Forman's first international success. The blonde of the title is a naive provincial girl working in an all-female factory town. A romance with a touring pianist from Prague ends in mortification all around when she shows up at his home, only to be forced to sleep alone while the boy and his parents sleep together in the next room. Back in the factory town, the army dutifully determines to provide the missing males, but sends a unit of middle-aged reservists by mistake. Forman's unflinching commentary "revealed the inhumanity of this 'problem-solving' approach to emotional human needs" (M. and A. Liehm). His subtle observations on the pretenses and awkwardness of youth are made the more painful for delineating a generation gap that is fueled by this kind of heartlessness. It is, of course, a "gap" quite like that between artist and establishment.