Weirdhouse Cinema: Invention for Destruction

the most astonishing and wonderful visual animation styles I've ever seen. Yeah, this film is absolutely gorgeous, especially if you see it in the restored form. And I'll say it again, but if you are inspired to go seek out this work after this episode, or you haven't seen it in many, many years, do yourself a favor. Watch it in the best quality post of all the I think it's like about a two thousand, eighteen or seventeen restoration is absolutely amazing. Uh,

And this is the one you should watch. So I first became aware of this filmmaker when my friend Ben came over to show me another movie of his. A later one, his adaptation of the Baron Munko's in Story, which is also wonderful. But while that one is more fantasy, this one is more firmly science fiction. And I think it's very interesting how the style of this movie interacts with the science fiction content, because I think you could argue that many decades before anybody actually said this word,

or before this concept existed, this movie is steampunk. Yeah. Yeah, it has a very strong flavor of steampunk to it. It is this um unreal future, this sort of you can guess, you could call it like an alternate timeline future of where technology well I'm not gonna say it might have gone there, but this is the future based on some futurist optimism of the previous age. But also, this is a thing, Rob, I don't know if you

had the same experience. I had a hard time forcing myself to remember that this movie was actually made in nineteen fifty eight, so this movie came out after Attack of the Crab Monsters. This was released the same year as Fiend Without a Face. Because to me, it's so convincingly evoked the world of sort of techno futurist optimism in say, eighteen seventy, that I actually kept slipping into a mindset of like I'm watching a film from eighteen seventy,

which of course is impossible. Yeah, it has a kind of timeless feel to it, and it's crazy to to look at this film, which again is based on some of the works of Jules Verne, has a giant cephalopod in it, again from nineteen fifty eight, and then compare it to Disney's nineteen fifty four Jules Verne adaptation of twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea, which, granted, these are two very different films from very different film environments. Ones

in color, one is in black and white. But yeah, this film seems to be coming from a time all its own, or it just feels timeless. It doesn't feel shackled to the late nineteen fifties by any stretch. Yeah. Yeah, And not to put down the Disney twenty Thousand Leagues because of course, yeah, Kirk Douglas is ned Land, Peter Laurie,

and James Mason as Captain Nemo. What a cast. But also it has some great special effects too, so I don't want to put it down too much, but it does feel like a film made in the nineteen fifties, and it feels like a product of the nineteen fifties. Invention for Destruction is from a past and a future that never existed. Yeah, it's unlike anything I think we've really watched on the show before, because I mean, certainly it is an adventure tale, it's a science fiction tale.

We've watched plenty of those, yet, like twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Cea and and very films that we've watched for weird house cinema, it's very much a special effects spectacle in which pretty much every shot in the film includes some manner a special effect. Yes, I totally agree with that, and I think one of the real unique pleasures of this movie, but maybe more of of Carl Zeman's filmmaking in general, is that the special effects are

applied not only to spectacular scenes and moments. You know, it's not just when there's like a great explosion or when there's a fantastic machine on screen. There are beautiful visual effects for just like a room with a staircase and a table, or like a man sitting in a shack that is dilapidated and a bird flying through the air. Like the special effects are applied to, you might say, not very special content of the narrative and in applying them that way, they kind of bring mundane details to

a kind of weird heard in surreal life. Yeah, I thought A really great point on all of this was brought up by British filmmaker in Puppeteer John Stevenson, who does a little intro on the excellent second run Blu Ray release of the restored film that I watched that I actually I rented from Video Drum here in Atlanta. They have a great um, a great selection of of

Carl Zammon's films. But anyway, in this little little bit, Stevenson points out that while plenty of other special effects films of the era even were great and required a willful suspension of disbelief, invention for Destruction embraced stylish artificiality. Every shot in the film is not only a product of special effects, but a hand crafted special effects artifacts brought together to create this singular vision that again is

not it's not about tricking you into thinking this is real. Um, it's uh, it's it creates its own artificial world that you buy into. You know, this is funny, And how it connects to a conversation we had on last week's episode about Jason X about special effects. For me personally and I think for a lot of other film fans, to realism is not the only measure of of what

makes a special effect good. It's it's not just good if it looks convincingly like the camera has captured a real instance of what is supposed to be happening in the narrative, be that actually a spaceship flying through the air, or actually a submarine fighting a giant octopus or something. There's a quality that you can seek beyond realism, which is, uh,

you know, a kind of pleasing artistic integrity. It's something kind of close to realism in that there's that integrity element, like the the effects have to all kind of work together, and they have to believe in their own magic in a way, but they don't have to necessarily look real.

They just have to look right. Yeah. Weirdly, a film that comes to mind that really has nothing in common with it, uh in in so many ways except for this commitment to a stylish artificiality, would be the with the the Rodriguez adaptation of the Sin City comic books. Not a not a film I'm in a hurry to

watch again right now. I feel like it's kind of a kind of a violent, nasty film in many respects, but it does really commit to an artificial film world that you buy into that that that doesn't feel like a distraction but an enhancement. I know exactly what you mean, and I see why you would compare it to Invention

for Destruction. Not again, they don't. They're not esthetically similar in any way, but what they have in common is a sort of total commitment to deep integration of like animation and various types of special effects with the live actors in a way that that you sort of stop seeing as special effects and it just becomes this other world.

This is just a different type of world. There's our world where it's all three D objects and live actors, and then there's this other type of world where they're actors who ride inside hand drawn locomotives and like animated birds fly around between the blades of a propeller and an airship. Yeah, it's um, I mean, this is a film you really really just you need to watch it. Um. We can talk about it all day, but but you need to see it to understand what we're talking about here.

Because some of the some of the aspects of it are are are kind of it's kind of hard to understand how they work if we're just describing it, because yeah, you have this wonderful combination of live action performances by human actors, these kind of two D sets and environments UM,

stop motion animation, more traditional two D animation, UM. But you never feel like it's cobbled together, as you might feel with special films like say, uh, you know some of the various films that poorly integrate practical and digital effects, or even films that have say, stop motion monster scenes mixed with a costume a monster effect and something feels

off about it, Yes, totally. And so it has all these different um film styles and effects styles coming together within each frame, but it has this deep blended integrity. They are all parts of a machine working together, and that machine is cranking. And there are other movies like this, but um, a lot of the other movies that that combine these different effects styles often I think the bar

is realism. I don't want to get ahead of you, Rob, but I think you were going to invoke the example of Jurassic Park, which I think is a great example of a film that effectively combines different effects styles uh into this integrated whole and it works very well. But what they're going for is trying to create the impression of a real dinosaur, and that's not what Zamon is doing. But he's doing something at least equally beautiful, probably much

more beautiful, I think. Yeah. Like I said, this film embraces the artificiality in a way that Jurassic Park didn't, and Jurassic Parts effects are amazing in that they don't. It's just a totally different approach to how you present in saying a world on the screen. Yeah. Like, Well, one thing I was also I also kept thinking about watching this film is the performances and the plot are

against science fictional uh, but also pretty straightforward. There's nothing really dream like about the plot of the film for the most part, but the visual language of the film really does feel like the etchings in a printed book have been brought to life through magic, or that we've partially entered a world through the looking glass. You know, much about the movie makes you kind of ask what

reality is this? And there are there are elements actually other than the visuals I'll refer to in a minute, like, for example, the movies relationship to its literary subject matter kept making me think, like, what is reality here? But we'll save that question from when we talk about Jules Verne. All right, well, what would you what would you say the elevator pitches for this film, Joe, Oh, I didn't

write one ahead of time. But how about a brilliant but absent minded scientist is on the verge of creating the world's most powerful weapon, though he's not very concerned with its practical uses. Um, he is kidnapped by a pirate king and his work will be put to questionable ends. How will he and his lowly assistant deal with this situation? Yeah,

I think that pretty much captures it. It's a it's a it's a film full of flying machines, other spectacular vessels of the ocean, um, super science, and all of it like a nineteenth century illustrated Jules Verne novel, just brought to stunning life. That's another thing that I've read, Robin.

