THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE

Prisoner: Lubor Tokos

THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE (aka The Deadly Invention/Vynalez zkazy/1958). Director: Karel Zeman.

In the late 18th century Simon Hart (Lubor Tokos), an assistant to Professor Roch (Arnost Navratil), is kidnapped along with his employer by Count Artigas (Miroslav Horub) and his piratical associate, Captain Spade (Frantisek Cerny). The count has appropriated a submarine with which he rams ships and robs them of their bounty One of the survivors is a young lady named Jana (Jana Zatloukalova). Everyone is taken to the count's headquarters inside an extinct volcano, where the professor is forced to work on an explosive with which Artigas hopes to eventually rule the world. Simon and Jana try to figure out a way to escape ...

Octopus attack

The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, filmed in "misti-mation," is a real oddity. The images of the film can be quite arresting, as it presents a combination of live action, cartoon animation, crude stop--motion, cut outs, drawings and other techniques, but despite this it still comes off a bit backwards in the FX department (especially as compared to such items as Harryhausen's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, which was made the year before and was state of the art). It would have been more impressive had it been a silent movie, which in many ways it resembles. Although it cites another Verne novel as its source, this is clearly most inspired by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and is vastly inferior to the 1954 Disney version despite that picture's flaws. Fabulous World does boast some striking art direction and photography (there is a wonderful shot of masses of birds surrounding a small balloon in mid-air), has an interesting score by Zdenek Lista, and a sequence when the sub rams a ship is rather well-handled. However, this Czech film has been vastly over-praised and will ultimately have many discerning viewers reaching for their fast-forward buttons.

Verdict: Clever in some ways, but not very exciting. **1/4. 

ECSTASY

Hedy Lamarr in her famous nude scene

ECSTASY (aka Ekstase/1933). Director: Gustav Machaty.

Eva (Hedy Kiesler, soon to be known as Hedy Lamarr) marries an older man named Emile (Zvonimir Rogoz) but he proves to be a cold fish. Eva returns to her father (Leopold Kramer) and sues her husband for divorce; Emile is heartbroken. One afternoon Eve takes a nude swim and runs after her horse -- still naked -- where she encounters a handsome engineer named Adam (Aribert Mog). The two fall in love, and an encounter between Adam and Emile leads to tragedy on more than one level.

German hunk Aribert Mog

Ecstasy is best-known as the film that attracted American movie producers to Hedy Lamarr, who caused a bit of a scandal with her nude scenes. First she is seen from the back as she goes into a lake, then there is a shot of full frontal nudity, then the chase after her horse. She is hidden by bushes in subsequent shots, and covers her breasts when she is discovered by an amused Adam. But forget about the nudity, there is so much more to this lovely tone-poem of a movie, which is by no means a sordid melodrama. There is so little dialogue that this is nearly a silent picture, were it not for the beautiful score by Giuseppe Becce, which despite his being Italian-born, is Viennese "schmaltz" at its finest -- intense, romantic, and full of melody, and yes, the Italian influence is also there. The cinematography (by a trio of photographers) is also quite good.

Lamarr and Mog 

Some people can't get into the movie because it's a bit "minimalist," with, as noted, little dialogue and only the broadest of characterizations. But as you are pulled along by the symphonic score, the photography, and the expressive performances of the cast members, it somehow doesn't matter. There is a very touching sequence at a train station, and the wind-up is also moving. There is a sex scene that is powerful and obvious without being graphic. The direction is very good, although Machaty perhaps overdoes the symbolism with the frequent shots of horses and flies. Whatever its flaws, Ecstasy is a worthwhile and very arresting picture. Mog was a popular leading man in Germany who died at 37 fighting the Russians. Gustav Machaty also directed American films such as Jealousy.

Verdict: This Austrio-Czechoslovakian co-production was  Hedy's fifth film and decidedly one of her most interesting and unusual. ***.