Acting

Karel Hovorka

Born — Died

1924-06-23 — 1988-10-05

Known for

Acting

Credits

70 titles

Known for

Film credits

1990s · 2 titles

1980s · 12 titles

How Poets Are Enjoying Their Lives poster
6.3

While Kendy returns to his hometown as an assistant director to film a thirteen-part series with a television crew, Štěpán Šafránek, equipped with his mother's advice after graduation, takes up his first position - as an intern at the local hospital. However, his inadaptability to local conditions and his sense of ethics in his chosen profession do not suit his other established colleagues. While they are amused by his zeal and responsibility, Štěpán has increasing problems with his superiors, until he is finally transferred to the position of rural district doctor, which everyone rejects. In Bezdíkov, however, he meets a new, perhaps permanent and reciprocated love, with whom he eventually decides to live and work in northern Bohemia.

How Poets Are Enjoying Their Lives

1988

Dobří holubi se vracejí poster
8.0

The film is a concert of well-known actors from an alcohol rehab where a middle-aged man has taken refuge to get rid of his addiction. In the rehab, cruelty is personified by the attendant who, with sadistic satisfaction, hands out demerit points for the slightest sign of displeasure or rebellion.

Dobří holubi se vracejí

1989

Lion with a White Mane poster
6.0

The film tells the exciting life of the great Czech composer Leos Janácek (1854-1928), also known by the thick silver hair that crowned his head and his strong character, which could overcome the adversities of fate.

Lion with a White Mane

1987

It's Not Me poster
5.2

The two heroes of the film's story - the decent but dry engineer Zárub and the marriage swindler Majer - are granted this wish by the mysterious forces of the moon. The two men change their appearance, which, however, contrasts sharply with their unchanged characters and voices. The incomprehensible swap naturally becomes the source of many comic plots and situations.

It's Not Me

1986

Cesta kolem mé hlavy poster
5.4

A new patient enters the psychiatric sanatorium Sluneční dvůr. It is a high school Czech professor Robert Kilian, suffering from depressive neurasthenia, which manifests itself in a morbid indecision. His biggest problem at the moment is that he doesn't know if he should marry his girlfriend. He soon gets to know the other patients, the treatment regimen and the medical staff...

Cesta kolem mé hlavy

1985

The Medal poster
7.0

The trenches of World War I provide for a captivating backdrop to the drama of Corporal Hoferik. In his devotion to the Habsburg Monarchy, he fanatically carries out his military orders, but he ultimately suffers the Empire's disfavor.

The Medal

1980

No artwork available
9.0

In the spring of 1945, the last war clashes took place on the Czech-Moravian border. However, amidst the heavy gunfire, colourful boyhood adventures also take place. The main characters, however, are oblivious to the dangers lurking around them and bravely enter situations in which even adults would hesitate.

Dva kluci v palbě

1985

Utopím si ho sám poster
6.0

The difference in personalities and lifestyles is the core of Zdeněk Svěrák's hilarious comedy. The story of two elderly gentlemen begins in a hospital, where they are both hospitalized. Former tram driver Havlík discovers that his new acquaintance Chouň does not have an apartment and offers him that he can temporarily live with him. The latter happily accepts the offer and soon changes Havlík's proper and honorable life as a widower. The old conductor realizes that he can also live differently: cheerfully and carefree. The idyll is ruined when Chouň robs Havlík...

Utopím si ho sám

1989

Žena pro tři muže poster
7.0

At the beginning is a suicide attempt by sculptor Jiří Malek, which is foiled by a thief hidden in his apartment. Malek is thirty-five, divorced, caring for his five-year-old son, and the reason he turned on the gas in his studio is, of course, his wife. Mr. Karas, who takes care of Málka's household, tries to get rid of his gloomy mood by using alcohol. But after Jiří insults the old man and they break up badly, Málka's older brother Oldřich decides to find a woman who would be a good wife to Jiří, a mother to little Martin and a good friend to him. She should be pretty, intelligent, understanding, love children and be able to cook, wash and clean. To avoid any mistake, Oldrich will draw up a test, the results of which should decide. Without suspecting that he is undergoing an important test, a number of potential sisters-in-law find themselves in the studio - Edita, a radio editor, Martina, a nurse, Pavla, a student, and others...

