or the Horse Opera
The whiskey song and many other tunes and great texts which have found their way into the hearts and minds of the Czech people make Lemonade Joe the king of Czech comedies. The journalist, writer, cartoonist, screenwriter and director Jiří Brdečka wrote a series of short stories for the magazine Ahoj na neděli in 1939 – 1940 for which he drew on his great interest in the Wild West. He created the character of Lemonade Joe – an ideal man of the West who drinks lemonade instead of whiskey and strictly adheres to the moral high ground at all times. In March 1944, the smiling and honest gunfighter appeared on the stage of the Větrník Theatre as the main character in a new theatre play. However, it wasn’t until 1964 that his search for a cocoa stain of the size of a Mexican dollar was finally immortalised in a film version directed by Oldřich Lipský.
The main roles in this timeless film parody are played by Karel Fiala as the blond hero and Miloš Kopecký as the greatest of the villains, a man who isn´t afraid to dishonour innocent girls. This film, set in a small town in Arizona in 1885 where everyone likes to get together in the local saloon and listen to Arizona singer Tornado Lou, was seen by more than four and a half million cinemagoers! Since that time, it has regularly appeared on TV screens and also at theatres. Audiences will now have the opportunity to hear the songs which Karel Gott and Yvetta Simonová sang in the film delivered live by our leading actors. The western musical parody Lemonade Joe has ruled the Czech comedy hall of fame for a long time.
