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Late 19th or early 20th century: Famous American detective Nick Carter
(Michal
Docolomanský) on a missing person case ... only to find out
the missing person is not actually a person but a Countess's (Kveta
Fialová) dog - a bit of a disappointment at first, until he
finds out the dog has actually been eaten by a carnivourous plant. But
when he wants to examine the plant, it is stolen ... During his
investigations, Carter stumbles upon famed botanist Bocek (Ladislav Pesek)
and his lovely assistant/granddaughter Kvetuska (Nada Konvalinková), and
through them he first learns about baron Kratzmar (Milos Kopecký), a man
he recognizes to be his arch enemy The Gardener - whom he thought dead,
actually. After much to and fro which also involves the Countess's maid
(Olga Schoberová), who doubles as a nightclub dancer and triples as one
of Kratzmar's agents, Carter finds out that Kratzmar is actually out to
kill professor Bocek and plans to sell his daughter into prostitution -
because the professor dared to give him bad grades in of all things botany
in his schooldays. Kratzmar also wants to capture Carter, but Carter has
anticipated this, so he has his beer-guzzling sidekick commissar Ledvina (Rudolf
Hrusínský) disguise as himself to be captured by Kratzmar's
henchmen, while he uses every invention at his disposal (including a
flying apparatus) to sneak into Kratzmar's mansion. Bocek and his
granddaughter visit Kratzmar for tea, and he impresses them with the
things his plants can do - before rendering Kvetuska unconscious with
knock out drops and then preparing to feed the professor to the plant -
when Carter rushes to the rescue. After an extended chase, Kratzmar
manages to get away by hot air balloon though - only to be ultimately shot
down a few days later by Ledvina since he had no idea on how to land the
thing. And Carter, of course, gets the girl, Kvetuska - or he would get
her if duty wouldn't call him off to Egypt ... Czech fantastic
cinema at maybe not its best but its most typical: It's full of whimsical
inventions and out-of-the-ordinary special effects, has a charming
retro-futuristic (or as we're now supposed to call it: steampunk) feel to
it, there's plenty of irony and macabre humour, and it perfectly spoofs
many a pulp mainstay.This all makes the movie heaps of fun, but too
light-footed a direction and a lead cast that lacks a certain charisma
keep it from being the masterpiece it would have deserved to be. Still,
totally recommended for everyone who wants to see something out of the
ordinary!
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