Pasák holek is a weird, gritty 1930s time capsule.

If you are looking for a clean, polished masterpiece, you should probably just keep scrolling right now.

Pasák holek is a bit of a disaster, much like the steamboat that sinks at the start of the movie. 🚢

It is perfect for people who like seeing how old movies handled "scandalous" topics without much budget. If you hate heavy-handed moralizing or old black-and-white grain, you will probably want to turn it off after ten minutes.

The movie starts with a boat sinking on the Vltava river. It is actually pretty intense for 1930, even if the effects look like they were done in a bathtub.

This rower named Chrapot saves a passenger called Duschnitz from drowning. He takes the guy home, which turns out to be a really bad move.

Duschnitz is the kind of guy who says thanks by sleeping with your wife while you are out working. 🙄

This whole opening feels like it belongs in a completely different movie than the rest of the film. The pacing is weirdly fast here.

Suddenly, we have a kid named Jarda who is the result of that affair. He grows up to be a total tramp.

Jarda spends his time hanging out in bars and messing around with girls who have no better options. He eventually opens a nightclub with a woman named Betka.

The movie really likes showing the smoky, dark rooms of the Prague underworld. It reminds me a bit of the vibe in Fighting the White Slave Traffic, mostly because of the gritty subject matter.

There is a scene where Jarda is working as a waiter that feels strangely long. He just walks back and forth with trays while the plot stops for a bit.

I liked the actor playing Jarda, even if he looks a bit too old to be playing a young troublemaker. He has this tired look in his eyes that fits the setting.

Eventually, the police catch up with him. He goes to prison, and the movie just skips over his time there like it was a weekend trip.

When he gets out, things get even more complicated. There is this girl Luisa who actually loves him, but she is in a bad spot.

She meets a guy named Agent Busch. Busch is basically a human trafficker who wants to send her to Bucharest for work.

It is the same kind of tragic setup you see in Magda or even Luise Millerin. Young women in these old movies never seem to have a good day.

Jarda finds out about the plan and decides to be the hero. It is a bit hard to buy him as a savior since he was literally a pimp five minutes ago.

The scene where he thwarts Busch’s plan is actually kind of exciting. There is a lot of pointing and angry faces.

I noticed that the grandmother character dies off-screen and it’s treated like a minor inconvenience. The movie just keeps moving.

One thing that really stuck out to me was the sound. Since it's 1930, the audio has this constant hiss that makes it feel like it's raining in every room. 🌧️

The ending is the strangest part of the whole thing. Jarda reconciles with his father-in-law, who he absolutely hated for the whole movie.

Then he marries Luisa so they can start a "new life." It feels very rushed, like the director realized they only had five minutes of film left in the camera.

They just walk off into the sunset, or the 1930s version of it. You kind of wonder if Jarda is actually going to stay out of trouble or if he will be back in the nightclub business by next Tuesday.

The acting is very theatrical. Everyone moves their arms a lot when they are upset. It’s almost like they are trying to reach the back of a theater even though it’s a film.

If you like old Czech history, seeing the Vltava and the old streets is worth it. It’s a very specific time and place captured on a low budget.

It is not as tight as Tony America, but it has more "street" energy. It feels like it was written by someone who actually spent time in those bars.

The writer Egon Erwin Kisch was a famous reporter, so that makes sense. He knew the dirt of the city.

Don't expect a clear moral message. The movie tries to have one, but it’s too messy to really land.

I found myself checking my watch during some of the longer bar scenes. There are only so many times you can watch people drink fake beer in the background.

Still, for a movie that is almost a hundred years old, it held my attention. The shipwreck at the start is still the highlight for me.

The the way the water looks in the black and white film is just really cool. It looks heavy and dangerous.

You should watch it if you are a film nerd who wants to see the roots of crime dramas. Just don't expect it to make total sense.

It’s a weird, lumpy little movie. But I kind of like lumpy movies more than the ones that feel like they were made by a computer. 🎞️