Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea (1977) User Reviews

Still fun after all these years

[prd-10 · 8/10 · 16 February 2008]

Like many people here, I first saw this film when the BBC showed it back in the eighties. It also turned up at an SF convention in England in the early nineties when one of their guests was Josef Nesvadba who wrote the original story. Then last year I found out it was available on DVD in the Czech Republic and found someone who knew someone that was going there for Christmas. I saw it again last night, and it is still fun.

The special effects might not be very special, but it handles the time paradoxes very well, in a way that appeals to me as a fan primarily of written SF. The scenes in the corridors of the time travel company where the tour guides are all done up in historical costumes are hilarious. The best time travel farce I've ever seen.

Incidentally, Josef Nesvadba died in 2005. Isn't about time his date of death was added to his page?

Light-hearted and exuberant sci-fi comedy with a cutting comment about society

[jennyhor2004 · 7/10 · 2 February 2012]

One of a number of comic science fiction films made in the old Czechoslovkia in the 1960s – 70s, this film by the maker of "Ikarie XB-1″ (a famous but more serious sci-fi film of a space migration) revolves around time travel and a set of identical twins, and what happens when you mix the two together and throw away a time-synchronisation equivalent of a GPS system. Sight gags and sci-fi slapstick make for a light-hearted film about a topic and themes that in the West would either call for a more po-faced, serious drama treatment or just wouldn't be done at all. Though the plot becomes more bizarre as the film progresses, the pace is not so fast that viewers, even Western viewers with no knowledge of Czech – I saw this film without English sub-titles – can follow the shenanigans of central character Jan (Petr Kostka) as he goes back and forth in time to thwart a dastardly plot to give Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany a hydrogen bomb from the future.

Kostka plays identical twins Jan and Karel: Karel is a spaceship pilot who's also a womaniser and a drunk, Jan is his more sober and straight-laced brother. Karel gets a call to take some tourists on a trip to the past but before he can go to the port, he chokes on breakfast and dies. Jan has enough time to get his brother off to the morgue and into his uniform to impersonate him. Once aboard the ship, three of the tourists – they're actually ageing Nazi crooks in disguise – hijack the craft and take it back to Berlin in 1941. There they greet Adolf Hitler and present him with the case containing the bomb – but it turns out they picked up the wrong case and it's full of clothes. The crooks and Jan are bundled off to jail and must figure out a way of escape.

After escaping, the men go back to the present and their paths diverge: they go back to the period just before Karel dies and Jan then sets about changing the path of time so as to prevent Karel's death and sabotage the crooks' plan. This involves making another trip back to Nazi Germany but no-one has any proper sense of time so the second trip also slightly overshoots and the time-travellers arrive just before they arrived the first time. Don't worry, it does sound very confusing – you just need to watch the movie to be able to sort out which Jan is which and how successfully Jan1 manages Jan2 and Jan3 and is able (or not able) to preserve family continuity! Though made over 30 years ago, the film doesn't look at all aged: the light is clear and the lines are sharp, men's suits at least don't look dated and even interiors and furniture look contemporary. The pace is brisk but the plot is straightforward if increasingly convoluted towards the end. The music soundtrack is a major highlight: light, a little humorous and sprightly with space ambient effects and much use of synthesiser-generated melodies that sound at once a little alien yet familiar and reassuring.

If I'd seen the film with English sub-titles, I'd have been able to appreciate more of its humour and jokes; there are many witty sight gags including creative uses of dishwashing liquid in dissolving dishes (and more besides!), the car with the back hood that flips up of its own accord at inconvenient times and the green spray that neutralises and zombifies people, all of which are important in advancing the plot and resolving it. The back-and-forth time-travel and its non-synchronisation (everyone comes and goes at times that are just ahead of when you think they should arrive or depart) are a running joke that might have a deeper meaning: what if certain important historical events could have been cut off or avoided had someone done something earlier rather than later? There is a subversive message in all the time-travelling that goes on: Jan foils an evil plot thanks to his being in the right spot five minutes (or 50 minutes at least) before the right time and ingeniously manages to cover up Karel's untimely death as well. Now, if only he had gone back in time to try to stop the Soviets from marching into Prague in the 1940s or 1968 or whenever As science fiction movies go, the plot and characters, and especially Kostka's clever timing as Jan who must be in several places at once, are prominent. There are no special effects at all: all the science fiction is in the plot and in one of the film's running gags (the dishwashing liquid gag). "Tomorrow I'll Wake Up " is the kind of comedy I'd like to see more of and which has been sorely lacking in Western cinema (and still is) – fun, witty, exuberant and inventive with the possibilities offered by a science fiction standard – and with a bonus of a cutting comment on society about lost opportunities and the possibility of change.

