Qui veut tuer Jessie?

In 1960's America, millions tuned in to the 'BIFF!' 'BAM!' 'POW!' action of the Batman television series. But this 'pop art' phenomenon was not limited to the North American shores. A continent away, another comic book hero, or in this case heroine, was quite literally springing to life in the Czech film 'Who Wants to Kill Jessie?'.

'Who Wants to Kill Jessie?' is a nonsensical film, which begins with a fantastical premise and then madly and unapologetically dashes from one ridiculous situation to another. Which, in the case of a film of this type, is not necessarily a bad thing.

Dana Medrická as Dr. Rose Beránková is the catalyst for all events in the film. Dr. Beránková has just invented a serum that allows dreams to be altered so that undesirable elements can be removed. The effectiveness of this invention can be tested via a dream scanner which allows observers to monitor a person's drams on a TV screen. This remarkable device is seemingly so commonplace that the good doctor keeps one next to her own bed.

The trouble begins when the jealous Rose catches her husband, Henry (Jirí Sovák) dreaming about the gorgeous blonde comic book heroine, Jessie, though in fact he is dreaming about her anti-gravity gloves, and decides to eliminate her dream girl rival by injecting Henry with the new serum.

The next morning however, Rose discovers that subjects removed from dreams, rather simply disappearing, are brought into the real world, and now not only Jessie (the beautiful Olga Schoberová) but her two adversaries, an evil cowboy and a villainous superman, have come to life. Jessie quickly escapes her two foes and begins to track Henry to the University where he is lecturing, pursued by the destructive superman and cowboy, who are in turn being pursued by the police.

When the police finally catch up with the dream trio, Henry is arrested as well. Rose is perfectly willing to let her husband take the blame for the whole mess, testifying at his trial that if he had dreamed about his wife instead of Jessie, none of this would have happened. In the end, while Rose plots a way to dispose of the dream characters, it is up to an imprisoned Henry to save the day, by actually creating the anti-gravity gloves from the comic book.

Interestingly, the film's two comic book villains are not really very evil. They are greedy and destructive, but not cruel or vicious. While the Cowboy is constantly threatening people with his six shooter, he never actually shoots anyone. No one is hurt and no one is killed. Likely this is because these manifestations are not the villains from the Jessie comic, but Henry's interpretation of them from his dreams. Since Henry's dreams are not violent, neither are the realized dream villains. In the same way, while the comic book Jessie has never heard of Henry, the dream Jessie is attracted to him and so the manifested Jessie professes her love for him – which does nothing to improve Henry's standing with Rose.

The closest thing to a true villain the film has is Rose. It is her petty jealously that leads her to first create the problem, then allow her befuddled husband to be jailed for it, and finally to attempt, futilely, to destroy the dream people in quite horrible and savage ways. The viciousness of Rose's actions is muted only by the film's consistently light tone, and the fact that her attempts are completely ineffectual against the seemingly indestructible manifestations.

Undoubtedly the most remarkable thing about this film is that it exists at all. While comic book style films were all the rage in Italy, France and America, in the 1960's Czechoslovakia was still an Iron Curtain country, albeit one experiencing a period of cultural freedom. A film as utterly and delightfully frivolous as 'Who Wants to Kill Jessie?' is as a bold departure from the popular stereotype of the bleak, somber, pathos drenched film of the Soviet Bloc era as one could imagine. This is a film that has no political agenda, aside from a very few light jabs at rigid bureaucracy, tosses away logic and simply delights in being silly.

Long a difficult film to see, usually available for viewing only at film festivals, 'Who Wants to Kill Jessie?' has at last been released on DVD in a very nice 2.35:1 widescreen edition by Centrum Video in Europe, complete with English subtitles. The bonus features, including an interview with writer/director Václav Vorlícek, are unfortunately in Czech only with no English subtitling.

Part of a Czech film festival travelling around North America in 2003, WHO KILLED JESSI? (on screen title - WHO WANTS TO KILL JESSI?) is a charming SF Fantasy that is too little seen. Seek it out if you can.

