director Kazimierz Kutz
screenplay (based on own stories entitled, ‘The Cross of Valour’, ‘Problems with a Dog’ and ‘The Widow of Joczys’) Józef Hen
director of photography Jerzy Wójcik
music Andrzej Markowski
with Jerzy Turek, Stanisław Milski, Władysław Dewoyno (Short Story I: ‘The Cross’), Aleksander Fogiel, Bronisław Pawlik, Andrzej May, Henryk Hunko (Short Story II: ‘The Dog’), Grażyna Staniszewska, Adolf Chronicki, Zbigniew Cybulski, Bogdan Baer (short story III: ‘The Widow’)
awards
Warsaw Mermaid (Syrenka Warszawska) – Film Critics' Club SDP Award, 1959
JÓZEF HEN, TROUBLE WITH THE DOG [KŁOPOT Z PSEM]
The car started. The Alsatian, curled up at the men’s feet, half-closed its eyes, and panted heavily. One of the men pulled back his leg as if touched by a snake. The other felt the dog’s collar and mumbled: ‘Must be from the camp’. ‘You mean?’ I asked. ‘SS,’ he said. Buśko told the driver to stop. ‘Get rid of it!’ ‘Throw out the spawn of the devil!’ Sypniewski shrugged his shoulders. ‘What spawn, a dog like any other.’ ‘What are you talking about?!’ Buśko protested. ‘It may have killed many people, a Nazi flunkey.’ ‘Nonsense, it doesn’t understand a thing.’ said Sypniewski.
ALEKSANDER JACKIEWICZ, THE ORDINARY DAY OF THE POLISH SCHOOL FILM [DZIEŃ POWSZEDNI SZKOŁY POLSKIEJ], ‘ŻYCIE LITERACKIE’, 1959, NO. 16
The triptych ‘Cross of Valour’ is a proof that the ‘Polish Film School’ is not a temporary phenomenon. (…) In its last part, ‘Widow’, Kutz looks at myths in our life and notes that life always defeats the memory of death. ‘The Dog’ is unique in its laconic presentation of attitudes of people or nations to others. The most distressing part is ‘The Cross of Valour’ which depicts lost hopes and unfulfilled dreams. (…) Seemingly humorous, refined and poised, it tells about most tragic things.
history periods
