| How I Unleashed World War II | |
| Producer: | Ludgierd Romanis |
| Screenplay: | Tadeusz Chmielewski |
| Based On: | The Adventures of Dolas the Cannoneer by Kazimierz Sławiński |
| Starring: | Marian Kociniak |
| Music: | Jerzy Matuszkiewicz |
| Cinematography: | Jerzy Stawicki |
| Editing: | Janina Niedźwiecka |
| Studio: | Zespoły Filmowe |
| Runtime: | 224 minutes |
| Country: | Poland |
| Language: | Polish German Serbo-Croat Greek English French Italian Russian |
How I Unleashed World War II (Polish: Jak rozpętałem drugą wojnę światową) is a 1970 Polish comedy film directed by Tadeusz Chmielewski and based on Kazimierz Sławiński's novel "Przygody kanoniera Dolasa" (The Adventures of Dolas the Cannoneer). It was shot in Sochi, Baku, Poświętne and Łódź, among other places.
The film was divided into three parts:
Originally filmed in black and white, it was digitally colorized in 2001 by the Hollywood company Dynacs Digital Studios, as requested by the Studio Filmowe "Oko" and TV Polsat.[1]
The film tells the story of a Polish soldier Franciszek (Franek) Dolas, who—as a result of comical coincidences—is convinced that he started the Second World War. Trying to redeem himself at all costs, he constantly gets into new trouble. In doing so, he finds himself on different war fronts (Yugoslavia, Mediterranean Sea, Middle East, Italy) and eventually returns to Poland.
In a particularly famous scene, Dolas is questioned by a German-speaking Gestapo officer in Austria and answers that his name is "Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz"; the officer gets increasingly frustrated trying to write the fictitious Polish name.[2] [3]