I don't know how much the introduction by the puppeteer addressed this, but one thing I saw alleged was that the animation style of Invention for Destruction was especially geared toward essentially making the hand drawn engravings and illustrations that accompanied Jules Verne novels of the nineteenth century, like making

those into a film texture. Yeah, that's my understanding. They there's a bit on this blue ray that I was watching that had some interview segments with his daughter, Zaymon's daughter, and she mentioned, you know, his inspiration being these, uh, these various illustrated Jules Verne books that he would just you know, pour over and would just be totally enraptured by. And and a lot of that is is visible in the use of lines, so that there'll be a lot

of say, horizontal lines in a given scene. Um. Also in the costumes there will be a lot of horizontal or vertical lines, all of this helping to create this idea of wood grains in the the illustration. And z Aymon's daughter also mentions like helping her father on the on the production. Uh, you know, she was young at the time, but he's like, hey, do you want to come in and draw lines on costumes and so and so there's apparently a great deal of that wonderful Oh

that's so sweet. One thing we should also point out, um, before we move on, is I really we've done. Is this our third Check or Czechoslovaka movie on on weird House? It is? So far we've done nineteen seventies Fruit of Paradise, that was the very Chidlova movie. Yeah, yeah, and there'll be a connection to that in this film. And then also while you were out on going to leave Seth and I talked about John Stuck Buyers Alice from Awesome. Yeah. So it's uh, and and we're probably not done that.

It's possible that we'll do another Check film next week. I have to watch it on my own to see how it will fit. But yeah, I mean, Check cinema is a rich well to draw from. It's not a cinematic world that I feel as versed in as other things like you know, Spanish horror or an Italian Jallow cinema and so forth. They're certainly American British film. But yeah, there's just so much there and and so much that

is new to me. If only one of these beautiful weirdo Check directors could have made a movie with Paul Nashy in it, like a Paul Nashy Werewolf film directed by Carl Zaman or Vera Chidlova m. Well, let's keep that in mind, because I'm I'm curious what this film I'm going to check out feels like, you know, the one I'm gonna look at has some sort of gothic horror elements to it. All right, well, let's go ahead and hear the English language trailer for this film. This

is a good places. They need to mention that this film was released in America as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, and so this is the This is the trailer for it. And I think this will work better for our English language listeners because you'll get to hear this old timey narration talking up the worlds of Jules Verne,

brought to live on the screen. From the Fantastic Jules Verne, creator of Around the World in eighty Days, comes now the most fabulous adventure on over or under the Earth, the first potion picture produced in the Magic Image Miracle estimation. Wonders never before seen will unfold before your startled eyes. Fantastic aircraft, fly the Skies, electronic machines, an incredible sea battle adventure in the mouth of a blazing volcano, underwater

escape from Chara Island. The Fabulous World of Jules Burn brings you the master storyteller of our time, with wonders to delight and excite and stir your imagination. The fabulous world of Jules Burn. Show them down, Show them down, all right, before we jump in further, it just remind everyone. Yeah, if you want to watch this film for yourself, and we highly recommend you do, the second run blue ray

edition is amazing. That's the one I watched it on, but you can also stream it via the Criterion Channel if you subscribe to that service or want to do a like you know, the free intro month deal on that um. Again, if you do watch it, make sure that it's I believe four K restoration because it is gorgeous.

There is also some a little extra on the disc I watched that showed them restoring and showing like all the various things they had to do to clean it up and just get it get the film looking just so splendid. The restoration does look wonderful, like the the the lines are so crisp, you know, it is like a Durors copper pen had just left the page or the wood block. It's it's amazing. Yeah, and the extra

is John Stevenson, the British filmmaker in Puppeteer. I believe he was one of the directors in the first Kung Fu Panda film. For example, he has this whole bit talking about how as a child he glimpse part of this film on British television I don't know, like some sort of kids morning show or something, and just needed

to see it. And even at one point, I believe as a child like wrote to the um the check embassy to see if you could get a copy, uh yeah, And then for the longest apparently it was it was

kind of hard to get a copy of it. Like he's talking about, I think a lot of film fans who were seeking out films and you know, the in the nineties and the early two thousands have this experience where you're having to turn to things like um uh, you know, like dubbed copies and you know, it's a it's a it's a copy of a disk from another region.

He says. At one point, um, there was a Japanese edition that came out with a number of Ziman's films in it, but it was just tremendously expensive, but he had to buy it, so he spent like all of his available funds getting it, and so you know, finally building up to the day when not only is the film widely available, but it's widely available and just splendid

restored quality. That is something we don't often stop to appreciate, uh, in the present day, Like how how fortunate we are that a lot of these great old films are available now and that there's so much easier to see than they used to be in and often beautifully restored form. And that's the painstaking work of many experts. Yeah, even films that maybe, like I don't know if you could make an argument that maybe Assignment Terror didn't need to be so splendidly restored, but but they did it, and

thank goodness they did. Oh what why would you say it didn't need? Of course it does. That's history. I don't know. I guess some films, you know, some films I guess you could make an argument for like the grittiness of the original medium can sort of add to the experience. It will be part of the nostalgia for

a given film. I've also seen effects people discuss how older mediums allowed them to sort of cover up the limitations of their effects at times, you know, and and and uh, you know, the stuff that might have worked on VHS suddenly oh they now they have it out on DVD or Blu ray and you can really see the scenes. You were never meant to see this wire effect in four K. It worked great on a on

a grainy VHS. Yeah, and I mean I understand they've had to go back and do some of that, even on productions like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, and they're just some you know, the the quality that we have now wasn't necessarily um, something they were taking into account. All right, Well, let's get into the people here. Uh So Carl's Aiman.

Uh the director also has adaptation and scenario credits, production design credits, and special effects credits that they had other individuals working with him on the special effects as a whole crew here. Uh. He lived nineteen ten through nine.

Highly influential Czech filmmaker and animator, best remembered for his combination of animation and live action, though I believe there there are films and short works of his that are more purely animation, but this is a great example of one that utilizes multiple forms of animation and live performances.

You'll find many many filmmakers that signed him as an influence, and they include the likes of Jans Punkmya himself, uh, Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, which seems like a no brainer when you think about Terry Gilliams uh use of animation,

especially during the Monty Python years. Absolutely, I see Hugh Zaman, d n A and and Terry Gilliam work m H. John Stevenson obviously Wes Anderson as well, And I think that's very telling because even as I was watching the film before I knew that that Wes Anderson, you know, had had had had said this before. I think of The Life Aquatic and I think of the way that the Bellefonte, the the vessel there, the way it's presented um at times takes on this kind of embraced artificiality. Yeah, totally,

and the c Life as well. I think, um, if memory serves, it's been a little bit since I've seen that, but that of course it's a wonderful film. Oh yeah, there's some invention for destruction E Sharks, I think is Yeah, it's been a long time, but yeah. So Zamon produced a number of short films over the years, and multiple full length pictures, most of which are at least loosely

sci fire, fantasy and genre. Prior to filmmaking, who worked in advertising and poster design, his films include The Treasure of Bird Island, Journey to Prehistory, Baron Munch co Housen, Adjuster's Tale, The Stolen Airship, which is another Jewels Verne picture, kind of a mashup of tales, um On the Comet, which is a Jewels Verne adaptation, Tales of a Thousand and one Night's Crabbitt, The Sorcerer's Apprentice that's when that one, I believe is fully animated, and The Tale of John

and Mary. Those are, of course all English translated titles they have. The original titles are all check titles. I feel like I'm gonna have to eventually see all of those. All those sound very interesting. Um and I believe his I was reading. And when it comes to awards in granted awards, especially you know, uh you know, Western awards or not, uh not the be all and end all to all this. But his short from nineteen I Believe a Christmas Story or Venanci Sin this one best short

film at the CONNS Film festival. Oh and if you find yourself in Prague, there is a museum dedicated to his work, the Museum Carla Zamana. I believe, so if you, if you, if you live in Prague or visiting Prague, or have visited Progue and have gone to this museum, definitely right in and tell us all about it. Now. We've focused a lot on the on the effects and the visual style of the movie, but there's also I think a lot of interesting stuff to say about the

narrative content of the film. And one thing here is that while there is one major work that I think you could say this is most adapted from, uh, and that's a Jules Verne novel called Facing the Flag. In other ways, it's a very much a mash up. It's just sort of a you know, it's a blender smoothie full of nineteenth century science fiction ideas, primarily from Jules Verne. Yeah, Jules Verne through nineteen o five, the legendary French novelist, poet,

and playwright. Uh. Some have even you know today will say, oh, well, he was kind of a futuristic prophet, you know. He he described these various technological achievements and uses that would come to fruition. Uh. They were even saying this daring Verne's own lifetime, and he tended to deny such praise and saying that's just coincidence, and you know it is probably a bit over the top. But at the same time, you know, he he did in some ways seem to see further than uh than many uh in trying to

