Who Wants to Kill Jesse? (1966)

Comic Boom

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Who Wants to Kill Jesse? on DVD

This goofy, inspired comedy from director Václav Vorlícek (Three Wishes for Cinderella) is a refreshing reminder that the Czech New Wave didn't necessarily have to be totally serious. (Certainly Closely Watched Trains and Daisies had their lighthearted moments as well.) A couple of married scientists simultaneously work on their breakthrough inventions. The wife, Ruzenka Beránková (Dana Medrická), has developed a machine that reads dreams and pulls their images up onto a screen. She can then manipulate them, replacing bad dreams with good dreams. Unfortunately, the bad things suddenly appear in the room, in the flesh. Meanwhile, her husband Jindrich Beránek (Jirí Sovák) has been reading a comic strip about a busty blonde heroine and has been inspired to invent a pair of super anti-gravity gloves. That night, when he dreams about Jesse (played by Playboy cover girl Olga Schoberová) and her two arch foes, "Cowboy" (Karel Effa) and "Superman" (Juraj Visny), they materialize in the real world. Better still, they speak in comic strip "balloons." From there, it's an extended chase, but with a delightful deadpan quality rather than the usual breakneck stuff.

DVD Details: Facets' new DVD presents the film in its 'Scope widescreen, black-and-white glory, but with no extras other than a 12-page insert booklet.

Starring: Dana Medrická, Jirí Sovák, Olga Schoberová, Karel Effa, Juraj Visny, Vladimír Mensík
Written by: Milos Macourek, Václav Vorlícek
Directed by: Václav Vorlícek
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: Czech with English subtitles
Running Time: 80 minutes
Date: January 26, 2007