Žena pro tři muže

1980

Láska s vůní pryskyřice poster
10.0

The forest worker František Hrubý, a poor, hard-working man, lives with his granddaughter in a lonely cottage. Despite being in his sixties, he is still a furiant who does not let anyone talk to him, but talks to everyone himself. His desire to interfere in the lives of his companion, daughter, granddaughter or friends is rooted in his fear of loneliness and death. He also can't accept that the work he has loved all his life has become too much of a strain...

Láska s vůní pryskyřice

1985

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

O rybáři a rybce

1986

Escape Home poster
8.0

A twelve-year-old is looking for his biological parents after discovering the fact that he was adopted.

Escape Home

1980

1970s · 20 titles

The Day That Shook the World poster
6.1

An historical depiction of the events preceding the political murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, would-be emperor of the Austro-Hungarian throne, in Sarajevo on June 28th, 1914.

The Day That Shook the World

1975

Secluded, Near Woods poster
7.4

The Lavicka's, a Czech family from the city, rents a house in the country with the option to buy. However, old Mr Komarek seems reluctant to sell the house as they agreed.

Secluded, Near Woods

1976

You Are a Widow, Sir poster
6.8

After a soldier cuts off the arm of king's cousin, king decides to deactivate the army. Of course, generals don't like it at all and they try to kill the king. The assassin should be artificial body in the shape of actress Evelina Keleti and with brain of psychotic serial killer Fany Stubová. They also manage to kill king's astrologer Stuart Hampl, who warns the king. Accidentally, Hampl's brain is implanted into assassin's body, actress Keleti is killed and chaos begins.

You Are a Widow, Sir

1971

A Nice Plate of Spinach poster
6.4

The heroes of this absurd comedy, full of confusion and humor are Dzharda Zemanek and Frantisek Liska.

A Nice Plate of Spinach

1977

Do We Match Each Other, Darling? poster
4.5

Marta (Jana Brejchová) and Viktor (Vlastimil Brodský) celebrate the tenth anniversary of their wedding half-heartedly. They both think they don't suit together. While visiting Marta's friend Alena (Iva Janzurová), who just got married for the third time, they learn an interesting thing. It was a computer which selected a husband for Alena and she claims she is happy. The couple gets off after certain hesitation to a cybernetic institute, where the computer tells them that living together is a risk for them. At the same time the computer selects them ideal partners - Mrs Tuchlová, a doctor for Viktor, and Petr Karát, a music composer for Marta. By a coincidence Viktor and Marta meet wrong people.

Do We Match Each Other, Darling?

1975

Circus in the Circus poster
5.1

To Moscow have arrived the participants of the international conference of the zoophilologists and also the international jury which is to elect for the world festival the best performance of the program of Moscow circus. Mrs Whistler (Iva Janzurová), British associate professor, makes her understood with the animals in their language but the Czech professor Ruzicka (Jirí Sovák), though he is capable of using the animals language, prefers teaching the animals the human language. Ruzicka's friend, the poodle Archibald, speaks "in Human" very well. The scientific dispute ends with a bet - if Ruzicka teaches the circus elephant to sing, Mrs Whistler will eat up her hat.

Circus in the Circus

1976

The Death of Black King poster
5.2

Prague in the 1930s. A young, pretty girl gets on a crowded tram. She immediately catches the attention of a young man who not only appreciates the girl's charm, but also tries to steal her handbag discreetly. And so we meet one of the main characters of the film, a swindler, pickpocket and generally strange being Josef Kořínek alias Pépi. In addition to him, the story is populated by other characters from the Prague outskirts. Of course, the film also features the shrewd councilman Vacátko and his inseparable investigators Brůžek and Bouše. They have a sad duty - to track down the murderer of the collector Krále, who was found dead and who lost a sum of money on the way from the bank that could interest many people from his surroundings...

