Wow! Such a good movie.

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

"The Deadly Invention" showcases Zemans unique approach to movie-making and aesthetics, sometimes maybe in a too strict manner. To keep the mix of animation, stop-motion and real-life actors / sets manageable, the movie is done in black and white - which makes it more similar to the 19th century steel engravings accompanying Verne editions, but loses some atmosphere. I don't know why the whole movie is kept in neutral grey; even early filmmakers coloured their B/W films from scene to scene according to the story to enhance the experience. Seems like an oversight to me.As mentioned in the title, this is required viewing for animation addicts; for pure enjoyment I'd recommend Zeman's later stuff, like "The Stolen Airship" which came nearly 10 years later and has colours (handcrafted, of course) as well a a more easygoing flow of story.

This marvelous film from Czech master animator Karel Zeman is a partial adaptation of the Jules Verne novel "Facing the Flag." The story treads the well-worn path of world domination as attempted by a piratical mastermind, who uses a morally myopic scientist's high explosive.The animation technique of this film is touted as "Mysti-mation," which is probably a bit of hype on the part of its American distributors and PR people. No animation technique Zeman used was unknown; in fact, probably every physical effect he employed was used on 19th century stages, and all of his photographic effects were known to and put to work by Georges Méliès and early stop-motion animators like Winsor Mackay. But in this film, Zeman combines all the effects in novel and unexpected ways, and literally nothing is off-limits when he needs to create some striking scenario. From the look of some of his sets, it is evident that Zeman was a prime influence on Terry Gilliam, and possibly Jan Svankmajer as well.Zeman has a wry sense of humor, which frequently goes straight over the heads of most of his critics. For instance, when they complain about the wooden quality of the acting in the film, they're completely missing the point: the performers deliberately use the techniques of farce and burlesque, the "bits of business" familiar to the audiences of one hundred years ago, long before the evolution of the personality cult in acting. The gag, its set-up, and its execution are far more important than the individual actors or their "feelings." Deep involvement between characters is secondary to the plot (a rarity in contemporary films). Which isn't to say that there's no focus on individuals: witness Simon Hart's distress before falling unconscious on the ocean floor, or Professor Roch's guilt-stricken state near the end of the movie. But the main point is still the story and its advancement.In short, it's a film well worth seeing, if you are willing consciously to suspend your sense of disbelief and lose yourself in the narrative.

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.

This is one film that I wish they would start showing on television again. When I was a child, I really was knocked out by the special effects. I'm a sucker for any film that combines live action with animation and this film is no exception. What really made me take notice was how the sets reminded me of the pages of a book and how the characters were almost like the illustrations come to life. This is definitely a lost classic and I hope one day that it will be shown on television once again.