Undisputedly, one of the jewels of Czech science fiction.

[D-Slam · 10/10 · 30 October 2002]

One morning, Jan Bures (or is it Karel Bures? I forgot which is which :) discovers that his twin brother Karel (Jan?) has choked to death on a bread roll. However, Jan knows what to do - Karel was a pilot for Universum, a time travel agency. So he dresses up as his brother and goes to his brother's job. He soon discovers that his brother was part of a Nazi ploy to hijack a time travel rocket, go to 1944 (when Germany is in trouble) and give Adolf Hitler an A-bomb. Although he can do little to prevent this, the ploy fails - firstly, the hijackers are double-booked with two American tourists, and secondly, they land in 1941 - when German soldiers are threatening to conquer Moscow. When they return, they return before they actually took off (this is Jan's attempt to save his brother by preventing him from suffocating). And things go downhill from there...

Firstly, this is a very original take on the topic of time travel. Secondly, Petr Kostka does a great job in this double-role (which is in fact more of a single role after all). The effects and styling appear naive now, but they're good for their time and place. (The Universum scenes were mostly filmed in the then-new Prague subway.) Finally, the writers and director must be commended for not getting lost in the screenplay and for not letting us get lost or bored - there's always something going on and if you're willing to believe that time travel was possible in the 1970s as demonstrated in the film, there are few (if any) plot holes or inconsistencies. Music doesn't play much of a role here.

The near-obligatory compromises to Communism (this was the 1970s, y'know) are present, but in a way that just makes it even more entertaining - the aforementioned American tourists react to the sight of Hitler in the flesh by demanding to take photographs with him, much to the Führer's frustration (the guy who played him was great too). Can't really think of any other examples right now.

If you like this film, an obvious recommendation would be Zabil jsem Einsteina, pánové (I Killed Einstein, Gentlemen), but I found Zítra vstanu a oparím se cajem more entertaining.

One of the best time travel films (and one of my favourite films) ever!

[jancyclops · 10/10 · 4 October 2006]

I understand it was Saturday 16th January 1982 when I first saw this film. Dallas was on BBC 1 and Match of the Day wouldn't start for another half hour or so. So my brother and I decided to watch the beginning of this film on BBC 2 and then turn over for the football. Except we watched the whole thing. It really was that good.

Fast forward to 2006 and I finally got a copy of the DVD in my grubby mitts. I had to get it from the Czech Republic but it's PAL and the same region as the UK. I watched it and couldn't believe just how much I remembered from over twenty years previously.

Petr Koska is brilliant in his three roles: Jan Bures, Karel Bures and Jan pretending to be Karel. In this third role he improves his performance to the other characters as the film goes on because he has figured out how the plot should take shape after nearly mucking things up somewhat the first time round.

For me, getting the DVD has been a delightful piece of nostalgia!

Tomorrow I'll Be Scalding Myself With Tea

[Fanboy-1 · 9 November 2002]

I remember watching this film screened on BBC2 late one evening in 1981 or was it 1980? I know the BBC still have rights to screen it, so if we're lucky we could press them into screening it on BBC4.

It's a great film, with an even better take on the whole Sci-Fi 'time travel' genre. Back To The Future, Time Cop and all other time travel flicks pale into insignificance when compared to this offering... I'm sure Speilberg has seen this.