The Death of Black King

1972

How to Drown Dr. Mracek, the Lawyer poster
6.6

There are still water spirits among us. One group lives in Prague, led by Mr. Wassermann, who is using his wife's family as a servants. All they need is their old house near the river. But the house is to be demolished. They have to stop it. And the only way is to drown Dr. Mrácek, who is responsible for the demolition. But he falls in love with Wassermann's niece Jana. He changes to fish, is mistaken for water spirit from Germany, is drowned and revived again. The other problem is the flour with ears... and so on...

How to Drown Dr. Mracek, the Lawyer

1975

House Call poster
8.5

Third movie of the famous Czech adventure trilogy: Osada Havranů Na veliké rece Volání rodu

House Call

1979

Who Looks for Gold? poster
5.6

When he returns to Prague from a stint in the Army, Lada does not seem to fit in anywhere, and he cannot get the hang of the system of deliberately underperforming on the job. His girlfriend tries to keep him in the city with a variety of stratagems, but he eventually takes a job as a truck driver on a dam-building project. He uses the truck to visit his girl on weekends. Ingenuous, he is unaware that the truck is being used for black-market smuggling, and that his girlfriend two-times on him when he cannot arrange to leave on time for his weekend.

Who Looks for Gold?

1974

Past na kachnu poster
2.3

Taxi driver Koukal (Miroslav Machácek) is stopped by the police for a routine traffic check. In the boot of his car the police find the body of a naked man. Koukal is arrested even though he claims he knows nothing about it. The case is assigned to Major Mlynár (Milan Sandhaus). The police identify the corpse as that of an Austrian citizen called Mitrik. Koukal has been regularly driving people interested in gambling to a secret gaming den. The police are put onto the gambling den by another taxi driver, who admits that he drove Mitrik there. Mlynár and officer cadet Pecka (Ivan Vyskocil) feign interest in gambling and visit the gaming den incognito.

Past na kachnu

1978

Brother for All the Money poster
5.0

Honza and Zuzana are very young husband and wife. They have a little daughter of whom willingly occasionally take care the grandparents and Honza's fifteen-year-old brother Martin. Zuzana continues studying and Honza devotes all weekends as an amateur competitor to the motor-cycles at the speedway. Zuzana is not interested in motor-cycles. Martin holds responsible for his brother's marriage and at the advice of his friend Magda, who is of the same age, invites her sister-in-law to the club of Hucul horses so that she does not feel bored. But by misfortunes and unexplained quarrels both young husband and wife start being jealous of one another.

Brother for All the Money

1979

No artwork available
7.0

The female employees of the poultry-processing factory find relief from their monotonous work in chatting about weddings and marriages. The very young Zdena (Marta Vancurová), too, dreams about a white veil and an entourage of bridesmaids. On her return home from work, she runs into a peculiar man on an abandoned road who pertinaciously offers to read her palm for a few crowns to buy soup. His augury is rather usual - wealth and poverty, suffering and happiness. Then however, he declares that Zdena must marry exactly on 3 November of that year otherwise she will be unhappy.

Nevěsta

1970

The Young Man and Moby Dick poster
4.2

Good-looking Edita Beningerová (Jana Brejchová) arrives at a chemical factory in the North Bohemian town of Ústí nad Labem together with her young assistant Nada (Zlata Adamovská). She is hoping that her ex-husband, outstanding practical chemical engineer Vik Panc (Eduard Cupák), will help her conduct an experiment to validate her proposed theoretical method of isolating cholesterol from lanolin. The success of Edita's invention is crucial for her career at the Prague Institute of Chemistry. Vik's roommate from his hostel Bréta (Ivan Vyskocil) is thrilled. He will finally meet the mysterious and fascinating Edita about whom he has learned so much from Vik.

The Young Man and Moby Dick

1979

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Kateřina zlé pověsti

1976

The Bride with the Most Beautiful Eyes poster
7.5

Exotic, yet lyrically aimed fairy tale about a young gypsy Pista in search of a beautiful, gentle and faithful bride. An old man told him where to find a girl with those qualities, so Pista sets out on a journey to find the girl of his dreams without knowing that she is special: an hour a day human and rest of the day a chicken...

