Kip Williams on Vynález Zkázy a.k.a. The Fabulous World Of Jules Verne + Lemonade Joe

I got the Jules Verne pic from YouTube, and about half of another (because it was broken up in around ten parts, and they weren't all up when I found them). I'll also recommend LEMONADE JOE(LIMONADOVY JOE), a musical Western/satire on capitalism from about 1967. My sister and I (and a friend we met some time after) watched this in amazement on Denver's channel 7. Host Starr Yelland was somewhat bemused when he introduced it, because it was that rare thing, a movie that listeners had called in and asked to see again. For years after, I watched for it to come back, looking at the TV listings (particularly after getting a VCR) week after week, to no avail.

Finally, on a 2004 trip out to Colorado, I was told by the aforementioned friend that he'd finally found a VHS of the movie at the library in town, and we all watched it together. I ordered it from FACETS (the first copy was damaged, so I had to wait even longer) and have since enjoyed it many times. There are, I think, a couple of different versions at YouTube, fortunately with subtitles. It's a steady burst of creativity, western types, songs, and some jokes that are marvelously subtle. I'll gladly go on at greater length.

Besides the VHS, I've seen DVDs online, but all the copy was in Czech (I'm presuming), and the "buy" link didn't do anything when I clicked on it. The actor who plays the villainous Hogofogo is outstanding, and Karel Fiala, who plays Joe, can be seen in the director's cut of AMADEUS (onstage in Don Giovanni, I believe). Tornado Lou seems to have been his wife — at least her last name seems to be the feminine form of Fiala — and Olga Schoberova (Winnifred) was on the cover of PLAYBOY in the 60s.

My favorite musical parts are the title number, with lyrics in English and Spanish and something else. "So far to you I may / For tonight, me to say..." and the low-down Piano Tuner's Blues, with a hot New Orleans-type funeral that may have been cut from the TV version we all watched forty years ago. The minor roles all seem to be wonderfully cast. The movie looks and sounds great.