The Little Mermaid (1976 Czech film)

The Little Mermaid (Malá mořská víla) is a 1976 Czechoslovak fantasy film directed by Karel Kachyňa based on the 1837 fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen. The film won the Main Prize at 1977 Gijón International Film Festival. The plot faithfully follows Andersen's story, with the main difference that mermaids are portrayed as water nymphs with legs instead of fish tails.

Plot
The little mermaid, one of the daughters of the sea king, sees a prince on the deck of his ship and falls in love with him. During a storm, the ship crashes against a rock and the little mermaid saves her lover from death. On the shore, the prince wakes up and sees a beautiful dark-haired girl with whom he falls in love. The young mermaid trades her voice with the sea witch, in order to become human and meet the prince, but the witch warns her that if the prince falls in love with someone else, she will die and turn into sea foam. The little mermaid becomes human and befriends the prince. Some time later, the prince's councilors insist that he meet the princess of a southern kingdom and he reluctantly agrees to visit her, accompanied by the little mermaid. The prince discovers that the foreign princess is the dark-haired girl he loves and marries her. The little mermaid obtains a magical dagger from her family, with which she will have to kill the prince in his sleep in order to become a mermaid again. But the mermaid princess decides to sacrifice herself instead of her loved one and throws herself into the sea, while her family watches in horror. However, her body does not dissolve into foam, but is transformed into a multitude of flowers. At dawn, the married couple wakes up and looks in amazement at the sea covered in flowers.

Cast

 * Miroslava Šafránková as Little Mermaid
 * Radovan Lukavský as King of the Seas
 * Petr Svojtka as Prince of the Southern Realm
 * Libuše Šafránková as Princess of Neighbour Realm
 * Marie Rosůlková as Grandmother
 * Milena Dvorská as Sea Witch
 * Jiří Ornest as Prince's right-hand man
 * Dagmar Patrasová as Little Mermaid's sister

Production
Filming locations included Kladruby in the Czech Republic, another coastal town, and Prague. In addition, the film was shot at the Prachov Rocks. The prince's castle is Veltrusy Mansion. Actresses Miroslava and Libuše Šafránková were sisters.