I'm no Sci-Fi nut but when you consider this film was made in 1977 the screenplay must've been knocking around for a fair while before that, it's a great tribute to good writing. But what am I saying? I was all of 13 years-old when me and my brothers Robbie and Alan stayed up late to watch this on our old Indersit B/W telly. I only just remember it, but I know good movies and good tales when I see/hear them... and I've never forgotten this one.

There's a Ray Bradbury story called 'A Sound Of Thunder' which looks at the consequences of time travel and messing and altering time lines... hey I could go on forever about this.

I'd pay money to this film again - with or without subtitles, on video or DVD. But if anyone wants to help me badger the controller of BBC4 into screening it or releasing it on vid ( I'm not sure that they can) let's do it before some studio exec finds it and re-makes it and spoils the memory like always.

Arrrggghhhh! I want to see this film again.

Very funny and very clever sci-fi time travel movie

[chuckwheel · 10/10 · 26 February 2000]

I remember seeing this movie late one night on the BBC in England. It was many years ago (early 80s I think) but it was so good and I've always wanted to see it again. The plot centers around an airline pilot in the future who works for a time travel company who run tours to the past. I can't really remember all the details but it was something about one of the time-travel ships being hijacked by some people who want to kidnap Hitler or something. There are all sorts of hilarious mixups and weird goings as the hero goes backwards and forwards to different eras of history. He ends up re-visiting the same day 3 times - trying to avoid bumping into himself (thus causing a time paradox). I'm a bit fuzzy on the details but I also remember that a sort of pepper spray is frequently used which turns the victim a putrid green color and freezes them for a while in a particularly amusing way. The production design is a terrific late 70s very Czech vision of the future, kind of funny but inventive and setting the perfect tone. I laughed a lot and was left well impressed by the very intelligent way the concept of time travel was handled. All too often in scifi/time travel movies the internal logic of the situation is fundamentally flawed. In this movie all those paradoxes work toward build up the humor as the hero's life becomes more and more complex and confused. As far as I can remember anyway. If anyone knows any way I can get hold of or even just see a copy of this film here in the US (where I don't believe it was ever released) please e-mail me. A forlorn hope I guess because even some Czech friends of mine hadn't even heard of it!

Excellent Time Travel Comedy

[andy-782 · 10/10 · 27 September 2006]

This is a film I saw just once on BBC2 on a Saturday night. In order not to watch Dallas I thought I'd watch the first half hour of the film and then turn over for Match of the Day. MotD never got a look in. The film had me laughing from the word go and made such an impression on my mind that I could still vividly remember scenes from it over a quarter of a century later. Today I received the DVD from a shop in the Czech Repbulic and am astounded at how well I remember the film. The plot centres around the plan by a group of former Nazis to travel back in time and give Hitler a hydrogen bomb and the attempt of the pilot to stop them. He is actually the twin brother of the pilot who should have been taking them but who had died choking on a bread roll. The immobilising spray and the washing up liquid were just as I remembered them. The American tourists were hammed up for all they were worth (it was made under communist rule after all). This is a very funny film and well worth the effort of ordering it from a website in a language I don't read.

Impossible to rate

[Stephan_fr · 3/10 · 25 June 2023]

This is a farce in the European tradition of the 70s. Over the top humor acting, low budget, incredibly poor special effect, immature, some sort of vaudeville, if you will.

As far as this kind of thing goes it's a decent one but they are French movies especially the Louis de funes ones that tops it by far.

As of 2023 it's not funny nor is it efficient. Even the time travel element does not hold water and has no feeling of being inspiring at all.

It's interesting to watch just for the historical value of it and I understand that this particular movie has a big cult following, about from that it's extremely average and as aged like sour milk.

Only for the film school special.

Funny & clever time-travel movie

[templexblue · 16 August 2004]

I too saw this as a young teenager one night on BBC2 in the very early eighties. Over twenty years later I still remember it. I would love to see it again.

All I can remember is that it involved time travel, eastern Europe (aka the Communist countries), a balcony, a sequence of going back to the same moment and place in time repeatedly and a cup of tea getting spilled on someones hand (perhaps more than once).