Certainly, some of the "Eastern Bloc" humor of the piece is both dated and obscure for Western audiences, but this isn't the kind of turgid Pro-Communist tract that scare away many. No, JESSI was part of the brief Czech artistic freedom era that produced Milos Forman among others.

All that stated, JESSI stands as one of the most successful fusions of Comic Books and Cinema ever. Similar in some ways to THE PROJECTIONIST, JESSI is about a man's comic book dreams becoming a reality thru a serum invented by his wife. The heroine of the comic, JESSI, fleshed out (literally!) by the gorgeous Olga Schoberová (her looks alone should end all the jokes about babushkas named Olga!), is chased by two...uh...Terminators. The Terminators are comic book stereotypes - a "Superman" and a Cowboy.

Before Jane Fonda/BARBARELLA, Lynda Carter/WONDER WOMAN or the TV & Film trios of CHARLIE'S ANGELS - there was JESSI! Jessi looks great, wears the sexiest of clothes, eludes her would-be captors, and sports a super-strength pair of Gloves! Much charm and genuine wit develop as the trio of comic book characters invade the "real world" - complete with Comic Book Dialogue Balloons instead of actual speech! To give away too many particulars might spoil the fun of this brief 80 minute fantasy. There are the requisite mildly anti-government jibes (in particular, a police guard who doggedly guards his post - a sewer opening!), some disarmingly simple Special Effects and every Comic Book geek's fantasy ending.

A discovery waiting to happen!

One of the first movies to cleverly mingle pulp fiction characters with real life persona.Olga, looking specially naive and sexy, added a spicy flavour that would make it quite watchable 30 years later. Though it was usually shown at classical Czech movie festival, I guess by now it is listed among the long lost pictures of the past.I would give an arm to see it again today.

I believe that Who Wants to Kill Jessie? may be the only Czechoslovakian comedy/sci-fi/fantasy film I've ever seen. Who am I kidding - of course it is. And to my surprise and delight, it's a winner. In the film, a research scientist, Dr Ruzenka Berankova, has developed a drug that can alter dreams. The unknown side effect is that the dreams can leave the subject's mind and end up in our reality. In this case, Ruzenka's husband, Dr Jindrich Beranek, has been dreaming about antigravity gloves that could help with a research problem he's been having. In his dream, however, the gloves are owned by a gorgeous blond woman, Jessie. In the dream, she's being chased by a Superman-like character and a cowboy who also want the gloves. Jindrich takes Ruzenka's drug and, viola, he wakes up to find Jessie in his bed with the two goons hot on her heels. Much hilarity ensues.

What an incredibly odd, absurd, and completely whacked-out film that somehow manages to work. This is screwball comedy at its finest. And unlike a lot of the other European comedies I've seen that I really can't stand, Who Wants to Kill Jessie? remains consistently funny from start to finish. The acting is much better than I expected. The married scientists at the center of things, played by Dana Medricka and Jiri Sovak, are very good. I'm not surprised to see that both had long careers. Jessie is played by Olga Schoberova. She fits the part of the dreamy (pun intended) Jessie perfectly. Finally, I appreciate the way the movie blends the comic-book style dreams with real life. I really got a kick out of the fact that the dream characters are silent, relying on speech clouds to get their thoughts across. The funny bit is the way the other characters interact with the speech clouds. Really clever stuff.

If I were a much smarter person, I'm sure I could write at length on the underlying anti-communist messages found in Who Wants to Kill Jessie? Because I'm not that smart, I'll just say that it wasn't lost on me. The idea that you can do what you want to someone, but you can't take away their dreams was loud and clear.

8/10

One of the first "pop" 60s movies to appropriate comic-strip imagery (including dialogue balloons), "Who Killed Jessie?"--a ruse, since nobody kills her--is a buoyant, sometimes bawdy exercise in fantasy farce. Two dully married, middle-aged scientists create havoc when her experimental device releases figures from his dreams into the real world. Thus a musclebound superman, bodacious damsel-in-distress and laconic cowboy are suddenly running around Prague, wreaking havoc with their indestructible nature and archetypical fantasy behaviors. It's a hilarious novelty-a sci-fi screwball comedy.