The Last Ride

(Ostatni kurs)


1963   >   drama/ criminal

A well-planned and gripping criminal, strongly embedded in the reality of the 60s, yet at the same time using film noir poetics.

The screenplay is based on the novel “Śmierć i Kowalski” by Maciej Słomczyński, a popular translator and Polish master of the criminal genre known by the genre fans under the nick name of Joe Alex.

The only main role of Barbara Rylska, an actress and a singer who played an intelligent and calculated femme fatale. She’s accompanied by Stanisław Mikulski, icon of the Polish cinema who became widely popular by playing Hanks Kloss in the iconic TV series “Stawka większa niż życie” and who is still popular among new generations of viewers.

Tricity, early 60s. A young taxi driver Henryk Kowalski becomes the main suspect in a series of murders of other taxi drivers. When his close colleague is killed, Henryk starts his own investigation, which leads him to a mysterious villa in a seaside district and a night club where a seductive singer Krystyna works. Henryk’s behavior makes his fiancée Marysia jealous. The girl, unaware of the danger, is caught by the bandits who also plan to kill her boyfriend and disappear.

Because of its plot touching upon embezzlement among directors of state-owned enterprises, which was highlighted by the communist regime, “Ostatni kurs’ became a propaganda film. 


Crew:

director
Jan Batory
script
Maciej Słomczyński (pseudonym Joe Alex)
d.o.p.
Antoni Wójtowicz
designer
Roman Wołyniec
editor
Krystyna Batory
music
Adam Walaciński
cast
Magdalena Sokołowska, Emil Karewicz,
Wieńczysław Gliński, Barbara Rylska,
Stanisław Mikulski, Adolf Chronicki
Materials: SD
Length: 90’

Posters