Karel Effa

Acting

Karel Effa

Born 1922-05-23 · Praha, Československo

Karel Effa, originally named Karel Effenberger (May 23, 1922 in Prague - June 11, 1993 in Prague), was a Czech actor. As a professional soldier during World War II, he served in the Government Army during the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which was deployed to Italy. Here he later ran to the Czechoslovak troops fighting on the side of the Western Allies. After the war, he remained in the army with the rank of sergeant, playing and singing for two years in the newly formed Army Art Ensemble of Vít Nejedlý. From there he went to the Theater of Satire, from there to the Theater of State Film, from there to the Music Theater in Karlín, from where he briefly jumped to the ABC Theater to return to the Karlín Theater. He has been a member of the Semafor Theater since 1979. Karel Effa was a very prominent comedian who created 71 smaller and episodic film roles during his life - such as the villain Pancho Kid in the Czech comedy Lemonade Joe or Horse Opera, the black Gustav in Zeman's famous film The Stolen Airship, or the treasure keeper in the fairy tale film Proud princess. Karel Effa worked for many years as a member of the Czechoslovak State Film Ensemble, resp. Film studio in Barrandov, he also performed in the Theater in Fidlovačka, or in the former musical theater in Prague's Nusle, he also worked in the post-war Theater of Satire. In addition to performing in theater and film, he has given six thousand touring performances during his lifetime, where he has used his folk humor, playing the guitar and singing tramp songs. He also remained a hiker all his life, he went to Brdy, often to the settlement of Ztracenka. In 1964, he became a founding member of the Department of Friends and Supporters of Slavia, which aimed to save and lift football Slavia, which at the time lived in the Second Football League.

Acting credits

Amadeus poster
8.0

Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Amadeus

1984

I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen poster
5.9

This futuristic science fiction comedy features an atomic bomb blast that causes women to grow beards and lose the ability to have children. A summit meeting is held at the United Nations, with the proposed solution of building a time machine. The decision is made to travel back in time and murder Einstein, with the hopeful result being that without the noted mathematician's research there will be no atomic bombs.

I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen

1970

Straw Hat poster
5.6

Slacker Maurice Fadinar wasted his whole inheritance and the only way out of this situation, as it seems, to marry Helen Nonankur - daughter of a wealthy farmer. At the last meeting with his mistress in a nearby forest Fadinar's horse eats straw hat which belongs to a married lady, spending time in the company of young and hot Lieutenant Emil. Emil literally puts a knife to Maurice throat - or the lady will get back the exact same hat immediately, or he will arrange such a scandal that no wedding will not happen ...

Straw Hat

1972

The Borrowed Face poster
7.0

It is the 1930s. Physician Bartos devotedly attends poor patients in the city suburbs, at the same time researching the possibilities of regeneration of human tissues after transplantation. His former colleague Rosen, now working as an assistant at the private clinic of surgeon Kirchenbruch, considers the research a mere utopia. The disappointed Bartos, trying to verify his theories, therefore accepts the outrageous proposal of Marion, owner of a brothel - to surgically replace the face of her lover, the wanted thief Cutter, with the face of murdered Father Hopsasa. Bartos is well paid but his successful operation remains a secret.

The Borrowed Face

1965

The Pipes poster
6.0

This three-part Austrian/Czech comedy stretches the boundaries of what is considered to be humorous. Part one finds a silent film actor upset because of a rival actor's attention to the former's wife. When he kills his rival, it is only when he is strapped to the electric chair that he realizes that this is his last live scene. The second episode has the wife of an elderly British nobleman having an affair with the young gamekeeper of their estate. Part three finds a peasant woman taking a lover when her husband goes off to fight the war.

The Pipes

1966

Hasek’s Tales from the Old Monarchy poster
6.7

Four short stories by the greatest Czech satirist Jaroslav Hašek. "Soup for Poor Children" tells the story of how Prince Robert himself cooked soup for poor children, "Meeting of the Municipal Council in Mejdlovary" is the history of filling the position of municipal policeman, "Trampotes of Mr. Tenkrát" shows how strange events lead to marriage and promotion, "Revolt of the Convict Šejba" depicts the victorious fight of the convict Šejba for a dumpling for ministering at mass.

