A Czech Comic Book Movie The Likes Of Which You’ve Never Seen Before: ‘Who Wants To Kill Jessie?” Reviewed

Calling a film a comic book movie today has very specific connotations. We’re talking tent pole, blockbuster, nine times out of ten Marvel or DC franchise movies … none of which describes Václav Vorlíček’s Who Wants to Kill Jessie?. Rather, Who Wants to Kill Jessie? is more in line with the ’60s Batman school of live action comedy, with a visual style directly inspired by comic strips down to the film’s commitment to having characters “speak” using speech bubbles instead of dialogue.

Essentially the film asks what would happen if comic book characters appeared in real life and had to interact with regular people. This is achieved in Who Wants to Kill Jessie? by a dream serum invented by female scientist, Růženka (Dana Medřická). Her aim wasn’t to bring comic book characters to life of course. That’s an unexpected consequence of her testing the drug out on her husband, fellow scientist Jindřich (Jiří Sovák), but it turns out when you alter someone’s dreams whatever gets changed appears in real life (the whole “law of conservation of mass” business – matter can’t be created or destroyed, only changed).

Take for instance a cow having a nightmare about flies (which is the actual example used in the film). One shot of Růženka’s serum and the cow is having peaceful, fly-less dreams, but there’s also a swarm of flies in the lab where the cow was tested. Coincidence? Likely story. Still, when Růženka gives her husband a dose of the serum (having not yet learned of this side effect), the comic book characters he’s been dreaming about show up in their apartment unexpectedly. It’s a recipe for chaos and I haven’t even mentioned the anti-gravitational gloves which are the whole reason Jindřich was dreaming about Jessie in the first place. He wants to make the gloves and Jessie’s comic strip is the inspiration (because it turns out even scientific journals have a comic page)

Viewers are first introduced to Jessie (Olga Schoberová) and her antagonists, “Superman” (Juraj Višný) and the Cowboy (Karel Effa), during the film’s opening titles. Drawn by comic book artist Kája Saudek, Jessie is shown in a number of perilous situations while dressed like Jane from Tarzan or Barbarella. If the tattered fabric looks like it might rip or slip off at any moment that’s because it’s supposed to be skimpy but Jessie’s not just a pretty face – she’s also an inventor but because, like Barbarella, she’s also beautiful her intelligence is supposed to come as a surprise.

When the film switches gears and introduces married scientists, Jindřich and Růženka, the opening titles almost feel like a tease, promising wackiness only to deliver people in lab coats being serious. Vorlíček originally wanted to make the movie in color and that might’ve helped sell the tone right away instead of taking the chance of the film being confused for a high-minded drama. As Michael Brooke goes over in his video essay, however, filming in color would’ve meant sacrificing some of the special effects (namely the speech bubbles which Jessie and her antagonists use to communicate) and they’re what set this movie apart and make it feel like a literal comic book strip come to life.

In any case, it doesn’t take long for the antics to start and the film to become the slapstick romp it wants to be, but if you do take a chance on this movie and find it gets off to a slow start, please stick it out. Time is precious and sometimes it’s easy to make quick calls when it comes to movies and I definitely had a moment where I thought “Is this going to be more conventional than I thought it was going to be?”, and then, “Will the zaniness be contained to the dream sequences?” But I needn’t have worried. Višný, as “Superman”, particularly has a lot of fun with the He-Man antics, as his character thinks nothing of causing property damage (Višný was a bodybuilder and only has one other credit on IMDB). The choice to have these prototypical American hero characters in “Superman” and the Cowboy and make them the bad guys of the movie is endlessly fascinating, especially as this film hails from Czechoslovakia/Eastern Europe.

Second Run’s Blu-ray comes with an episode of The Projection Booth podcast that’s treated as a commentary. Featuring host Mike White and special guests Jim Laczkowski (The Director’s Club podcast) and Jonathan Owens (who also wrote the booklet essay), the runtime is a little shorter than the actual film because it wasn’t recorded for this release but includes many great observations. I especially appreciated their discussion of the double standards at play with Jindřich and Růženka and male versus female fantasy fulfillment. They also bring up how the Cowboy gets shortchanged by Vorlíček and Miloš Macourek‘s screenplay (though I will say he gets one of my favorite sight gags when he’s knocked against a chalkboard while fighting some students).

Michael Brooke‘s visual essay, “Those Crazy Czechs” is a brilliant overview of Czech bláznivé komedies, or “crazy comedies” that simultaneously works as a wish list for future Second Run releases. There’s also an earlier short film by Vorlíček that’s included.

Who Wants to Kill Jessie? is available on all-region Blu-ray from Second Run.