imagine how humans would use technology. Um. His science fiction has a has this wonderful charm to it though it's it can be a bit naive and optimistic in some ways, but also very aware of the dark potential for human technology. Yes, both sides are there. I mean he he often has um like villains or anti heroes, uh, sort of searching after a powerfully destructive piece of technology. But also I would say a very generally kind of enthusiastic, even exuberant,

positive vision of human progress. Yeah. I think that's a good way of summing it up. Among his most famous and frequently adapted works, or around the World in a days journey to the center of the Earth, twenty leagues under the sea, the mysterious Island, and from Earth to the Moon. Uh. Yeah. Given the proximity of his work

and popularity to the birth of cinema. Adaptations of his work are numerous and are are frequently kind of important benchmarks in the history of cinema, especially when you look back to nineteen o two is a Trip to the Moon. We already mentioned fifty four two Leagues under the Sea. There's also six around the world in eighty days. They're still making Jules Verne adaptations, but I was hard pressed

to pinpoint one that felt important. Somehow, I fully support the artistic choice in Voyage Don Laloon to change the Baltimore gun Club in Jules Verne's novel into a bunch of guys in Wizard Robes. So um. In terms of the you know, the final script we see here a final vision on the screen. Um. Of course, Naman himself has some credit. Um. There's also a check poet and writer by the name of Frantis sat Kruven who nineteen nine seventy one that has a scenario credit at least.

This is via IMDb, and among his works are Romance for Flugelhorn, which is the one epic poem which was also adapted for film in nineteen sixty seven. He wrote the screenplay for seventy eight Beauty and the Beast, a check film based on his own play. I believe this is a stunning looking gothic horror film directed by Urage hers Uh, the accounting director of nineteen sixty nine The Creamator, a dark comedy horror film that's apparently very well regarded.

This adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. You were sharing some stuff from this with me and this this could be on our radar for the future. Yeah, yeah, I need it. I need to check it out. But it looks very interesting. There are a couple of other credits, and I couldn't find that much about them, but uh, Milan Vacha dates unknown, at least we're not visible to me. When I was looking around, uh credited on this, but

not much else was turning up. And also a screenwriter about the name of Jerry Pradecca who live nineteen seventeen through two, is also credited on some film databases, but not IMDb, so I'm not sure, but I'm going to listen their names anyway. All right, should we talk about the cast? How you do you want to start with the old Luboar Tokosh. Yeah, playing Simon Hart are our hero of the piece. Uh. He lived nineteen twenty three

through two thousand and three. Check Actor active and TV and film from the late forties to the early two thousands. His more famous work, certainly taking into account global recognition of check films are, are probably his films UH nineteen seventies, UM Who Show That Year, which I believe is a surveillance thriller about people who uh suddenly find their home bugged by presumably the state UH nineteen seventies, which Hammer in nineteen seventy two is The Girl on the Broomstick.

But I'm likely missing something major here, especially when it comes to the intended audience. So uh, if you have more experience than we do with cinema and check television and so forth right in, we would love to hear from you. But yeah, he's he's quite good in this. He has very expressive eyes. Luebar Tokosh here has a very dark, very like, tightly sculpted strap like beard that follows his jawline and a and a similar kind of mustache.

And I almost wonder if that look is selected because of the high contrast like uh beard color and shape going well with the animation style. If you know what I mean. Yeah, yeah, I believe that there are Yeah, there are characters like is it Yana? Uh yeah, the sort of the love interest of the piece. Uh. She was specifically selected because she looked like she would fit into one of these old illustrations. She had a kind

of naive look to her. She looks I think that in the materials about the film I was looking at on the disk she looked like she was quote born yesterday, you know so, and that she looked good in period peace uh garbs. So. Yeah. It was all about like what will look in the in the the overall piece, not so much like what is this individual's acting prowess? No, not to take away from the actors. I thought all

of the actors in the movie did well. Another actor, who I think like like these two we were just talking about, seems clearly chosen for a sort of look that works well with the animation. Is the Pirate captain Captain Slade. Oh yeah, yeah. This is interesting because this character is played by front to Seek Sligger Born, and I was mostly just amused that he also played a pirate captain in Zaman's nineteen sixty two film The Fabulous Baron muchausen m M. Fun fact, the other pirate players

that pop up in the pieces, like Pirate Crew. Apparently Zaman just went down to the local retirement home and recruited a bunch of guys who had like rugged looking faces. He's like, this is what I need. Then get get these rugged mugs into the studio, the retirement home pirates. How can you not love this? Yeah? Now we mentioned the professor that's gonna be a central part of the plot,

Professor Roach. Uh, well, okay, we should raise here. I don't know if we're going to consistently pronounce the character's names the same way they are pronounced in the movie. So, for example, Simon Hart, the the hero. I think in the check version they call him like she Mon Hart or something. Uh, so we're probably we're not going to manage that. While we're talking about the movie, we will have some Anglicized name pronunciation. So the professor is named R R O C H. I think they call him

rogue maybe in in their pronunciation, but we can say roach. Yeah. And and also what language did you watch? I watched the English dub Oh, okay, so we may we have some differences there as well. I watched in the original with subtitles. Okay, well anyway, this particular professor character played by Arnast Novrato, who lived nine four A check actor. His other films include Great Solitude from nineteen sixty. But I was also amused that he's actually younger uh than

lue Boar and the actor of Yeah, actor lue Boar. Yeah, if the dates are correct, Um, he's actually three years younger. Wow. I would not have expected that. Yeah, the magic of cinema. We also have an evil count in this uh, in this film, always going to have an evil count scheming away. Yep, that's a count. Arctic Gas played by Miroslav Hlob Yeah, nineteen fifteen through nine check actor. His other credits include nine seven's Frankenstein's Aunt and Carl Zaman's nineteen seventy film

On the Comment. He was also an enemy general in Zaman's nineteen sixty two film The Fact Lost Baron Munchausen. So you know very much. He seemed to have a crew that he turned to for a lot of these films. Now, we often mentioned the music and rob even though I think this is this is not uh an electronic score like you typically love the most I bet you love the music in this movie because it is incredibly appropriate to the narrative. We get a lot of uh, kind

of like daunting horn ORNs, but then also jaunty harpsichord. Yeah, yeah, I know. I love the music in this in part because there are some great stretches where you have either organ or even possibly electronic organ. I'm not sure, but

it's Oregon that sounds electronic enough for me anyway. And uh, and then a lot of scenes where characters are uh, they're they're like either weaving their way through some sort of machine filled room or chamber, or they're hanging out in the laboratory, and we get a lot of sort of drone the electronic ambience going on. The music for this film is from z Nick Liska, who lived nineteen eighty three. Noted check composer uh and something of an

electronic music pioneer. I'm to understand. It was active from the nineteen fifties through the early nineteen eighties and is especially noted for his work in check, new wave and the early films of stop motion. Legend John Spankmeyer. Uh, he scored nineteen seventies Fruit of Paradise. So we have discussed his work previously on the show. Oh Wow, The

Furtive Paradise had awesome music. You remember the scene at the beginning that retells the Garden of Eden story sort of in short before the longer, more surreal version, and then it's got those choirs and the like the psychedelic vision. You have very ethereal Bliska also scored ninety nine The Creamator, which I have not seen, but again, uh, it factors into a couple of different filmographies here and is highly regarded. Okay, you want to talk about the plot. Yeah, again, you

watched the original check version with subtitles. I watched the English dub, which was the US release version of the picture, and the dub is a lot of fun that this is a film where I didn't I don't feel particularly guilty using an English language dub because it's it's ultimately more about the visual experience, and this way I'm not reading anything on the screen. Instead, I'm looking at these

like weird fish. Um but U. Two major differences in the US is that it's promoted as using the new motion picture technique mistimation, which I talked about this briefly with Seth before that like, what is this weird? Um, American and possibly British aversion to staying stop motion instead if everything has to have some sort of weird name

like Claymation and so forth. Yeah, that's funny. Um. Also the most noticeable difference, though, is the U S version has an extended intro by American radio and television broadcaster Hugh Downs lived nineteen one through uh. Leonard Malton described

this introduction as quote pointless. Um. Yeah, kinda like I I went back and looked at the the original check version to see how it started, and yeah, this is kind of like a bloated intro from Hugh Downs, where he's he's kind of like, you know, he's in this like weird living room and he's like saying, Hey, we're gonna watch this film today, and it's, uh, you know,