The Bride with the Most Beautiful Eyes

1976

This Is How Love Begins... poster
5.0

Two hilarious short stories set in the milieu of apprentice youth, depicting the amorous travails of teenage boys. In the first story, "The Sorrows of the Devil's Apprentice", we see a talkative storekeeper who is constantly advising his charges on how they should behave, unaware that one of the young men has fallen in love with his daughter. Overcoming shyness is also depicted in the second of the stories, entitled "May I Beg, Helen?"

This Is How Love Begins...

1975

Shadows of a Hot Summer poster
7.3

Ondrej lives on a farm outside a small town with his family. One day a group of men arrive at the family's house and the harmonious life they've led so far changes drastically for the worse.

Shadows of a Hot Summer

1978

Televize v Bublicích aneb Bublice v televizi poster
8.0

The news that the television is going to make a film about the cooperative's leisure activities leads the locals to extraordinary social and sporting activity, but the only result is a chain of endless confusions, misunderstandings and disasters...

Televize v Bublicích aneb Bublice v televizi

1974

Pomerančový kluk poster
3.7

A quarrel between divorced waitress Mája and her fifteen-year-old son Petr ends with the boy physically attacking his mother, and he is sent to an institution for juvenile delinquents.

Pomerančový kluk

1976

1960s · 18 titles

The Cremator poster
7.8

In 1930s Prague, a Czech cremator who firmly believes cremation relieves one from earthly suffering is drawn inexorably to Nazism.

The Cremator

1969

The Unfortunate Bridegroom poster
7.9

A comedy about two bumbling policemen investigating an alleged rape in a small Czech town. One of the alleged rapists is supposed to get married the day he's locked up.

The Unfortunate Bridegroom

1967

Closely Watched Trains poster
7.2

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot.

Closely Watched Trains

1966

Capricious Summer poster
6.5

Middle-aged Antonin and his friends, the major, now retired, and the canon, are in the river, swimming and philosophizing. Then it starts to rain. It just seems to be that sort of summer. Antonin runs the swimming bath with his portly wife Katherine... A man appears with his horse-drawn caravan. He lays a striped pole across the river and walks over. With a handstand and a magic trick, Ernie the Conjuror invites everyone to that evening's performance... Ernie is a tightrope walker of only modest skill, but with a slim and beautiful assistant, Anna. Antonin speaks to her. The two spend the night in the change room by the river, Antonin massaging her feet all night long. Katherine decides to move into the caravan with Ernie. But now the major and even the canon sense Anna's attractiveness...

Capricious Summer

1968

Crime in the Night Club poster
6.3

The theft of a pearl necklace and subsequent murder took place at the Tartaros cabaret. All this could compromise the minister, who is an admirer of the singer Clara. The real culprits must be found as soon as possible...

Crime in the Night Club

1968

Who Wants to Kill Jessie? poster
7.0

In this zany Czechoslovakian comedy, a scientist invents a machine that projects a sleeping person's dream on a screen; disaster soon follows when the machine malfunctions and the cartoon-like dream characters become very real!

Who Wants to Kill Jessie?

1966

The End of Agent W4C poster
6.1

The invincible agent Cyril Juan Borguette alias W4C has been assigned a mission to go to a hotel in Prague, get hold of a saltcellar with a plan for the military exploitation of Venus hidden in it, and hand it over to the beautiful agent Alice. He will have to compete for the saltcellar with other agents working for the world's various greater and smaller powers. The head of the Prague counter-intelligence unit gets news of agent W4C's mission. Deficient in personnel, he nominates accountant Foustka as agent 13B. Mr Foustka takes his dog Pajda with him and the two head for the airport. Pajda helps him track down agent W4C in a classy hotel that becomes the battleground for the interests and plans of the secret agents from different countries, each trying to get hold of the precious saltcellar.

The End of Agent W4C

1967

Chlap jako hora poster
5.0

We learn that the greatest virtue of socialist competition is collective cooperation. This is what the young, physically fit assembler refuses to understand. He suspects his co-workers of overlooking his merits out of jealousy. And it takes him a long time to understand that the individual alone can do nothing, that only the collective has the necessary strength - and therefore the truth.

