TONKA of the GALLOWS
via Karel Anton
Tu reviendras . . .
On la cherche . . .
Now I
know why I have come.
[A Czech Scarlet Letter].
Barry Alpert / Silver Spring, MD US / 6-12-07 (1:37 PM)
The only copy of this film with English subtitles
was originally destined for the French-speaking market
and therefore my first viewing of the first Czech
talkie (1930) allowed me to work with what I
was hearing as well as reading. An unusual narrative
“lured” me in: a country girl becomes a popular
Prague hooker but after volunteering to join a man
condemned to the gallows for his last night in prison,
she’s stigmatized upon her return to the bordello.
After being fired, she declines, reunites with her country
fiancé, but when he learns of her “transforming encounter”,
a series of events leads inevitably to her accidental broken
neck.
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