Vynález zkázy (1958)

An evil millionaire named Artigas plans to use a super-explosive device to conquer the world from his headquarters inside an enormous volcano.

Director:

Karel Zeman

Writers:

Frantisek Hrubín (scenario), Jules Verne (novel)

Stars:

Lubor Tokos, Arnost Navrátil, Miroslav Holub

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lubor Tokos	...	Simon Hart
Arnost Navrátil	...	Profesor Roch
Miroslav Holub	...	Artigas (as Miloslav Holub)
Frantisek Slégr	...	Kapitán pirátu
Václav Kyzlink	...	Ing. Serke
Jana Zatloukalová	...	Jana
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Hugh Downs	...	Himself - Announcer (voice)

Storyline

An evil millionaire named Artigas plans to use a super-explosive device to conquer the world from his headquarters inside an enormous volcano.

---

Plot Keywords:

czech science fiction | scientific discovery | science gone wrong | projection | wood engraving artistic design | 

---

Taglines:

Never before seen! Like nothing on this planet! Like no other screen adventure ever seen in America!

---

Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Czechoslovakia

Language:

Czech

Release Date:

August 1958 (Czechoslovakia)

Also Known As:

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ceskoslovenský Státní Film,Filmové Studio Gottwaldov

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min (Time)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Director Trademark: [Karel Zeman][hats] When the island blows up, Count Artigas' hat is blown into the sky and then falls into the sea and sinks.

---

Goofs

This movie is obviously set in the late 19th century - the 1890s. The steamship Savannah in the opening of the film crossed the Atlantic in 1819 - a good 70 years before the story takes place.

---

Crazy Credits

"In the new motion picture technique Mysti-Mation" [US dubbed release]

---

Alternate Versions

The original U.S. theatrical release featured an introduction by Hugh Downs. This introduction had been removed from the television release.

---

Connections

Featured in Film Adventurer Karel Zeman (2015)

User Reviews

"Facing the Flag" - the Roche "Fulgarator"

Some movies used to be shown so often on television, due to crazy broadcast schedules or rental packages. Back in the 1960s and 1970s (early 1970s) this film popped up usually on Channel 9 in New York City. Sometimes another film like this, THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN, would pop up as well. Both were made in Czechoslavakia in the late 1950s. The director designed the films to look like a 19th Century "moving" picture book (the sort that the reader, usually a child, would move by shifting small paper switches by pulling or pushing them. The film's backgrounds looked like the illustrations in Verne's novels, by illustrators like Edward Riou. Only the actors were real actors. Among moments that remain in my memory are the sinking of a ship by a submarine (a la TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA), and a battle between two submarines. I say moments in my memory because I have not seen any rebroadcast of this film on television since the early 1970s, and it has not come out on Video (or DVD for that matter).

Although it borrows from other novels of Verne's the basis for this film is an 1896 novel, which in English is titled FACING THE FLAG. The only edition of the novel that has appeared in recent years was published by ACE books back in the late 1970s, under the editorship of Verne scholar I.O.E. Evans, and retitled FOR THE FLAG. Evans explains that the novel was influenced by Verne's knowledge of a controvertial French scientist named Turpin who got into legal problems when he could not sell an explosive to the French Government, and then tried to sell it abroad. The anti-hero in the novel, Thomas Roche, has gone mad when his proposed weapon, called "the Fulgarator" is rejected (and he is laughed at) by the French authorities. He is being watched by a government agent, as the government slowly reevaluates it's position. But Roche and the agent are kidnapped by one of the last pirates on the globe (Count Artigas in the story). The Count helps Roche build a working model of the weapon (which is a type of missile, that flies off a track after a rocket fuel is added). The Count intends to use it to blackmail governments around the globe. The crisis at the end of the novel is whether the bitter and mad Roche will be willing to use his weapon against the ships of his homeland, France.

It is not a major Verne tale, but it is readable (not all of his novels are still readable). And the basic plot is followed in this film version. It is a wonderful movie to watch - and one hopes one day to see it on television, video, or DVD again.