Limonádový Joe aneb Konská opera (1964)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Oldrich Lipský

Writers:

Jirí Brdecka (writer)
Oldrich Lipský (writer)

Release Date:

25 November 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Musical | Romance | Western

Plot Keywords:

Alcohol | Absurd Humor | Horse | Drink In Title | Bizarre

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Karel Fiala	...	Lemonade Joe
Milos Kopecký	...	Horác Badman aka Hogo Fogo
Kveta Fialová	...	Tornado Lou
Olga Schoberová	...	Winnifred
Rudolf Deyl	...	Dough Badman (as Rudolf Deyl ml.)
Bohus Záhorský	...	Mr. Goodman
Josef Hlinomaz	...	Grimpo
Karel Effa	...	Pancho Kid
Waldemar Matuska	...	Banjo Kid
Eman Fiala	...	Pianist
Vladimír Mensík	...	Barman
Jirí Lír	...	Barman #2
Jirí Steimar	...	Kolalok
Jaroslav Stercl	...	Postman
Oldrich Lukes	...	Sheriff

Also Known As:

Konská opera (Czechoslovakia: Czech title) (short title)
Lemonade Joe (USA)
Limonadovy Joe (Czechoslovakia: Czech title) (short title)

Runtime:

France:99 min | USA:84 min

Country:

Czechoslovakia

Language:

Czech

Color:

Black and White (tinted)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 | Finland:K-16

Company:

Filmové Studio Barrandov

Quotes:

Musician: [reading a note attached to Joe's back] Lemonade Joe! Do you know how silly you are?
Lemonade Joe: No, that I do not.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Mazaný Filip (2003)

Saw this when I was twelve; unforgettable

For forty years (oops, revealed my age, oh well), I have been trying to track this down. I first saw this film at age twelve, in a drive in theater, on a double bill with (I think) a re-release of "The Great Race". Historical note: the version I saw was dubbed, not subtitled (I long thought it Italian in origin); the tinting was not sepia with yellow highlights, it was just glaring yellow; and it was called "The Lemonaid Kid" not "Lemonaid Joe" (hence part of the difficulty tracking it down). (Since this release title is reminiscent of "The Lemondrop Kid", I can imagine paranoid lawyers at MGM giving this film's release a lot of hassle, which may explain how it got so buried.) I thought it the funniest thing I had ever seen and that impression stuck with me as I grew older and developed a taste for the more absurdist and aggressive style of comedy, e.g., the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, etc. i knew I had seen something very special in "Lemonaid", but found no references to it in movie catalogs like the Maltin book, and nobody who knew films seemed to know anything about it - and I come from Rochester, NY, home of the second largest collection of film in the country, the Dryden-Eastman collection. People there know film. But nobody knew this film.

I'm not giving this a rating yet, as I intend to find some way to see it again first. So this is now but a note on one viewer's experience with the history of this film. This film had a major impact on a very young man and changed his taste in comedy forever, and perhaps changed all of his perceptions, insofar as humor is one of the most important responses we make to the world. That says a lot for the power of this film. I certainly hope another viewing will justify my warm memories of it.