Chlap jako hora

1960

The Phantom of Morrisville poster
7.0

Inspector Brumpby (Jaroslav Marvan) and the young crime reporter Allan Pinkerton (Vít Olmer) attend wedding of Sir Hannibal Morris (Oldrich Nový) with beautiful Clarence (Kveta Fialová). After the ceremony, Clarence's ex-husband, criminal Manuel Diaz (Waldemar Matuska), who was believed dead, shows up in her room. He wants to get his hands on Clarence and, most importantly, on the money she would inherit in the eventuality of her new husband's death. Diaz makes attempts on Hannibal's life. He knows his way about an underground labyrinth in the château and the traps he sets up for Hannibal seem to work, since Hannibal is apparently found dead after an explosion in the labyrinth, after which his body vanishes. The inspector tries to solve the countless mysteries. In this, he is joined by Allan, always ahead of the man of the law in his estimation and judgment of the situation.

The Phantom of Morrisville

1966

Death Is Called Engelchen poster
6.4

Pavel is a Czech partisan fighter in the waning days of the war. Just as peace is declared, Pavel is shot in the spine and sent to the hospital emergency ward. As he fades in and out of consciousness, he recalls the events that led to his participation in the underground. Holding German occupation commander Engelchen responsible for all the horrors and deprivations heaped upon his comrades, Pavel is kept alive by the possibility of recovering and exacting vengeance upon the Nazi officer - no matter how long it takes.

Death Is Called Engelchen

1963

Konec cesty poster
7.3

Josef Lachman, once a security officer, serves twelve years for aiding an SS fugitive’s escape. Upon release, he works as a driver on a dam project, hunting buried English pounds Meyer told him about. With miner Rokos’s help, he retrieves the cash and hides it with his daughter Eva, but she spends some at Tuzex, Rokos blackmails him, and they discover the notes are WWII forgeries.

Konec cesty

1960

Men About Town poster
7.1

Three blue collar workers have a night out in big city Prague.

Men About Town

1969

A Matter of Days poster
3.8

Françoise, a French sociology student, moves to Czechoslovakia to write her thesis. She falls in love with Pavel, a professor. But the events of the "Prague Spring" begin and Pavel decides to collaborate. Françoise returns to France and meets up with her militant friends on the eve of the events of May 68 in Paris.

A Matter of Days

1969

Táto sežeň štěně poster
5.6

The holiday story revolves around the children of editor Hlavsa and their desire to get a dog. Dad bravely faces his children's wish and all he cares about is the dreamed summer peace. However, the editor's unexpectedly requested regular feature stories from the children's lives change everything. The uproar in the pages of the newspaper and the children's determination not to give up on their dream leads to the hope that something four-legged might eventually turn up at the Hlavs' after all.

Táto sežeň štěně

1964

If a Thousand Clarinets poster
7.5

A military base. An awkward soldier. A statue of Bach. And suddenly all guns in the area change into music instruments. Great mystery is immediately found by TV station. And soon the military base becomes a stage for huge TV show.

If a Thousand Clarinets

1965

A Game Without Rules poster
5.3

A robbery in a Prague jeweler's shop results in the shop manager Kubát and his deputy Litera being shot and wounded. The culprits take the jewelery away in a stolen car and that very night hide the loot tens of kilometers outside Prague in a forest. Then the three robbers part with each other. One of them, Burian, leaves in the same car, the other two, Duda and Hovorka, take to flight in another car, which soon ends up in a car crash. Hovorka dies in the accident, but Duda survives and hides in an abandoned cottage. Burian is arrested, Duda is traced out by a police dog. Duda confesses to the robbery to the criminologist Málek, but refuses to say where is the jewelery. The robber then begins to shoot and Málek kills him in self-defense. The court fails to prove Litera's involvement in the robbery and the only one convicted is Burian. The disappointed Málek leaves the police and begins to work as a cab driver.

A Game Without Rules

1967

Slasti Otce vlasti poster
6.4

The young Prince Charles (Jaromír Hanzlík), the future King of his country Charles IV, is being educated at the French court in the company of his fiancée Blanche (Daniela Kolárová). One day he receives a summons from his father John of Luxembourg (Milos Kopecký) in Italy. He leaves for Italy accompanied by a deputation from Bohemia. On the way the prince's company fights a battle with armed Milanese against heavy odds. Thanks to Charles's perspicacity, the prince's almost naked soldiers win through. In Lucca in Italy Charles joins his father, and here he experiences an amorous adventure and escapes from the traps laid by the Italian rebels.