it's about the how brilliant Jules Verne was. And he tells you a little bit about how Jules Verne was brilliant essentially a profit of technology in the future, and sort of slowly eases you into the film almost like you needed, you know, some sort of appetizer or intro, or you needed permission from Hugh Downs to enjoy the movie. Are are there any like animated fish swimming around his head or like an octopus grabbing his leg? Now he has some like model airplanes and rockets on the table

behind him. Yeah, it's almost yeah, yeah, I see what you're saying. It's almost like you wonder at the time for American audiences to accept something this kind of like visually unusual, did they have to say, Okay, now we're gonna sit you down with a boring man in a kind of boring environment to tell you that it's okay

to watch what follows. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's um, you know this is this is right before or around the same time that The Twilight Zone came out, So you know, maybe there's certain uh, there're certain comparisons to be made there except Q downs is there's nothing creepy about the way presenting. Eddie's very he's very square in his presentation of a film that is anything but square. A retirement home pirate and a fish that turns into

a butterfly. It couldn't happen, but it could in Jules Verne. Yeah, so I don't know, it's fun, but you can sort of take it or leave it, depending on which version of the film you watch and eventually you can end

up in the same place, all right. Well, so in the opening credits we see an acknowledgement that this is what the the the subtitles translate as freely adapted from the writings of Jules Verne, and I think that's a good way to put it, because there is one major novel that this plot comes from, but it's pulling in stuff from all over the place, and I think they give you a taste of the buffet of imagery to come, because the opening credits have kind of line drawings in

really behind them where you see hints of wait a minute, what is that? Is that a bullet shaped capsule flying through the stars towards the moon? Is this lightning striking a castle on a mountaintop. You've got a hot air balloon, erupting volcano, a ship shooting up, laser beams or beams of some kind. Yeah, it pretty much. It's just established this that we are in a strange Jules Verne version of what the future or the past could have consisted of.

And then we opened on a shot of an antique office that's aligned with a sort of fluor de le esque wall paper, a small lamp and ink pot, and a stack of books which all bear the name Jules Verne on the spine of the books, and we get some voice over narration. It says, good evening, friends, come closer, I shall tell you about the greatest adventure of my life. And we zoom in on a notebook says, this is my journal everything I experienced I confided to its pages.

Forgive me, I haven't introduced myself. I am Mr Simon Hart, and he says I lived at a time of such hope, the dream of human progress. And here we see an illustration that maybe a kind of airship. He says, we could think of nothing else. My friends and I rob or the conqueror, Barbican Captain Nemo. Uh. And then we see all kinds of illustrations, including one of like ce

monsters or prehistoric marine reptiles biting each other's necks. And there's an ambiguity here when he says we could think of nothing else, My friends and I rob or the Conqueror, Barbican Captain Nemo, because all these names he lists are Jules Verne characters, and it's not clear from what he's saying whether he's saying those were his friends who couldn't think of anything other than human progress, or if his friends couldn't think of anything other than human progress, And

the examples of human progress he's listing are Roeber, the Conqueror, Barbican and Captain Nemo, both of which would make sense as as interpretations of that sentence, and both are kind of supported by the context. Like he's looking at books that say Jewels Verne on them, and these are Jewels Verned characters, so they're like characters he's referring to within the narrative, but then he also talks about them as

if they are real people. So there's a very kind of interesting, ambiguous superposition of the fictional world of Jules Verne and the supposed reality of this movie's narrative. Uh, that that are like existing at the same time there,

Do you see what I mean? Yeah? Yeah, And this is another way that this film feels not you know, we've discussed how it feels like something echoing from a time before, but in this it really feels like like something from much later, like from the the eighties or perhaps the nineties, in the way that it's it's it's treating this world creation. But I wanted to explain these other jewels Verne characters he mentions just for some context.

So you've got a rubber of the Conqueror. This is the title character of a novel by Jules vern It's called Robert the Conqueror. Robert is an inventor, and the thing he conquers is the skies. He creates a gigantic airship that is held aloft, empowered by a series of propellers and air screws. And Robert he's one of Verne's kind of antisocial genius inventors. He flies around the world planting black flags on top of pyramids and the Statue

of Liberty and so forth. And apparently the novel involves a bitter factional struggle within a Philadelphia aeronautics or flight club between Roeber and the group that prefers dirigible as another lighter than air aircraft. And he'll he'll sure show them that heavier than air aircraft are the way to go. And note, of course that this was written at a time before powered flight. So I don't know if we if we want to say technoprofit or whatever, but Jules

Verne often was writing several decades ahead. You know, he was writing about things that would in some rough sense become real technologies several decades after he was writing about them, or would become more developed, because he also like talks about submarines, which, like at the time he published twenty Leagues under the Sea, there were sort of primitive submarines, but not anywhere near the kind of thing he describes

in twenty Leagues. Um, So the other characters he mentions, one is Barbican, which is one of the main characters of From the Earth to the Moon and then the sequel Around the Moon's a sort of a story in

two parts. Barbican is the president of a Baltimore gun club who builds a cannon that will shoot him and two other passengers around the moon in a closed capsule, again seemingly to prove the haters wrong or kind of sensing a pattern here, there's like a like a gentleman's club for people interested in science and technology and human progress, and then there's like a struggle within that club, and there's a defiant inventor or or genius in the club

who's like, I'm gonna show my my rivals wrong and does something amazing, But I think it's notable that the ones that follow almost that exact pattern are kind of the less notable jewles for novels, because when you come to twenty Leagues and Captain Nemo, uh, this is once again a defiant, antisocial, globe trotting genius of sorts, but with I think a much more complex and tragic motivation.

I think a lot of critics would say twenty Leagues is better and more interesting than a lot of verns other novels in in uh, in the quality of its character is not just for the avocation of an interesting PSI tech scenario, Because Captain Nemo is there's a lot

about him that's kind of hidden under the surface. You you don't know exactly what his motivations are, but like there's the implication that he's sort of on a plot of anti imperialist revenge after like imperial or colonial powers have destroyed his home and his family, which makes him a weirdly kind of sympathetic character, even though he sort of fills the role of a villain or antagonist in

the book. And so Nemo and twenty Leagues are very interesting. Yeah, I think this is some thing that the Disney adaptation from the fifties I think captured quite well. And I remember thinking a lot about this as a child watching this film and rewatching this film, it's like you you spend a lot of time thinking about Captain Nemo, Like,

obviously he's the villain, but he's also really cool. But also he clearly is a very conflicted character and and other characters in the film are trying to figure him out as well. That thought, it was well produced in that, But I would say the closest to a single inspiration for the plot of Invention for Destruction is the jewels Urn novel Facing the Flag, which is a later novel of his, which has a very patriotic twist to it, which some I've argued is is kind of a much

lesser rehash of Twenty Leagues. Like it involves a rogue captain operating a submarine with a secret island base, but he's in the case of Facing the Flag, the character is not as interesting and nuanced and complex as as Captain Nemo. He's just sort of a bad guy. He's

like a mean criminal. But anyway, so to come back to this whole thing where the narrator here seemingly is the main character in a loose adaptation of a Jules Verne novel, but describes himself as swept up in a in a wave of giddy enthusiasm for progress through science and technology. That is implied, It's not explicit, but it's kind of implied that this is by reading Jules Verne novels. It's kind of like if you had a Superman origin story where he grew up excited about heroism because he

read d C comics. You know, it reminds me just a little bit of Time after Time, where HD Wells is both a character and the time machine has a physical reality, though that's a little more that they that's a little more battened down in terms of making it all. Um, have narrative sense to it. Yeah, but I see the comparison. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that that blending of the you know, the the higher level of reality with the with the narrative inside the book. Mhm.

