Karel Houska

Acting

Karel Houska

Born 1916-10-15

Acting credits

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 Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians poster
6.0

In 1897, in a castle near the town of Werewolfville in the Carpithians, a slightly deranged Professor Orfanik experiments with his new inventions which include, even at this early date, television and a film camera. He is also an obsessed opera fan, keeps the body of his favorite diva preserved in a crypt in the castle. In order to keep away nosy visitors, the baron's mad-scientist assistant invents all sorts of spooky phenomena in order to give the castle a creepy reputation.

The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians

1981

The Nun's Night poster
7.1

A dark fable set in an early 1950s Czech village, a time of Soviet-style socialism which saw the implementation of collectivized agriculture and the mass closure of monasteries and convents.

The Nun's Night

1967

Jára Cimrman Lying, Sleeping poster
8.2

Czechoslovak comedy film directed by Ladislav Smoljak, about the fictional national hero Jára Cimrman (universal genius, inventor, sportsman, criminalist, poet, writer and philosopher).

Jára Cimrman Lying, Sleeping

1983

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Gobseck

1985

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

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Nora

1955

You Are a Widow, Sir poster
6.9

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

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

The Great Movie Robbery poster
6.8

The film is essentially a feature-length commercial for an exhibition to mark the 40th anniversary of the nationalisation of the Czechoslovak film industry, to be held at the Prague U Hybernu venue. The protagonists of the piece are comedians Oldrich Kaiser and Jirí Lábus, who are set to accept an award from Japanese television representatives at the exhibition. At the same time, five gangsters plot to seize a revolutionary invention devised by professor Suzuki - a super holograph, which enables any figure from television to be transported in the flesh into the real world, and vice-versa.

The Great Movie Robbery

1987

Putování Jana Amose poster
5.5

The distressing fate of the Czech great Jan Amos Komenský, forced to leave his homeland after the White Mountain disaster. It depicts his encounters with various European personalities of the 17th century - the Queen of Sweden, artists and scientists. It emphasises the hero's nobility, but also his inner resilience, which allowed him to overcome many personal and professional tragedies. The parable of The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart becomes part of the story. However, Comenius's concept is sculpturally lifeless and, in particular, the religious dimension is "erased" from it. The simplistic biography therefore does not avoid schoolboyish dryness.

Putování Jana Amose

1983

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Lucerna

1960

Svítalo celou noc poster
9.0

The Czech film Svítalo All Night was made to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Army and is dedicated to all those who fought and gave their lives in Prague in the May Uprising of 1945. Behind the historical events, the creators see mainly their simple, unassuming participants. Thus, we are presented with a number of apt portraits, whether it is the central hero Dr. Soukup and nurse Daniela on the side of the fighting Czechs, or a captain and a simple private in a Red Army unit coming to the aid of the fighting Prague, or an old, war-weary German major, who only realises the senselessness of the war at the sight of a fanatical, cynical lieutenant for whom Nazi ideology represents the meaning of life.

Svítalo celou noc

1980

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Cesta do Itálie

1987

The Secret of Blood poster
6.5

A biographical film about a Czech doctor, Dr. Jánský. The athletically inclined medic Jánský successfully completes his studies. He wants to become a surgeon, but finds himself in Professor Kuffner's psychiatric clinic, where, together with his colleague Kozdera, he tries to uncover the connection between blood clotting and mental illness. They make the surprising discovery that human blood can be divided into four groups and thus prevent it from clotting during transfusions. However, Jánský's discovery is met with misunderstanding by the Czech medical community...

The Secret of Blood

1953

Lost in the Suburbs poster
8.0

Czechoslovak drama film about soldiers returning from World War II

Lost in the Suburbs

1949

The Girl on the Broomstick poster
7.0

A teenage witch, frozen in time as a punishment for 300 years, finds herself in a modern world.

The Girl on the Broomstick

1972

No artwork available
6.0

The course of an organized strike by workers from North Moravian steelworks in 1931 to resist mass layoffs during the economic crisis.

The Trap

1951

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Zákon starého muže

1976

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

Objížďka poster
7.0

The inhabitants of a picturesque village proud of its ancient linden tree will be disturbed by a disturbing event - a temporary road diversion is supposed to lead through the village. At first the population protests against the increased traffic, but eventually gets used to the bustle and excitement. Some, such as the innkeeper, benefit from the situation...

Objížďka

1968

Domek u lesa poster
5.0

Every one of us has certainly been in a situation for which he or she is not prepared and is not able to orient him or herself immediately and correctly. And the hero of our story also finds out in a rather unpleasant way that it leads to a number of misunderstandings and bitter mistakes... Jaroslav Falta (J. Abrhám), a nondescript clerk, cannot resist the pressure of several people interested in buying his aunt's house after the hospitalization of his wealthy aunt (A. Hegerlíková). He is charmed and won over by the charm of a colleague from work - Alenka (J. Asterová) - after departure of his girlfriend on a business trip.

Domek u lesa

1985

No artwork available
6.5

The younger brother of a brave paratrooper killed by the Nazis joins a partisan unit to avenge his death. The story is still naive in many ways, but the foundations of resistance myths are already being laid here.

Hrdinové mlčí

1946

No artwork available
NR

The ship's first officer, Karel Kip, and his brother, engineer Petr Kip, are convicted as mutineers for the mysterious murder of the captain of the ship James Cook. However, thanks to the intervention of the governor, they only receive life imprisonment in a penal colony. There, they build a hot air balloon with which they escape. The brothers remember that a phonograph was left on the ship, which could be used to identify the captain's real killer...

Bratři Kipové

1979