Europe produced a long list of beautifully shot crime films throughout the 1950’s, some of the most gorgeous coming out of Czechoslovakia, especially Václav Krska’s Cesta zpátky (US: Road Back), the brilliant tale of a small-time crook turned accidental killer on the run from the police. Eduard Cupák stars as “Freddy” Frantisek, a discontented, young man who’s descended into a life of thievery with his two best friends, Dan Cihák (Josef Vinklár) and Carda (Oldrich Slavík). When the trio hold up a movie theater box office one night, Freddy is compelled to fight off a passerby who attempts to foil the crime; after a struggle, he runs away, leaving behind his jacket and identification, which means the police will imminently be on his trail, even more tenaciously when the passerby is reported as having died of a heart attack. Afraid to go home, Freddy hides out down by the docks where he makes the acquaintance of the lovely Tonka (Jana Dítetová), who befriends him and proceeds to bring him supplies, unaware of his criminal history. Dan, Carda, and Freddy fight about whether to turn themselves in, which only leads to more death, deceit, and cover-ups. The film is visually dazzling, every scene crafted with elegant detail, every camera angle thoughtfully selected, the drapery of darkness sliced through with rays of light in both interior and exterior shots. Freddie’s return to the scene of the crime, the card game’s puffy clouds of swirling smoke lit from above, the motorbike race through the angled city streets after dark, the final nocturnal chase along the river with fireworks blasting in the distance: these are just a few examples of the visual thrills in store. The views of Prague from above and across the river add an almost Gothic allure at times, including throughout the opening credits and initial sequence with the romance of church towers and evening ferries disrupted by a mugging on a park bench. With the communist regime by now firmly embedded in Czechoslovakia, Cesta zpátky could be interpreted as a government-approved, cautionary tale about the evils of materialism, each man’s life ruined by going outside the system (all three work in a factory) to raise their station in life. Side note: not only was director Krska gay, but so was lead actor Cupák, who would later credit Krska with making him a star.