But anyway, so that's establishing the setting, and Simon hart A narrating goes on to say, well, that was the world of our youth, and then we begin a fabulous animated sequence where um so again to try to picture what's going on in in the scenes of this movie if you haven't seen it. There are often different layers of animation, so there will be live action and still imagery combined into a single frame to affect a total scene, and then often animation going on on top of and

around it. So you might have, for example, live action footage of crashing waves superimposed overhand drawn waves, and a shoreline with an animated boat filled with live actors. Yeah. Yeah, so many layers to it, and then shot to shot things will change as well, Like in one shot a diver may be presented as a as a stop motion puppet, and then in the next it's a live actor in a costume. And again that it's it's not a seamless transition, but it doesn't feel flawed. It feels in keeping with

the handcrafted artificiality of the picture. Yeah. So the narrator says, my story proper begins on the Atlantic. What an impression that made on me. I was a passenger on the first steamship to cross the Ocean, which I think is funny because all these things different differently kind of blend together, But like somehow I just find the the steamship crossing the ocean. While it is actually in reality an impressive feet it's just far less inspiring to the imagination than

like a submarine or an airship. But anyway, he says, I watched as the human spirit challenged the waves below and the empire of the air above. And here we have a row of well dressed passengers on the boat. They're lining the walls of the steamship, gazing out at things with spyglasses and opera binoculars, and we see an

airship and a submarine. To match his comments there, Now with the airship, there's sort of a dirigible frame, and then a pilot who is pedaling bicycle pedals to power a propeller, and there's all kinds of things going on. It really looks like one of the seagulls flying around is going to get squashed or chopped up by the bow prop like a seagull salad shooter. Yeah, yeah, and

I can only imagine a little. Touches like this were intentional in part because they're they're they're funny, but also it made me think of something that I heard Gamo de Toro talk about in making a feature about Pinocchio, his new Pinocchio film, which is beautiful, but he he

made a really nice point. He said that that, um, if you're filming with live actors and your live performances, you have the script, you have the performance of the script, and you hope for little alterations, even a little mistakes, out of which something special may arise. But when you're doing animation and stop motion animation or or something like like this picture, you know, everything is meticulously planned out,

and sometimes you have to plan in the mistakes. You have to plan in things like say a character not closing a closet door all the way, or kind of fumbling a little bit when placing a plate on a table, because those are the things that feel real, and you have to plan for those. Yeah. Yeah, So with live actors and and the three dimensional world, imperfections that prove the reality arise naturally. But with animation, because you're going frame by frame, you have to plan them in. Yeah.

And I think that's also when This is something that I talked about with Seth on that that Alete episode, is that this one of the charms of stop motion in general is that there's this handcrafted nous and this kind of lovable awkwardness to it where it feels real.

You know that that reminds me of another thing I wanted to say about this movie, Uh, to contrast it with what you would usually say about a special effects driven film movie critics that like, I can just hear in my head Cisco and Ebert saying this using the phrase special effects picture almost as synonymous with a movie that is lacking in kind of expressive human qualities, that it's a more kind of alien uh you know, uh, product of a kind of plastic texture, mass manufactured in

a way. And this movie is a special effects picture in every way, like the special effects are the main character. But it is exactly the opposite. It feels lovingly handmade. It is the opposite of what you would mean when you said that about like, you know, Transformer six or something. Right. So, anyway, while we're watching this, the narrator goes on about giddy excitement for every new development of science and technology, and then, ah,

what's this. There's another site off the side of the steamship. There is a strange iron mass, this elongated hull, bobbing in the water. And then we see several men scamper into a into a hatch on the top and close it, and then the vessel descends down into the water, and the narrator says, little did I know what roll submersible would soon play in my life. But suddenly we're onto

something else. We're watching a train across a giant bridge spanning a colossal canyon, and the narrator says, my journey continued overland. The iron horse knew no obstacles, and we get another ingeniously composed shot. So the locomotive is fully animated or hand drawn, but the people peering out the windows and the conductor are live actors. I don't know exactly how this shot was accomplished, but it's beautiful. And then we see our narrator as a passenger on board

the train. This is that you know, this is a lu boor Tokas. He's a young man with sad eyes, that that trim mustache and the dark strap like beard along his jawbone. Uh and uh. He's sitting in the train and there's a man with a rifle who squats down inside the train trying to I think, shoot a bird out the train window, but then he accidentally shoots through a h passengers newspaper that he's reading, which was

very funny. Yeah. I laughed out loud and kind of exclaimed too, because it's like, oh my god, he just shot somebody in the face. But then no, the man with the newspaper lowers the newspaper and it's just a whole blasted through the newspaper, and he's slightly annoyed, but you think that he's freaked out by the fact that

the newspaper was shot. But then he almost seems not to have noticed that because he was just reading a very tragic story, something about a catastrophic accident with a submersible. So I think that we're to understand that submarine that that uh Simon Hart saw earlier has sunk. It was a tragic accident, and the sadman says, such a needless loss of life. He had another invention meets its fate. Man was given legs to walk upon the earth, and

there he should stay. But our young protagonist he has a look and then he folds up the newspaper and he hands it back as if to rebuke the man. He says, fortunately, there are always those not content to merely walk. So he is fully devoted to the future, even if there are catastrophic submarine accidents, and we also get more narration and and animation about air ships. So that's moving in the kind of Robe or the Conqueror idea.

But eventually he goes on to say an era of steam and electricity has rendered obsolete the servants of yesteryear, And we see a carriage driver standing over a wrecked axle and just lamenting the fate of the carriage. But we cut from that to a steam powered horseless carriage being driven by a mustachio gentleman with an aviator's cap

like a goggle cap. Uh, and our narrator, while riding the steam powered truck, Abomination looks at the sky and he notices an airship chugging along in the clouds, and he makes mention of his friend Robe or the Conqueror. So once again like what level of reality are we inhabiting here? Like are these jewels verned characters characters from books? Or are they living people? It seems kind of both. But eventually Heart arrives at the end of his long journey.

He arrives at his destination and it is a private sanatorium stashed up on a rocky cliff overlooking the sea, and as he approaches it, he passes by a man who looks like a grizzled sea captain in a large cloak who's wandering the rocks outside. And at first this man pulls a revolver on on Simon Hard as they bump into each other, but then he's just kind of like whatever, and they go on their separate ways. Uh.

And the narrator asks, but who was that man? And I was thinking, you know, he kind of looks a bit like svennl A Thorson. Oh yeah, but we learned here that Heart is at the sanatorium to visit his mentor, the brilliant scientist Professor Roach, who recovering from nervous exhaustion after working so long on his most recent invention, has

been has been stashed away here. Um and uh so, uh, let's see, Simon Hart is speaking to the I guess the warden, the man who operates the sanatorium, and Heart says that he and Professor Roach need money so that they can finish Professor Roach is great invention in peace, and the other man says, sometimes I wonder if no good will come of this great explosive device, you know. Um, And we're not told at this point why the professor is building a great explosive device, But you know, it's

Juels Verne stuff he just did. This is just progress. And although it did not appear in the English subtitles for this movie, I don't know if they ever said it in in the w watched rob but in I was reading about Jules Verne's facing the flag, and allegedly in that Roaches device is called the full Garater. I don't remember that term. I do remember there's a lot of talk about like absolute matter and and so forth. Yeah, this may be a kind of red coon with reality.

But they later when they're explaining his breakthrough, it makes it sound a lot like he's discovering uh, nuclear secrets,

you know, basically nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Yeah. Oh, but after this, a dark and beautiful scene unfolds later that night when the grizzled sea captain man from the cliffs earlier, he's out by the stormy sea and there are waves crashing on the rocks and he raises a lantern to signal at a mysterious vessel, and someone on board the vessel flashes a light to signal back, and here onto the shore come a crew of gnarly pirates. I guess these are the retirement home pirates, rowing their

boats in the gloom against the heavy surf. I love the look of the scene. Now this is not the one where they're in the submarine that's later, I think, right right rightning their swords. Oh no, no, no, this is when they're rowing their boats to get to the senatorium. Yeah. Um. And we get a little backstory meanwhile between Simon Hart and Professor Roach that they're talking about his work, and Roach says, I'm a scientist and my interestalize in chemical reactions,

not their practical applications. And this is a theme that will they'll come back to several times. He's just plowing ahead with with scientific progress, and he actively refuses thinking about to what use the progress will be put. Yeah, and uh and and they'll be payoff with this later on. So the pirates are here, in fact, to kidnap Professor Roach and young Simon Hart. They take him along to uh and they are being led by the sea captain and his revolver. And here's where we noticed there's a

kind of curious magic to the pirates. They are realized with both Menace and whimsy, so they appear kind of frightening. But over on the whimsy ledger there is, for example, a special effect where like a strongman pirate lifts Simon hard up in the air, like lifts him up above his head. So and he is so obviously being hoisted up by some other means, maybe a hidden pulley or something, that it looks like he's just a balloon in the muscle pirate's hands, Like there's no attempt at all to

maintain the illusion of weight. He just kind of floats up. And it adds a kind of subtle physical comedy that I found incredibly pleasing, Like when the Man with the newspaper, when the newspaper is shot on the train earlier, and there's another gag like this with like a a pirate throwing a rope that seems to almost magically wrap itself around the professor. Yeah, yeah, I'm also reminded of the wind up machine gun pistol from later on in the film.

