Oliva (Jan Werich) is a castellan in a small Bohemian town. He spends part of his day observing the people in his village and monitoring their activities. Robert (Vlastimil Brodsky) is a teacher at the school and is well loved by his pupils. The principal of the school is Karel (Jiri Sovak). He is not happy with Robert’s methods of teaching. Robert is involved in a romantic relationship with another teacher, Julie (Jirina Bohdalova).
Oliva is invited to the school to pose for the children in their art class. As they paint, he tells them the story of when he was a sailor and ended up shipwrecked. He found a local village where a magician was entertaining people. With him was a beautiful woman. Wandering around her feet was a cat wearing eyeglasses. Oliva finds out that should the cat’s eyeglasses be removed, people would change color based on their inner nature. According to Oliva, red was the color of lovers and good people, yellow was for people who were unfaithful, purple were liars, and thieves turned grey, etc.
One day, a traveling circus comes into town. The main attractions of the circus are a magician, Kouzelnik (Jan Werich), an aerial artist, Diana (Emilia Vasaryova) and a cat called Tabby. As the procession goes through the village, Robert and Diana see each other and become smitten. On Diana’s lap is Tabby. Everyone in town goes to the circus to see the magician perform. After his performance Diana does her routine on the high wire. Afterward, with the cat in her lap, she removes the cat’s sunglasses. Just like Oliva’s story, when the cat looks at them, the people in the audience change color.
The adults are not happy that their true natures are being displayed for all to see. Some of the adults, headed by Karel and his minion, the school janitor (Vladimir Mensik), decide that they need to get rid of the cat so they kidnap the cat and keep it hidden until they can decide how to dispose of it. The children, upset about the missing cat, decide to go missing themselves until the cat is found and returned.
“When the Cat Comes” AKA “The Cassandra Cat” AKA “The Cat Who Wore Sunglasses” AKA “One Day, a Cat”, AKA “That Cat” was released in 1963 and was directed by Vojtech Jasny. It is a Czechoslovakian comedy fantasy film and part of the Czech New Wave style of filmmaking.
The movie plays like a fairytale. It is charming and family friendly with a moral that teaches about human behavior. It has a similar whimsy to films done by Karel Zeman, especially “Journey to the Beginning of Time” 1955.
The Czech or Czechoslovak New Wave was most prevalent during the 60’s. At that time filmmakers made movies that were more focused on social and political issues but using humor, logic and humanity to illustrate positive perspectives and concepts. This is contrary to the standard mindset of Eastern Bloc countries prior to this time.
During medieval times a castellan was the governor of a castle. He took care of the castle, as well as the surrounding territory, and had duties similar to that of a constable.