Dymsza, Adolf

(Adolf Bagiński, 1900-1975)

   Comic actor who serves as a symbol of prewar Polish comedy. At the beginning of his career, Dymsza appeared in a number of supporting roles, usually cast as a working-class or streetwise character, a good-natured Warsaw sly dog named Dodek, who was the continuation of a character featured in Dymsza's earlier cabaret performances. Dymsza's later films were typical star vehicles, written specifically for him to accommodate his type of humor and screen persona. Sometimes he was paired with other well-known comic actors, such as Eugeniusz Bodo or Czech Vlasta Burian in a Polish-Czech coproduction The Twelve Chairs (1933), directed by Michał Waszyński and Martin Frić.

   Dymsza achieved fame particularly with two comedies: Antek, the Police Chief (Antek policmajster, 1935) and Dodek at the Front (Dodek na froncie, 1936), both directed by Waszyński. Frequently voted the best prewar Polish comedy, Antek, the Police Chief is set around the year 1905 and deals with a Warsaw character, Antek Król (Dymsza), who is chased by the Russian tsarist police for a trivial crime. Situ-ational humor, the mockery of the martyrological dimensions of earlier patriotic pictures, and the presence of known actors in supporting roles (Maria Bogda, Mieczysława Ćwiklińska, and Konrad Tom) made the film a success with audiences. Other films featuring Dymsza, such as ABC of Love (1935), Wacuś (1935) and Bolek and Lolek (1936), all directed by Waszyński, although box-office successes, were never as popular as Antek, the Police Chief. Their weak scripts, built around unsophisticated cabaret numbers, did not enable Dymsza to develop his screen personality. Dymsza continued his career after 1945, starring in popular films such as The Treasure (1948, Leonard Buczkowski), The Matter to Accomplish (1953, Jan Rybkowski and Jan Fethke), where he appeared in a total of eight parts, and Nikodem Dyzma (1956, Jan Rybkowski). In 1970 Jan Łomnicki directed Mr. Dodek, a tribute to Dymsza's prewar comic achievements. This narrative film with Dymsza, set in contemporary Warsaw, incorporates scenes from ten of his twenty-six prewar films.

   Historical Dictionary of Polish Cinema by Marek Haltof