That's so good. Yeah, when the Count is trying to shoot down a hot air balloon and he's got it looks like a musket pistol almost, and he's trying to fire it and it's not working, and his his scientist Henchman, winds it up for him and then yeah, yeah, then it's an automatic weapon, yeah with no kick. It doesn't seem like it has any kick to it, right. Uh So, Simon Harden Professor are whisked off into the night on on the rowboats, where they will be taken as prisoners

to destinations unknown. Now why them? Could it be because of the Professor's interest in chemical reactions and not their practical applications. Uh. Anyway, the the narrator informs us that word of their kidnapping spreads like wildfire, and there is soon a worldwide man hunt for them. And this is a theme that I want to plan a seed here, because I think this is something that's kind of characteristic of Jules Vernes fiction, and there might be something interesting

to tease out about this. In Jules Verne novels, there is often a sense of like there is a situation and word of it spreads around the whole world, and everyone learns of this situation or problem, and uh, problem solvers around the world all simultaneously turn their attention to solving this problem. Yeah, yeah, this this idea, I mean, it's it's almost kind of the same level of one world optimism that you see uh in in the later works of you know, like like Star Trek and so forth.

You know, this idea that that the world at large, when unified, is this force of order and progress. Yes, yes, like not the kind of mundane reality that, oh, if if two people were like kidnapped from a sanatorium, probably like nothing would happen, Like they just disappear. Uh. Instead, this is like, okay, now the machine is activated, the

whole world is looking for them to get them back. Yeah. Yeah, which again it's kind of like that naive optimistic charm of this uh, this vision of the Jewels Verne universe.

And this leads to a confrontation. So we see a ship, presumably at first the ship on which our heroes are being held prisoner, and the bearded sea captain he's leaning over the side and they the people on this ship are staring down a battleship with is like a naval destroyer with big long guns trained on them, and they're sort of a bookish looking man with mutton chops, side burns and a pipe. And he asks the captain can they detain us? And the sea captain says, might makes right?

Was this phrase in your in your English dub it was, yes, I do remember this part. And so the bookish man says, well, I'm gonna have to go inform the count. So he does, and we come to learn that this is Count arctic Gas, the boss, the boss for whom everybody here on the ship works. And uh so the ship is boarded by a bunch of marines or French naval seamen. I don't know what they're I think they're supposed to be French, but there's some kind of authorities and they perform a search.

They look at a fancy captain's quarters, a lonely empty hold full of rats and a few luggage bags, but nothing to see here, so they leave, and then we cut to a scene where Count arctic Gas and the captain are talking and the Count is I thought this was so funny, and I'm not sure what it means. The Count is trying on top hat after top hat, and in a full length mirror, NonStop top hats, and you can see in the background he has a huge

steamer trunk full of more top hats. Oh yeah, yeah, Well, I think this has some cinematic payoff in the in the finale of the film as well. It does, so, yeah, we associate him with I think this is supposed to have something to do with the Count being vain, But he's not just vain. He's arrogant and domineering because he also humiliates the grizzled sea captain. He forces him to address him as your excellency when posing a question. Yeah, he's a bad dude. So after this we have a

couple of mysteries raised. So the ship continues to sail ahead. We see it sailing even though it's sales are furled. How is that possible? What is driving the ship? And uh? And if Simon Harden Professor are on board, if they have been kidnapped, how come the marines did not find them? Well, the answer to these two questions is the same revelation. The ship above the waves is only half of a two part system. Below there is a great submarine towing the ship along, and it is down on the submarine

where our heroes are kept. So here we get a meeting between Professor, Roach and Count. Are two gas on the submarine, and this is the first scene where we will see a sort of tableau or display of marine

life behind the human drama. So they are in the in the I don't know what you call the parlor, the I don't know, the drawing or something of the ship, and there's a big display window and we see all the fish and everything outside, marvelously animated fishes and octopus, and uh, Professor Roach wants to know, Hey, why the kidnapping.

What's going on here? And we we learned that basically, the count just wanted to give the professor a research grant, a non consensual research and this is the best way he could figure out how to do it. So because of his submarine, he says he is the master of all the oceans, kind of Captain Nemo Wish once again. And he says he has access to untold riches because the sea claims all lost ships, including the treasures they carry.

And then we look out the window and we see the shipwrecks spread out across the ocean floor, and the ocean is just littered with them like trees in a forest. Oh and I loved this this image. It suggests something about um like the world in which this takes place, there's almost kind of just an infinite past where ships have been sinking for for millions and millions of years, taking gold and treasures with them, and now the whole seafloor is nothing but shipwrecks. Yeah, I love this. I

love the way they create this world. But also I love this, uh this idea. It's like, hey, you know, all the they're all these uh these shipwrecks out there, and if if there's a shipwreck, then we can take advantage of it. And of course the there's going to be an added detail to this arrangement as well. Right, you kind of get the sense that maybe he's already been to all of the pre existing shipwrecks. Um, so what do you do when funds start running out after that? Well,

you make new shipwrecks. Exactly. So, the Count wants to help the Professor finish his research on the great explosive device from the novel The Full Garad or whatever. Um, surely because he too is only interested in chemical reactions, not practical applications. And uh so he oh, he also informs Professor he has constructed an underwater city called back Cup. In my translation, I didn't know if that was supposed to be a joke. I don't remember what they called

it in the version I watched, anyway. So while that's going on with the professor, he's being sort of seduced by the promise of of unlimited funding to continue his research. Simon Hart is in a jail cell on the submarine and he's not he's not being tricked into thinking that this is a benign arrangement. He's like rattling the bars of his cage. He's saying, what right do you have

to hold me here? And the count comes in and, echoing an earlier phrase by the sea captain, he says, might makes rights or so this is the point of view of the villains that it is the right of the strong to rule over the week. So we learned the names of some characters we've seen before, the grizzled

sea captains, captain's uh Spade or Captain Slade. I may have said Slade earlier, but I think it's Spade Um and the the bookish man with burns as Mr Circo, who is going to be working alongside the professor to complete his invention. And coming up here we get a scene where's there's the payoff? We were saying about you know what, what about when you run out of shipwrecks

to raid. Uh. So the submarine attacks a defenseless merchant ship that has been becalmed in the middle of the sea, so much like leagues, sort of rams it with the pointy bow of the submarine, jabs a hole in the ship's hull and then sinks it. And there's a great preparation scene that keeps intercutting between the pistons pumping and the submarines engine room and the pirates all sharpening their swords in unison. Yeahup there getting ready for the Yeah

that the impact and the and the following raid. This whole sequence is just amazing, wonderful. So I was thinking at first when they're sharpening their swords, I'm like, okay, so are they going to like to aboard the boat? But no, instead they're preparing for a dive walk. The dive walk scene is such a treat. I just watch

this all day. So the the pirates dawn old fashioned heavy metal diving helmets, gonna you know, BioShock style, and uh they go out and walk along the sea floor to explore the fresh ship wreckage, and there's just sea life of ridiculous dimensions. They're riding these sort of deep sea bicycles, like these powered craft that they peddle on. And there's this again a combination of hand drawn animation, live action stop motion. Also it's all coming together. There

are divers versus sharks. There is a couple of the pirates get into a deep sea sword fight over I think they're trying to take the treasure for themselves. Oh, this is a great part where yeah, they're the two pirates. They get into a squabble, they start sword fighting, which is just a comedic vision anyway. Um, and then another pirate comes along on one of those little deep sea bicycles.

