Soda Pop Joe (Blu-ray) ***Preorder*** 1/12

Originally released as LEMONADE JOE, Czech director Oldřich Lipský's delightful musical spoof of all things Western pre-dated BLAZING SADDLES

SODA POP JOE (LIMONÁDOVÝ JOE ANEB KOŇSKÁ OPERA) - 1964, NFA, 100 min. A decade before BLAZING SADDLES, there was ... SODA POP JOE! Originally released here as LEMONADE JOE, the film opens in Stetson City, 1885, a booze-soaked town where musical artiste Tornado Lou (Květa Fialová) belts out Marlene Dietrich-like tearjerkers. Her dream appears in the form of spotlessly clean Soda Pop Joe (Karel Fiala), who turns out to be a traveling sales rep for Kolaloka Soda (an entertaining pun meaning "a sip of Cola"), which he relentlessly hawks in the film's barbed satire of Western consumerism. (His rendition - dubbed by Karel Gott, one of the pop-stars of the era - of "Smith & Wessons on my hip / Nothing else comes near my lips ... Kolaloka!" is one of the film's many musical gems.) Czech director Oldřich Lipský's delightful spoof of all things Western and the dominance of corporate brands was the first of three comedies he made with writer Jiří Brdečka, followed by ADELA HAS NOT HAD SUPPER YET and MYSTERIOUS CASTLE IN THE CARPATHIANS. Co-starring Lipský's frequent collaborators Olga Schoberová (WHO WANTS TO KILL JESSIE?) as a pure-hearted crusader for teetotaling and Miloš Kopecký as trickster villain Hogo Fogo. Filled with nonstop visual puns and sight gags, and an almost Karel Zeman-like Gothic / fantastic touch, the film has been gorgeously restored in 4K by the Národni filmový archiv, Prague. In Czech with English subtitles.

Bonus Materials

• New restoration by by the Národni filmový archiv, Prague
• Four rare short films: My Darling Clementine (1959), Song of the Prairie (1949), The Face (1973) and Reason & Emotion (1962)
• 48-page booklet featuring essays by film historian Jonathan Owen and film critic Walter Chaw.
• -- New commentary by film critic and screenwriter Tereza Brdečková and Czech film expert Irena Kovarova of Comeback Company.
• -- New visual essay “Soda Pop Joe: The Gospel of the Brand” (2026, 13 min.) by experimental filmmaker and film scholar Stephen Broomer.
• New artwork by Beth Morris.