Since the days of silent cinema, a colourful thread of attempts at more or less faithful adaptations of Hašek's famous novel has been running through cinema. Among the most famous are undoubtedly Lamač's 1926 film starring Karel Noll as Švejk, Frič's adaptation with Sasha Rashilov, made in the early 1930s, and Jiří Trnka's successful animated version. In 1957, Karel Steklý directed a two-part adaptation, which is still unknown today. Its first part (The Good Soldier Svejk) adapts the first part of the novel and you can meet Josef Svejk, a Prague dog dealer, and follow his fate from the moment he is arrested after the Sarajevo assassination, investigated and, after a while, drafted into the army despite being diagnosed as a notorious jerk. He is sent to prison, from where he is recruited by Field Marshal Katz as his personal servant, and when the latter loses him in a game of cards after a while, he becomes the misfortune of Lieutenant Lukas...
