Männer im Abseits

Muži v offsidu is a 1931 Czechoslovak sports comedy film directed by Svatopluk Innemann, based on a novel by Karel Poláček.[2]

Karel Poláček's comedic novel was a bestseller in Czechoslovakia. The movie was made only because there was an open timeslot with no production planned in Barrandov studios that needed to be filled. Director Innemann read the book and the screenplay was finished just a week later.[3] Josef Rovenský was considered for the role of Načeradec, but Poláček insisted his friend Hugo Haas should play the part.[3]

The film was commercially very successful. It was the third most attended film of 1931 in Czechoslovakia after Karel Lamač's Business Under Distress and Ernst Lubitsch's The Smiling Lieutenant.[4] It made Hugo Hass a star overnight.[3]

In 1932 a sequel Načeradec, král kibiců was made by Gustav Machatý.