children face a problem too big for them to solve, and that cannot be confided to parents. He descends from heaven like a male butler version of Mary Poppins, except where she is a chatterbox, he has nothing but a quiet smile and hand gestures.
It is often talked about how some actors manage to make much out of a difficult costume, say C3-PO. Here, it's the opposite: no speech, just a face and pan-tau-mime. Pan Tau is an uplifting character in an uplifting movie that was subtly subversive in countries behind the iron curtain: a liberator of the little ones that made it past the censors.
It's one of those gems that many European children of the 60s and 70s will remember, but not in the US: I don't think it ever made it over here. After all, why dub Czech (or whatever the original language was), if Hollywood produces so much Saturday morning fare.
The concept is of a quiet angel in a bowler hat, dark suit, and umbrella, who mysteriously appears whenever children face a problem too big for them to solve, and that cannot be confided to parents. He descends from heaven like a male butler version of Mary Poppins, except where she is a chatterbox, he has nothing but a quiet smile and hand gestures.
It is often talked about how some actors manage to make much out of a difficult costume, say C3-PO. Here, it's the opposite: no speech, just a face and pan-tau-mime. Pan Tau is an uplifting character in an uplifting movie that was subtly subversive in countries behind the iron curtain: a liberator of the little ones that made it past the censors.
It's one of those gems that many European children of the 60s and 70s will remember, but not in the US: I don't think it ever made it over here. After all, why dub Czech (or whatever the original language was), if Hollywood produces so much Saturday morning fare.
