Who Wants to Kill Jessie?

1966 Czech sci-fi comedy

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A married pair of scientist find themselves in some trouble when the wife's dream experiments unleash her husband's dream characters into the world.

Czech sci-fi comedy is where it's at! This was recommended by Eric. Last year, I made it a goal to watch more movies from Czechoslovakia because they usually hit my sweet spot. They're usually so imaginative and fun. I think I watched somewhere around five. So that wasn't good. I don't remember seeing any that showed us both a glimpse of a cow's dream and a child urinating on a superhero dream character as he tried to climb out of a sewer.

There's a lot of creativity here as three dream characters--the fetching Jessie who I just couldn't stop leering at like I was also some sort of comic book villain, a cowboy villain, and some sort of caped strong man villain--pop into the real world. There's chaotic destruction, but they also take time to play a piano or, in my favorite recurring reference, drink a baby's milk. This reminded me of the Batman television show that came out at around the same time. It didn't have the onomatopoeic effects, but the dream characters did communicate via talking bubbles that were hilariously swiped or shot away and in one instance even turned so that other characters could see what was being said. I liked how the husband character always had to look up to see what Jessie was saying since it couldn't be heard.

There are all sorts of fun throwaway moments that keep things wacky, but I wonder if there's a subversive message to the whole thing, something about a "freedom from dreams" or the obligation we have regarding our dreams. I'd like to know what a feminist would have to say about where the husband and wife end up by the end of this.

I don't know this director--Vaclav Vorlicek--at all, but he's apparently still working at the age of 80-something. Maybe I'll Czech out more of his work soon.