He has a shotgun in his hand, but he gets them to stop by ringing a bicycle bell like thinking, and they're like, okay, all right, and they cut it out and they get back to work. So all the treasure is removed from the merchant ship. Uh. And by the way, they go out of their way to keep the Professor in the dark about this. They don't want him realizing that they're sinking ships on purpose. So when the attack is about to begin, count ourt to gases, like, professor,

would you like to go inside for a snack? So they go down to the I guess the soundproof snack room. But whoops, they failed to keep him completely in the dark, because when the Professor comes back out on board, he hears somebody calling for help, and it turns out there was a survivor of the shipwreck. Uh. There is a passenger floating in the water and they are forced to rescue her. Now, this is a woman named Yanna. This is someone who we saw earlier during the attack, very

efficiently releasing her cage to birds. She's like opening the doors on multiple cages and letting the birds fly away. Do do do do do? Hey, folks, if anything sounds different, we just had to take a break in the recording here, but we're back to continue talking about the movie. Yeah, we're the same people we were before the break. Okay, Um, So picking up where we left off, The next thing

is an arrival at a mysterious island. I think this is back Cup uh, And actually it turns out this island is a volcano, and it looks like the volcano is active. There is black smoke pouring out of the top, but the Count assures the Professor the smoke is actually from his factories. Oh good, Uh, So there is an undersea tunnel, we learned, and through the undersea tunnel, the

submarine can access the Count's pirates citadel. So you go through the tunnel and there's a weird fish swimming around, and then you come up and there is a gloomy lagoon and Simon Hart's narration says, are too gass satanic mills spewed clouds of oily black fumes that floated over the caldera like a threat of inevitable eruption. What is it with megalomaniac villains holding up in active volcanoes? Because Minos did it in the Hercules movie. We watched Blowfield

does it in uh the James Bond films. Oh that's yeah, yeah, yeah, and uh certainly I think you only lived twice. Right, that's Donald pleasants as Blowfeld. Um, that's the one where he's got the piranha pit. But anyway, also in this lagoon, uh, the castle of Count art Gas looms over the lagoon, and uh we learned that he is the pirate king of the modern age. So here at the lagoon we

have several arrangements. Simon Hart is kept in a dilapidated shock while the professor is sent to the laboratory to continue his research, and it seems like they've got Simon Hart sort of as backup because he was the professor's assistant. So it's like, hey, if the prop can't get it done, we'll get this young whipper snapper on the case and we'll see if he can, you know, create the super weapon. The shack still looks fabulous though, because it is rendered

in the same style as everything in this film. I love the shock. Yeah. So we see the professor doing science while art of Gas and his cronies look on. There's like a glowing flask and you know, is bubbling with with fog coming out of it and so forth, and the professor says that he is going to discover the secretive matter and then they're like okay, and then

what um. Meanwhile, Jana from the shipwreck she is now working in the professor's lab and she asks him about his experiments and he says there is great energy locked within matter and he is learning how to release it, and that energy could be used to power lights or

heat homes. But ultimately he says he's only interested in unlocking the knowledge how it should be used is quote for technicians and others to decide, again playing with the theme that this this scientist is disavowing all responsibility to consider practical implications. He only wants the raw knowledge. Mean, while they're trying to get Simon Hart to do some

research for him as well. They they want him to do heavier than air flying machines, but he refuses, and at first the professor he's like, you know, the Professor will never do your bidding. He's not going to make a super explosive for you. But then in the narration he remembers, but oh, the Professor is as trusting as a child. He probably will do it now. I think this is somewhat that this is a difference between the professor in the book facing the Flag versus in this movie.

I think in the book the professor is more kind of like bitter and seemingly willing to um to work along with the criminals at least for the time being, and in the movie he's presented more as just like not understanding who these people are, what he's working on, yeah, just so focused on the scientific achievement and the mystery and the challenge of the thing, without thinking really and refusing to really consider the practical applications, especially by a

pirate king. Right, So, uh, Simon Hart figures out what's going on that that the professor is going to build a super weapon obliviously for the pirate king and his band of criminals. It's got to be stopped. So he attempts to warn mankind about this with a note attached to a balloon. And so he like loads up this kind of leather lined flask with a with a handwritten note, attaches it to a hot air I don't know if

it's a hot air balloon. It's a balloon of some kind that he manufactures in his laboratory, and then he launches it off the island and then there's this whole word going out sequence that is so beautiful, like the letters somehow reaches some major metropolitan center, maybe it's supposed to be Paris or something, and then we see it just being like transmitted all over the world, like a message in the bottle that is addressed to the United

Nations and it's promptly delivered. Again, coming back to that theme of like the world responds. Uh, And I've got some thoughts on that in just a minute. But first, uh, there there is a part where uh Simon Hart also tries to get in touch with the professor by attaching a note to a toy vote and sending it across the lagoon to Jana so that maybe she'll deliver it to the professor. Meanwhile, there is a movie night scene

that is absolutely wonderful. So count Arctic Gas and his cronies get some film reels delivered to the island, I think, and it's showing. First of all, there's like a newsreel report that that's letting them know, Hey, by the way, the whole world knows that you're doing experiments on this island now because somebody warned them, and now they are. They're putting soldiers on top of camels riding roller skates to come get you. But funny enough, it doesn't stop

with the news reel. We also get a reel called Sport that is just showing musclemen of the world doing muscle things. And so they're they're just watching various projected reels and then the projector catches on fire. I'm not quite sure why it happens, but it's very funny. Yeah, I found this very amusing. And again this has to be intentional on the part of the filmmaker here, because in this movie and in the context of this film, all manner of technological dreams are possible and achievable and

realized to a very high degree. You know that the air is full of flying machines, space may have flying machines in them, and ships are sailing beneath the waves. Um, all this works very well except for film, which is clearly messy, dangerous, and prone to failure. And I think it's it's interesting and perhaps insightful commentary coming from such an accomplished filmmaker. Um like Carol's Aiman. Yes that I think that subtext may in fact be there. That that's good.

So the next big thing that happens is that Simon Hart gets sent underwater in a diving suit to fix a problem with the cable connecting the island to the outside world. And uh, there's a great moment in the scene where he gets like he gets assigned to this job. I guess he volunteers for it, but he gets assigned this job by Mr Circo, the the scientist who works for Ourt of Gas, the guy with the mutton chops

and the and the glasses and uh. In that scene, Mr Circo is like sitting at a desk in a cave working on some paperwork, and there's a part with this giant steam powered like I don't know what you call, like a crane or a bulldozer type machine hands him a pen. So the dispatcher said, something's wrong with Dina cobble, and so Simon Hart is going to use this and as an excuse to explore the tunnel leading to the outside world, because of course he wants to get out

of there. Once again, we get an absolutely fabulous underwater sort of dive walk sequence that that has a giant octopus or squid attack in it. It's not exactly clear. I want to see squid there. There's a big like ink squirting scene at the end of the fight, but it also kind of looks octopusy. I'm not sure what they're going for here, but there is a there is a cephalopod versus diver squabble. Now is this the scene where he fights it with an axe? I think so, yeah, yeah.

And then when he defeats it, there's like this big ink cloud that billows up from where he chopped it. And this is in the background to the diver, and it's a very I mean, the whole sequence is amazing, but the scene too is just just excellent. The stills

you can you can freeze on, Yeah, really good. And there's one little detail I loved here where uh, Simon Hart has to keep track of how much oxygen he has and and it's running out, so he keeps track of it by looking at a watch, but of course, you know his watch is not gonna work underwater, so he has a watch inside a bottle, yes, like a

cork on top. But then he does run out of oxygen, so as he's trying to escape, his tank runs low, and then he becomes very fatigued, and he lays down on the ocean floor as if maybe to die, and we see some visions he's having or something where the fish are transforming into butterflies underneath the waves. Yeah, this is beautiful, uh and and and very probably even more dream like than than everything already has. But of course

it's you know, a vision he's deprived of oxygen. But yeah, it's like the fish come together and they act like they're doing that sort of you know, fish kiss kind of a thing, which isn't actually a kiss. But but then they keep moving into each other until only their tales are visible, and though each tail forms a wing of the butterfly. I'm not sure if that's uh that is accurately recreating the image in your head, listener, but

you need to see it. It's gorgeous, it's sublime. And then out of nowhere, he has brought on board a submarine and saved just when you think he's going to die. So what's going on here? Well, the crew of the submarine inform him, They say, you were among friends, sir, And we see a newspaper that with a headline that says world powers unite to combat invention for destruction. So

the world got his note and the world responded. And I love something about this, and I think it's worth having a brief sub discussion about this being indicative of an unusual outlook in in a lot in film in general, but one that's more characteristic of Jules Verne. As we were saying earlier, I would contrast this with the exact opposite trope that we often see in horror movies, where

the outside world is anything but helpful. So if you are in a horror movie and you're running from anything Wherewolf Jason vorhees whatever, and you run into anything representing structures of authority on the outside, you run into a cop. Is that cop going to be able to help you? No? Obviously not. Never happens. I mean of the time, it does not happen in a horror movie. No external authorities, institutions, or people in general are going to be of assistance.

