During his experiments professor Roch invented a new kind of explosive with extraordinary destructive powers. This awakenes the interest of count Artigas, which then kidnaps the professor and his assistant Simon Hart with the help of pirates. They are both being brought to Artigas secret hideout, an island, which is disguised as a vulkano. While the professor is allowed to further experiment, Hart is being held in a remote shabby cabin. Thanks to his creativeness he manages to inform the armed forces about Artigas plans and together with the also imprisoned Jana he plans an escape. Meanwhile Artigas is shortly before his completion of an all-destroying canon.

The Deadly Invention is based on the novel of the same name by Jules Verne. The illustrations from the book were used by Karel Zeman as the basis for his imaginative film adaptation, which is teeming with futuristic machines and inventions. Through various trick techniques such as stop-motion, matte painting or miniature buildings, the world created by Verne was captured on the screen in an astonishing way. Therefore, for fans of sci-fi films I can only advice to get this version. The UK Blu-ray is highly recommended, as it is based on a restored version and contains two cut versions of the film.

For a US release, the film was dubbed in English by producer Joseph E. Levine and renamed The Fabulous World of Jules Verne. The opening and closing credits were exchanged and an introduction by US showmaster Hugh Downs was added. Downs is allowed to rave about the new technical achievements and hold a few miniature models in the camera before the film begins. Otherwise, there are no further differences between the versions. Whether one needs the introduction is debatable. From today's point of view and probably also back then, it seems a bit naive and doesn't really fit into the rest of the movie. But it's just because of this naiveté that it has its charm. The English dubbing takes some liberties and deviates from the original dialogue at some points. However, since it is coherent in itself, you can call it an interesting alternative, especially since the dubbing actors are chosen well.

As you can already read in the imdb, the US version was adapted for TV broadcasting. The introduction by Downs has been removed again, as well as the following scene on the writing room, which is commented by Downs, but exists in the Czech version. Additionally, two scenes with Czech text have been shortened. A newspaper clipping at the beginning of the film was probably overlooked. Why a tracking shot on a clock in the middle of the film was removed remains a bit of a mystery.

 

The TV version can be watched at archive.org.

Runtime:

Czech version: 82:32 min.
US version: 82:25 min.
US TV version: 79:46 min.

Compared were the US TV Version and the US Version.

[00:00:41][00:00:48]

A chimney can be seen after the opening credits. A man appears and introduces himself to the audience as Hugh Downs. He shows a model of a new nuclear submarine and explains that only recently such a submarine sailed around the world without surfacing or refuelling. Then he refers to the model of a jet that can fly back and forth between two places at a speed never seen before. He talks about the rapid technological progress that seems to have no limits. He praises Jules Verne as a pioneer whose stories have inspired people.

There is a room with Verne's books in it. Downs further reports on Verne's inventiveness and that the following story is told by Simon Hart. Illustrations from Verne's books can be seen and Downs emphasizes that they have now been brought to life thanks to Mysti-Mation.

BD: 2:12 min.


[00:37:48][00:40:04]

Professor Roch can be seen a little longer. Then the camera moves from his papers to a clock.

BD: 11 sec.


[00:46:43][00:49:09]

A short cut is missing on the letter that Jana is holding in her hand.

BD: 2 sec.


[01:01:47][01:04:16]

The camera moves to the newspaper clipping that was pushed into the lamp. Then the camera fades to the next scene.

BD: 10 sec.