Hasek’s Tales from the Old Monarchy

1952

A Great Road Ahead poster
6.7

About the great Czech satirist Jaroslav Hašek, who was captured by the Russians during the First World War. Not wanting to fight for the interests of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Hašek enters the Red Army and, as a commissar of the international brigade, goes the military way from Samara to Irkutsk.

A Great Road Ahead

1963

The Princess with the Golden Star poster
6.8

A Czech fairy tale about a princess named Lada who runs away from home in a mouse fur disguise in order to escape an unwanted and forced marriage.

The Princess with the Golden Star

1959

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen poster
7.4

A 20th century man lands on the Moon and discovers that Baron Munchausen has beaten him to it, accompanied by Cyrano de Bergerac and the characters from Jules Verne's novels about the conquest of the satellite.

The Fabulous Baron Munchausen

1962

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

When the Cat Comes poster
7.0

While old Oliva tells a group of children about his life as a sailor and how he met Diana and her cat with sunglasses, a strange circus arrives in town.

When the Cat Comes

1963

The Stolen Airship poster
7.0

Five young people take off in a lighter-than-air machine at the Prague Centennial Exhibition. In an Art Nouveau style, the film consists of live action generally shot in black and white, as well as hand-drawn, stop-motion, and cutout animation. Various live-action and animated elements are often composited into the same scene.

The Stolen Airship

1967

Distant Journey poster
6.9

Prague, during World War II. Hana Kaufmann, a Jewish ophthalmologist, marries Dr. Antonín Bureš, a Christian man. When her family is sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, their romance turns into a struggle for survival.

Distant Journey

1949

The Feather Fairy poster
7.1

A fairy-tale about an old lady who takes care of snow and Jakub who does not fear death. It reflects the idea of people's longing for happiness, love and understanding, their effort to overcome troubles and win over death. It criticizes greed and evil desires.

The Feather Fairy

1985

Lemonade Joe poster
7.1

A satire of the Great American Way, with Lemonade Joe a "clean living" gunfighter who drinks only Kola-Loca Lemonade and convinces everyone else in town (with his gun skills) that all "real men" drink ONLY lemonade!

Lemonade Joe

1964

Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet poster
7.5

When famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing against his greatest enemy, the Gardener, who supposedly died years ago in a swamp...

Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet

1978

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Zpívající přístavy

1971

No artwork available
7.5

No synopsis available yet.

The Musician

1948

The Pilgrimage to the Holy Virgin poster
8.0

Farmers get away from their arguments by embarking on a religious pilgrimage, enjoy a picnic en route, and on their return decide to form a cooperative.

The Pilgrimage to the Holy Virgin

1961

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

Of Things Supernatural poster
5.5

An anthology of three absurd, ironic tales inspired by Čapek’s “Tales from One Pocket” and “Fables and Side Stories,” each showing uncanny forces disrupting ordinary lives: in Krejčík’s “Glorie,” a gentle clerk is haunted by a sudden halo; the other two segments by Mach and Makovec similarly blend everyday routines with ironic, supernatural twists.

Of Things Supernatural

1959

Bulldogs and Cherries poster
4.3

The dreaded Italian mafioso, Marian Labuda, will also be convinced. Mafioso Carmello was guilty of the principles of his organization when he tried to fool the boss and earned a death sentence. The convict runs away from the killer through Vienna to Prague, which his Austrian colleague in crime recommended as a safe hiding place. None of them knows that the Czechs learned so much tricks under real socialism that a seasoned Italian professional is not enough to watch.

Bulldogs and Cherries

1981

No artwork available
6.0

Three short stories about the people and folk around the shaft.

Figurky ze šmantů

1988

Three Men Travelling poster
7.0

Three Men Travelling is billed as a loosely related sequel to Tri chlapi v chalupe (1963), sending our country protagonists set out from their family nests in the village of Ouplavice into the big wide world. Grandpa Potucek, (Lubomír Lipský) and his son Václav (Jan Skopecek) take part in the cooperative's excursion to spa town Karlovy Vary, a Pilsen brewery and some agricultural enterprises in western Bohemia. During the course of a series of misunderstandings and merrymaking, grandfather Potucek decides he will not let problems with sick calves unsettle him, and that he will persevere in his role as the leader of the cooperative.

Three Men Travelling

1973