You are on your own in escaping or defeat being the monster. And in fact, if the world finds out about your situation, they will often make things harder for you. They will they'll say like, oh, you're crazy. You know, you're lying about what's going on. They'll try to blame you for what's happening. But this is a totally different

vision the world. Here's about this ongoing tragedy. And the world responds they like put the scientific and technological machinery of the entire planet into overdrive to develop submarines to go confront ourt to Gas to stop him from creating a super weapon. Yeah, this is it is interesting to think about this because you can you can almost go

like movie to movie. Um. Yeah, and of course you can look to to really crucial examples of this trope of the world outside world and outside authority being unable to help. I guess Psycho being a very influential example of that. Uh that the your your rescuer is not going to be able to save you, yum, and then you're gonna and and so. So it's often like a situation of Okay, this movie is to some degree saying like this part of society is unable to help with

this scenario. But then who is the person who can

or is there someone who can at all? And then sometimes films kind of buck that a bit, like I instantly think of an American Werewolf in London, where um, ultimately that's that's a movie that kind of maybe is a little retro in the way you're act you actually deal with the creature at the end, because I believe the authority shoot it in Mali, if I remember correctly, which kind of feels like a throwback in that regard, but also is kind of subverting the idea that a

problem of this magnitude is something that we can handle on our own. Well, yes, But also I would say in the cases of horror movies where like say the cops shoot the monster or something. Almost all of those that I can think of. It's actually kind of a tragic story where the monster is someone that is like, actually is the main character, or is a character you feel pity for. That's right, I mean, that's the actually

the case of American Werewolf. We'll have to keep this in our heads because I'm sure some some some exceptions and other notable examples will come to mind. I know there's got to be at least some awkward horror film out there from perhaps the nineteen fifties, in which the police show up and nobly shoot at a monster to death for which you have no feelings or a sympathy. Oh well, you know, I mean it certainly, haven I think there are a lot of fifties movies like that.

It didn't Tarantula basically in that way. Oh yeah, Tarantula basically, yeah, you don't. We don't feel anything for the tarantula. And they were just like, yep, the military's here. Clint Easwood just flew in in a jet. It's taking care of yeah. Anyway, So to come back to the plot, so this submarine sent by the world is is attacked. However, there's a submarine battle and the Count's submarine skewers, it pokes a big hole in the side, and then, uh, basically I

think everyone inside parishes except Simon Hart. He survives and he comes ashore, and from there he climbs a tower inside the goon and comes into Janna's window, and so here Simon Hart and Yanna become a team. They team up, and Simon reveals to her that the men who saved her life are not actually so nice. Uh. They saved her life when her ship sank, but they were also the very people who sank it. And now they are planning something even more diabolical and evil crime of global proportions,

and only the Professor can stop it. So they're going to team up to try to get to the Professor to make him not create the what's the flu Fu flu Glorator or whatever it is. In the subtitles of the movie, they were calling it the super Gun. There's a supergun filled with the Professor's new explosive. I guess it might be were too loosely think of this as atomic weaponry, right, And they reveal the new soldiers of the Count's Super Gun Army, which they look quite terrifying.

They're wearing these dark suits and gas masks, and they are loaded down with so much technology that they look like Jacob Marley, like wrapped round and round with chains and metal boxes. So when they walk through the rooms, they're kind of clanking and dragging all of this equipment with them. Yeah, they're kind of like verns in Stormtroopers or something. Yeah, and uh so what's going to happen here? Well, uh, Simon Hart and Yanna have an idea. They do a

classic James Bond style uniform swipes. So they beat up a couple of the Supergun Army soldiers, they steal their outfits and they use that to sneak on board the the Count's air balloon, which I think the Hot air Balloon was supposed to be used to drop bombs on the ships that are coming to rescue them. I think that's right. Yes. Anyway, everything comes down to a big fight at the island. The warships are incoming, the world

is coming to the rescue. The Count's forces are getting ready to attack via Supergun and via the Hot air Balloon, but of course our heroes steal the Hot air balloon um in the battle. This is the scene where the Count is shooting at the hot air balloon with like a musket pistol that is also a wind up machine gun. Yes, yes, that was fabulous. And at the very last the Professor realizes what is happening. He comes to his senses and he's like, oh, the people I'm working for are the

bad guys. And so he sabotages his own invention by causing an explosive shell to fall off a cliff. It detonates, it destroys the entire island, including himself, the Count, all of the Count's cronies and his armies and uh and Simon, Hard and Yanna escape in the hot air balloon and they sort of float off, almost float into the sun. Oh. And one of the last things we get when the island explodes as we see a top hat going sky high.

Nice the top hat came back. Um. This this whole scene with the Professor having a change of heart and realizing, you know, what he has wrought and to a certain degree kind of like being like, oops, I almost became death of his way of worlds. Maybe I shouldn't do that, um,

and trying to decide to take a step backwards. Um, it's it's really well executed though, Like it's it's nicely framed and shot with him approaching the weapon, climbing up on the weapon and then you know, Knox this uh uh you know, atomic shell off and lets it roll down to to destroy everything. But yeah, it's it's really it's really well done. It's a dramatic moment um that it's easy. That's one of the things that it works.

So that's so impressive about this film is that it can be so you know, kind of silly and dream like and whimsical and so many of its visuals, and yet it still can deliver some really great moments that have a sense of drama and spectacle to them, like this moment, the slaying of the squid, and other moments throughout the film. Absolutely, and I also love the professor's realization at the end, connecting to the theme of what he's been talking about the entire time, with the knowledge

versus the practical application. I think his final moment is he he realizes the only good practical application of his invention is to destroy itself, is to erase itself from existence so it cannot be used. Yeah, and then like you said, they balloon off into the sun, like to the point where my son walked in for the last ten minutes of this film when I was watching it yesterday and he's like, oh, now they're going into the sun, and um, maybe he's been exposed too much ms tap,

but um I thought. I was like, no, no, don't say that, don't ruin the nice moment. But then I'm like, yeah, it does kind of look like they're going into the sun. Well that that is what it looks like, but I don't know, I kind of like that. I mean it symbolically, Yeah, the ideas that they are going into the light. Yeah, yeah, into into the future, into a better tomorrow. It's a

lot like the ending of Congo. Actually, yes, except there's there's uh well no, no, the guerrilla wasn't on board the balloon and Congo either, so yeah, the gorilla stays behind too. Yeah, but they don't have Ernie Hudson. That's really the only difference. If this film had Ernie Hudson in it, it would basically be identical. God, I love Ernie. Yeah he's so good. Okay. One difference that I was reading about between Invention for Destruction in the movie and

the novel Facing the Flag. They both have a professor who creates a super weapon, is kidnapped by a pirate king, and you know, goes through all this. But apparently in the end of the novel Facing the Flag, the professor initially allows his supergun, the full Garad or whatever, to be used against a British warship that is coming to the rescue of of his associates, and so, yeah, they're they're turning the weapon on the British and he's like rock.

But when he sees a French warship approaching and sees the French flag, his sense of patriotism because he is French makes him makes him question his actions. And then he has overcome with guilt and he says, I can't turn this on a French ship. And so then he, I guess distry roys his own creation or something like that,

turns against he no longer cooperates in some way. Um, and I think that is a that is a far less grand and less beautiful ending that I like the change they made for the for the movie, Yeah, I

think so. I think it ultimately is a lot more compelling and relatable because we have a have an individual who is kind of oblivious to the impact of what they're doing or how they view the world, and then there is a revelation that like, no, no, this what I'm doing does matter, what I'm not doing doesn't matter.

And I feel like that's something that even the average person can relate to, you know, waking up to your own role in something or place in something, or or you know, or to realize that that not having having an opinion and not acting that inaction is like making a choice. Yeah. Yeah, So in the end, I'd say Invention for Destruction one of my favorite movies we've done. Uh, beautiful, truly a work of art and surprisingly profound for a

little sci fi adventure story. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Um, it's kind of like like I was telling you before we recorded, sometimes you view a film and you feel like it's just a purely additive experience, Like that's great. I've seen another film that was a lot of fun or very enjoyable, very admirable, you know, even a great film. Uh, this is the kind of film where once you see it, you realize that you're not just it's not just additive, You're filling in something that was missing in your your

appreciation of cinema. Yeah, yeah, so you know, three stars kidding, I don't, I don't get stars. It's almost as good as Laser Blast. Yeah, no, no, it's it's a lot of fun. Yeah again, high highly recommend this one. All Right, We're gonna gohea and close the books here on Invention for Destruction, but we'd love to hear from everyone out there. If you have thoughts on this film, you have, if

you have a history with this film, etcetera. Right in in the meantime, if you want to keep track of all the other films, the the one hundred other films that we've covered on Weird House Cinema, you can find them all at our letterbox page. That's l E T T E R B o x d dot com. We have a profile there it's weird House and if you go there you'll find a list of all these films with a link story. You can listen to the episodes if you haven't listened to the episode already, huge thanks

to our audio producer J. J. Pauseway. If you would like to get in touch with us with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest a topic for the future, or just to say hello, you can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow Your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind. It's production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.