Rating: NR | Runtime: 77 minutes
Release Date: September 18th, 1970 (Czechoslovakia) / October 25th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Arbelos Films
Director(s): Ester Krumbachová
Writer(s): Ester Krumbachová

Sin has always attracted me.

Theo Devil (Vladimír Mensík) is a man! He shouldn’t be alone and made to wear ratty suits and dress shirts missing buttons. He should be able to pick whichever woman he wants to do his bidding and never dare ask for more. So, when his young mistress finally grows tired of his boorishness, he’ll just have to find someone else with “fewer options” to fulfill his demands. How about one of the girls who crushed on him during school? If one of them is still single, she wouldn’t be able to resist his mesmerizing voice over the phone.

While Czech costume designing and screenwriting legend Ester Krumbachová’s sole directorial effort Murdering the Devil isn’t about Theo, she does draw him as being the star of his own film—one that Hollywood (especially in the 1970s) would have made instead. That’s exactly what the industry strove to deliver to their male audiences: manly men with attractive women swooning on their arms regardless of how horrible they might prove. So, by focusing on Ona (Jirina Bohdalová) instead, Krumbachová can show Theo in all his uncouth glory without a lick of compassion. Just because this forty-something woman knows what a bastard he is, though, doesn’t mean she wouldn’t still marry him anyway.

The success here isn’t merely that the film is hilariously skewering men’s penchant for chauvinism and gluttony (Theo must be fed and, if there isn’t food to feed him, he’ll feed on whatever is in reach), but that it’s also poking fun at women who willingly put up with it. Ona is lonely and, when she gets Theo’s unsolicited call, can’t help imagining the whirlwind affair that might ensue. Sure, he’s not as attractive as he once was. Yes, watching him eat the gigantic dinners she prepares makes her want to puke. But he’s interested. He keeps coming back.

Ona wants to make certain that doesn’t stop by playing dumb and steering conversations towards his “genius.” Everything she does is to get him in bed and yet all he wants is for her to cook and perhaps wash and darn his clothes. At a certain point it almost becomes a game to see what she must do to fully ensnare him once and for all … before that excitement stops being worth the trouble. Even then, however, one hint of marriage inevitably brings Ona around. It’s an absurd dance between two souls who crave each other for very different reasons and crave winning even more.

Oh. And did I mention Theo might actually be the devilish demon alluded to by his surname? While this potential adds more fantastical insanity to whole, it still won’t sway Ona from her goal. She has a plan (based in part on a fortune teller’s reading) and will pursue it to whatever end awaits. Some of the details shift depending on new revelations, but she’s always in full control—whether her current desire is to bed him, wed him, or make him dead.

Murdering the Devil is short, direct, and easy to invest in with the comedic premise taking center stage. Bohdalová and Mensík deliver memorably over-the-top performances amidst gorgeous visuals of succulent feasts and a busy apartment filled with ornate furniture and giant plants: the aesthetic summed up as “more” since Theo’s insatiable appetite and soul devour everything in sight with food, non-food, and romance disappearing in an instant. And through it all arrive brief confessionals outlined by picture frames with Ona updating us directly about how she’s feeling, her present intent, and her latest dreams. It’s a match made in Hell.

---

Jirina Bohdalová and Vladimír Mensík in MURDERING THE DEVIL; courtesy of Arbelos Films.