1977 comedy
Rating: 15/20
Plot: Nazis use time travel to try to give Hitler an atomic bomb. It’s up to one man who pilots for a time travel tourism company to stop them and try his best to have a normal day.
Oh yeah, you know you’re digging deep for a Time Travel Movie Fest when you start watching 70’s Czechoslovakian sci-fi comedies. This is a clever little twist on the should-we-go-back-in-time-and-kill-Hitler moral dilemma that real time travelers are faced with. In this, the characters are going back in time to help Hitler which, of course, would create your usual paradoxes. But whatever because it’s all in good fun. The budget doesn’t allow for much, and the special effects are what you’d expect in a 50’s B-movie. There’s a rocket shippy time-travel vehicle, and there’s some sort of mace used that freezes people and turns their skin green. I got a kick out of that actually, and there’s a fun bit of physical comedy involving one poor guy who had that happen to him.
I was impressed with the lead actor–Petr Kostka. He plays dual-roles as twins, and really nails the different personalities–one, a regular Joe and the other a womanizing drunk–to create two different characters. a caricature or slapstick at all. Instead, they use loops of actual footage of Hitler during the opening credits to make him look ridiculous all on his own. If you’ve ever wanted to see Nazis marching backward or Hitler seemingly dancing to disco music, this is probably your best chance.
Hitler, with somebody checking out Hitler’s posterior in the background
The music in this gets pretty goofy, and there are some parts that drag a little bit. But the movie’s pretty clever, and some of the humor works. My favorite bit is a poke at America with some time travel tourists wanting to take a late-70’s equivalent of a selfie with the fuhrer.