Slasti Otce vlasti

1969

Bedtime Story poster
6.8

Comedy based on short Sean O'Casey play. John Jo Mulligan finds himself in a situation with which his pious conscience cannot cope. He has spent a night with the cunning seductress Angela. Full of remorse and dreading the ruin of his reputation, he tries to get rid of her, fearing that his pal Halibut or his landlady Miss Mossie might get to know. Angela sees her chance, turns gold-digger and does not leave before relieving John of a considerable amount of money.

Bedtime Story

1968

1950s · 8 titles

The Good Soldier Švejk poster
7.5

Good-natured and garrulous, Schweik becomes the Austrian army's most loyal Czech soldier when he is called up on the outbreak of World War I -- although his bumbling attempts to get to the front serve only to prevent him from reaching it. Playing cards and getting drunk, he uses all his cunning and genial subterfuge to deal with the police, clergy, and officers who chivy him toward battle.

The Good Soldier Švejk

1957

Today for the Last Time poster
8.2

Concert master Karel Mašek is a drunk, as well as engineer Danda and other regular guests of the pub U Kroců. Mašek returns from the pub in the morning and promises the woman that he will stop drinking. But he failed again, and the orchestra players refuse to play with him. Danda returns home without a bag and goes to Krocs again in the morning, even though he has an important job at work. He has been degraded to subordinate job position, but he refused to admit it at home.

Today for the Last Time

1958

Once Upon a Time, There Was a King... poster
8.0

A selfish self-centered widowed ruler, barely tolerated by his subjects and called appropriately enough, 'King Myself, First' asks his three daughters to name the measure of their love for him. When one of them says, "more than salt", he banishes her from the kingdom. Not understanding what she meant the King assumes love can only be measured by precious metals or one's own talent, the 'correct' answers from his other two daughters. The arrogance of the King leads him to gather all the salt in the kingdom and destroy it. Of course, this backfires as he slowly learns the universal value of the substance, and of course, the essence of his daughter's reply. With the help of the wise and magical old 'herb woman', the King also learns what it means to be a true and wise ruler.

Once Upon a Time, There Was a King...

1955

Everything Ends Tonight poster
6.0

The adventurous story of a young soldier, lance corporal Milan Pazdera, who falls in love with a beautiful young girl at a party who claims to be in the countryside on medical leave. However, it turns out that she is a dangerous spy who is trying to obtain the call lists with the help of Milan, a scribe at the military camp headquarters.

Everything Ends Tonight

1955

Expres z Norimberka poster
7.5

An adventure film about the struggle of the Czechoslovak security authorities against Western agents. In an express train departing from Nuremberg station, a cigarette box with plans and instructions for the destruction of one of the Czechoslovak dams is stuck under the seat. The State Security is informed about the whole operation and tries to catch the foreign agents.

Expres z Norimberka

1954

Shoesmachine poster
8.0

The happenings in a shoe factory serve as a not very thinly veiled examination of the pros and cons of both socialism and democracy.

Shoesmachine

1954

Na konci města poster
6.0

Captain Jirák of the SNB is searching for the perpetrator of the murder of the former owner of an apartment building on the outskirts of town, which took place more than twenty years ago.

Na konci města

1955

A red glow over Kladno poster
5.0

The year is 1918. Toník returns home from the front. In Kladno, where he arrives, things are seething with discontent. The Social Democrats are in government, but nothing has changed. Socialization has not been implemented, there is hunger and food is still being skimped on. The first news about a socialist state arrives from Russia. On May 1st, the workers' Kladno manifests its loyalty to the ideals of the Great October Socialist Revolution. In December 1920, a general strike is declared in Kladno as well. The workers arm themselves, workers' councils take over the administration of the city and are also established in the surrounding villages. An armed uprising is being prepared. However, the right-wing leadership of the Social Democratic Party attacks the workers in the back. The army is sent to Kladno...

A red glow over Kladno

1956

Series credits