The Firemen's Ball (1967)

Milos Forman's last film in his native Czechoslovakia is a mordant attack on the pettiness and hypocrisy of the middle class. Essentially plotless, the 73-minute feature is set at a ball thrown by the firemen of a small town in honor of their retired chief. The party gradually devolves into a farcical mess, culminating in a fire that burns down an old man's house. Throughout the film, the townspeople are revealed to be mean and self-serving. People steal raffle prizes meant to benefit the victim of the fire; a veteran fireman is caught stealing; the memento for the retired chief turns out to have been filched as well. Faintly absurd and borderline cruel, The Firemen's Ball contains some amusing comic set pieces, such as a thrown-together beauty contest organized by the leering old men of the fire company and a melee that ensues over the stolen prizes. The movie has lost some of its punch with the subject of its satire so distant now, but its anarchic spirit is still infectious. As it turned out, the satire was too strong for some in the home front: the movie's 1967 release was temporarily blocked by the president himself, while 40,000 Czech firemen quit their jobs in protest, only to return to work after Forman assured them that the movie was not criticizing firemen specifically. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide