Stolen Airship, The
Entry updated 13 October 2022. Tagged: Film.
Czechoslovakian live-action and animated film (1967; original title Ukradená vzducholod). Filmové Studio Barrandov, Filmové Studio Gottwaldov. Directed by Karel Zeman. Written by Radovan Krátky and Karel Zeman, based on the Jules Verne novels The Mysterious Island (1874-1875 2vols) and Two Years' Vacation (1889). Cast includes Hanus Bor, Jan Cizek, Jan Malát, Michal Pospisil, Cestmir Randa, Josef Stráník and Václav Svec. 85 minutes. Colour.
At the 1891 Jubilee Exhibition in Prague, which includes an airshow and carnival (one exhibit combines the two, with can-can dancers carried by a Balloon), five boys (Bor, Cizek, Pospisil, Malát, Stráník) get into a series of scrapes, including assaulting a policeman, so hijack a small Airship. Fortunately, the owner, businessman Findey (Randa), has a supply of food and drink aboard; unfortunately, he also claims his airship uses a non-inflammable gas (Invention), details of which are supposedly held in a box on board. Such a gas would be of great benefit to the military, so the theft is seen as an act of espionage. The boys are pursued by an army airship, whose gondola is a rowing boat with wing-like paddles and a cannon at the front – but they evade it, travelling across the countryside, eventually reaching the sea.
The film cuts between the boys' adventures and comic events in Prague, where the boys are put on trial in their absence: their families worry, the press sensationalizes, generals meet and a secret agent – whose boss is a uniformed skeleton – investigates the situation. The agent uses props, including a realistic face mask, rather conspicuous listening devices, mechanical arms and a car with horse's legs.
After a storm, during which the box is dropped into the sea, the airship crashes on an Island and explodes in flames. The boys discover Captain Nemo's Underground lair, where one of the boys writes a letter to his parents, puts it in a bottle and throws it out to sea: shortly after fishermen cut open a shark, finding the bottle. The letter is sent to the army, who assume it is in code (see Paranoia) and despatch battleships and airships to the island. Meanwhile, the boys build a pedal-powered glider from the remnants of the airship, one of them flying off to get help – with some help from Nemo (Svek). Nearby, mutineers take over a ship: a young woman passenger escapes to the island, and with the help of the remaining boys, retakes the vessel. They retrieve her father's luggage, also swallowed by a shark, succeeding on the second attempt; on the first they had found Findey's box. The battleships now arrive and matters are cleared up, with the military discovering the box does not after all contain the gas formula: Findey is a fraud, profiteering from the promise of a non-inflammable gas by selling shares in his company.
The Stolen Airship is loosely based on Jules Verne's novels The Mysterious Island (1874-1875 2vols) and Two Years' Vacation (1889). It is a lively family film, having adventure and japes for the children; Satire of bourgeois and military pomposity for the parents; plus Absurdity and slapstick Humour for both. Much pleasure also comes from the fluctuating artistic styles: a mixture of live action and animation, it shifts between sepia and tinted muted colours, with occasional scenes stained in one colour. Many animation techniques are used, with landscapes often surreally animated or resembling illustrations from nineteenth-century novels. There are also art nouveau and what would now be called Steampunk elements.
Karel Zeman (1910-1989) was an influential director and animator, garnering praise from the likes of Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Ray Harryhausen and Jan Švankmajer. He also filmed Verne's Hector Servadac (1877; vt Off on a Comet) as Na Kometě (1970; vt On the Comet), whilst his A Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955) was strongly influenced by Verne. [SP]
see also: Czech and Slovak SF.
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