DODEK AT WAR

Cast
Adolf Dymsza (Dodek), Alicja Halama (Zofia Majewska), Mieczysław Cybulski (Jan Majewski), Helena Grossówna (Zuzia), Michał Znicz (Duszkin), Józef Orwid (Aleksy Pawłow), Mieczysława Ćwiklińska (Jaketarina Pawłowa)

During a football match between Cracow and Moscow, Dodek fouls a Russian player, leading to the outbreak of World War I. Sometime later, in an abandoned hut, Dodek, who is a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, covers himself with the coat of a Russian officer. Thanks to this, he is freed by the advancing Russian troops. Mistaken for a Russian officer, he is accommodated in a Polish manor, where his orderly turns out to be a previously fouled football player. Dodek takes care of wounded Russian soldiers, courts a maid named Zuza, wins the sympathy of the colonel’s wife, causes a false alarm and a scandal during the Grand Duke’s visit. When he is exposed and found to be a spy, he manages to escape. He is saved from his troubles when an attack of Polish Legions breaks the front. In the end, Dodek returns to his place.

MICHAL WASZYNSKI

Born as Mosze Waks in Kowel, Volhynia (now Ukraine) in 1904. One of the most important directors of the interwar period. He made forty films in the decade preceding World War II. In 1941, he joined Polish Armed Forces in the East commanded by General Władysław Anders. With Konrad Tom, they recorded the army’s journey to the Middle East in the documentary film “Children” (1943). A year later, he shot another documentary, “Monte Cassino”. Died in 1965 in Spain.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
1949    William Tell
1946      The Great Way (Wielka droga)
1944      Monte Cassino
1939    The Three Hearts (Trzy serca)
1938    Gehenna
1938    Professor Wilczur (Profesor Wilczur)
1937    The Dybbuk (Dybuk)
1937    The Quack (Znachor)
1934    The black Pearl (Czarna perła)
1934    Songster of Warsaw (Pieśniarz z Warszawy)
1932    Sound of the Desert (Głos pustyni)