Invention for Destruction (1958) on Netflix
NR19581h 23mAdventureAnimationFantasy
Pirates working for Count Artigas carry off Professor Roche to build a super-bomb for him. Šimon Hart, a reporter, and Jana, a girl rescued from the sea, set out to warn him.
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- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.5/103,211 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Professor Roche studies the nature of pure matter, and the industrial age is closing around him. Pirates in the service of Count Artigas seize the professor and his assistant and carry them off to build a super-bomb, a weapon more deadly than any that has come before. The count, a would-be dictator, wants it for his plan to dominate the world. Šimon Hart, a young reporter, and Jana, a girl pulled from the sea, are caught up in the same kidnapping, and both set out to warn Roche of what the man holding him means to do with the weapon.
Cast
- Arnošt Navrátilas Profesor Roche
- František Šlégras Pirate Captain
- Václav Kyzlinkas Ing. Serke
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Invention for Destruction (1958)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- To get the look of Victorian engravings, Karel Zeman's crew made and used hard rubber paint rollers to add engraving-like hatching directly to the scenery and costumes, so much of the effect was created in-camera through the production design.
- The science fiction writer John C. Wright, writing in 2011, called Vynález zkázy the first steampunk work and Karel Zeman the inventor of that genre, saying that if the film is not the genre's steam-powered holy grail, it ought to be.
- To match the stylized visuals, Karel Zeman made his actors move in a decorously unnatural way, saying his heroes were not even allowed to sneeze or scratch their heads and had to adapt themselves completely to their unreal surroundings.
- The film's love theme is apparently based on the song "Tit-willow" from the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera The Mikado, and is played by woodwinds and a muted harpsichord.
