How I Unleashed World War II (1970)

The adventures of unlucky Polish soldier Franek Dolas during world war II. In September he escapes from Stalag and goes to France. After that he fights in Africa and Europe.

Director:

Tadeusz Chmielewski

Writer:

Tadeusz Chmielewski

Stars:

Marian Kociniak, Janina Boronska, Adam Cyprian

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Marian Kociniak	...	Pvt. Franek Dolas
Janina Boronska	...	Elzbieta
Adam Cyprian	...	Gulke
Wirgiliusz Gryn	...	Józek Kryska
Zdzislaw Kuzniar	...	Dimo Stojadinovic
Józef Lodynski	...	Stoker
Jaroslaw Skulski	...	Colonel
Tomasz Zaliwski	...	Yugoslavian Officer
Elzbieta Starostecka	...	Singer
Andrzej Gawronski	...	Helmut
Emil Karewicz	...	Gestapo Officer
Henryk Lapinski	...	Wladyslaw Wachocki
Stanislaw Milski	...	German General
Kazimierz Talarczyk	...	Woydyllo
Janusz Ziejewski	...	Feldfebel

Storyline

The adventures of unlucky Polish soldier Franek Dolas, who is convinced, that he caused the World War II with his accidental shot. He escapes from a prisoner camp, then he travels around Nazi-occupied Europe and northern Africa in attempts of getting to the Polish Army in exile to fight the enemy. Finally, he gets to Poland in time to accidentally become a war hero.

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Plot Keywords:

torpedoed ship | foreign legion | three card monte | nazi occupation | escape | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | War

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is unique in terms of language realism: members of each nationality, encountered by a main hero on his way, speak their own language (German, Serbo-Croatian, French, Italian, English), what makes his adventures and communication problems more realistic.

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Goofs

In part two of the film, Private Dolas joins French Foreign Legion in Syria, then he is captured by the British troops, preparing to invade Syria and Lebanon (in June 1941), and so he finds himself in a British camp, presumably in Palestine. Then the camp is attacked by Italian commandos, which was possible, provided, that it was situated in western Egypt or Libya.

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Quotes

Pvt. Franek Dolas: B-but our place is in the Polish army! We must fight for Poland!
Sgt. Kiedros: And for which Poland do you want to fight for?

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Alternate Versions

Also shown in computer colorized version. This version was prepared by "Dynacs Digital" and has never been released theatrically. It was first shown by TV Polsat.

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Connections

Referenced in Rozstrel: Jirí Krampol (2018)

User Reviews

One of the best polish war time comedy if not the best one

It's a story about a polish rifleman - Franek Dolas.It begins on 1st October of 1939 when Nazis invade Poland.Generally the whole movie is divided into three episodes.In the first one Franek gets himself into German pow camp.He is making his best trying to escape but everything he does gets him only into more trouble.Frankly speaking Franek is a kind of guy that is always getting into some kind of trouble.When he wants to do something right the result is opposite every time. Through all three episodes we can see Franek's funniest adventures in occupied Poland,Yugoslavia,Italy,few other European countries and even Africa where he joins French Foreign Legion. I think that it should be very interesting and funny for Europeans to see what the Poles think about them and why we sometimes laugh about English or Italians for example :P

Details

Country:

Poland

Language:

Polish Serbo-Croatian Italian German French English Russian

Release Date:

2 April 1970 (Poland)

Also Known As:

How I Unleashed World War II

Filming Locations:

Baku, Azerbaijan

Company Credits

Production Co:

PRF "Zespol Filmowy"

Technical Specs

Runtime:

224 min (3 parts)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1