Trailer
Plot summary
In her stepmother's house, Popelka is kept at the heaviest work. Blamed for a kitchen boy's accident, she is set to sorting lentils from a bucket of ashes until a flock of white doves does the job for her. Her stepmother is preparing the village for a visit by the king and queen, and she keeps Popelka from the welcome, since she wants her own daughter Dora noticed before the prince, who is expected to marry. Popelka rides her white horse into the winter forest, where she comes across the prince hunting with Vítek and Kamil. Her snowball stops him from shooting a doe, and she escapes on his horse Dapples, then sends it back to him. The servant Vincek, sent to town for dressmaking supplies, promises her a gift and brings her three hazelnuts.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Three Wishes for Cinderella (1973)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Screenwriter František Pavlíček was blacklisted by the Czechoslovak government while the film was being made, so he was credited under a pseudonym, with the Barrandov Studio head and the director keeping his identity secret.
- Jana Preissová was offered the title role of Cinderella but turned it down because she was pregnant, and Libuše Šafránková was cast in her place.
- The film was originally going to be set in warm weather, but director Václav Vorlíček proposed setting it in winter instead and pushed filming back by months.
- When the film premiered in Catalonia in 1977 with Catalan dubbing, it was the first time a product aimed at children had been translated into that language.
- The film is broadcast every Christmas season in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany and Norway, and is popular in Austria, Spain, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines; its status has been likened to that of It's a Wonderful Life as a holiday staple.