It was very clever, very funny and had a happy ending.

That night on BBC2 must have been the only time it was ever shown to a wide audience. I'm amazed that it seems never to have been screened again. Is it because it only appealed to 13 year-olds? There are things I've grown tired of since that age but, right now, there is nothing that I recall having completely changed my mind over. So I would probably still love it!

Find it! Watch it! Again!

What a great film

[forgeit · 9/10 · 17 January 2002]

Amazing How can you be a pilot of a very special flight, go back in time to Nazi Germany, scald yourself with tea and still win the girl??? I saw this film in 1978 on British TV .... I recorded then lost it.... its a great film...what is is with Czech directors? Even as we speak I am watching Conspirators Of Pleasure...just as funny 9 out of 10

How everything could but go completely wrong when you try to help Hitler win the war

[clanciai · 9/10 · 19 April 2016]

The problem is that he scalds himself with coffee. That triggers an avalanche of complications, centered around a plot to use the latest time travel technique to go back for a visit at Hitler's to present him with a recently stolen A-bomb to make him win the war, but as is commonly the case with political intrigue, things don't always turn out exactly as expected or planned.

Just to mention a few of the complexities, the pilot has a twin brother, and as one of them chokes on a roll his brother takes his place without knowing what on earth he is going for on this trip, and accidentally a few time travel tourists are booked on the same trip without knowing they will be joining some modern nazi weirdos on their venture to make Hitler win the second world war. There are many such complications, for instance, accidentally, the time travel rocket lands three years before schedule just after Pearl Harbor when Hitler stands outside Moscow and is already certain that he can't lose the war, so there is some double confusion here.

It's a brilliant tongue-in-cheek comedy all the way, and it's admirable how serious everyone remains in the middle of amounting hilarities that constantly increase in absurdity. The paralyzing pistol that turns its victims green is sensational. This is a unique science fiction comedy of refreshing self irony all the way, making fun of everything, society, bureaucracy, gangsters, Nazis and even the genre itself, while at the same time there is some serious business: the highlight is the tremendous scene with Hitler himself when he is compelled to watch documentaries from the future of the fall of his Reich with its consequences. Of course, he can't believe his eyes, and still, when he is alone, he can't resist the temptation to watch it all over again, not to gloat in it, but to try to understand what is to him absolutely impossible. This is ingenious science fiction with an intelligent psychological touch to it.

The whole film is over-intelligent, and as the complications keep towering it becomes increasingly difficult to follow the constant turnings of the bizarre events which eventually turn to some heaps of killings, but it all makes sense at least mathematically and logically, although fortunately so far it is all completely impossible - unless you believe in Stephen Hawking's persistent assertions. Maybe he is next to be favored by some cure from the future...

At last! At last!

[tpok · 10/10 · 14 July 2006]

I finally found this film on the web! So it wasn't just my imagination. I rank this as amongst the very best films I've ever seen. I saw it some 25-30 years ago on British TV as part of what must have been a foreign film series on BBC2. The complexity of the plot and the straight-faced comedy are superb. Who can forget the nonchalant way the star says words to the effect 'it doesn't matter' when someone bounces on the trampoline and over the side of the building, or the Nazi's killing themselves off? There was also a good French film (about a ?hitman who commits suicide in a hotel and the man in the next room gets mistaken for him) but this is the only one I remember the name of. Now to go back and read the other people's comments... And then to try to find it on DVD somewhere.

"End of over-pressure."

[morrison-dylan-fan · 10/10 · 4 April 2016]

With this being one of the first Czech Sci-Fi movies that I heard about,I was disappointed to find that the only DVD on sale was an expensive out of print edition.Whilst looking on Youtube for other Czech films,I was delighted to somehow stumble upon this title,which led to me getting ready to scald myself with tea.

The plot:

Spending his life regretting that Hitler failed to win (!),former Nazi Klaus Abard decides to travel back in time with modern weapons that will help Hitler to win the war.Joined by some of the world's brightest,the time travelling machine driver Karel Bures goes for a bite with his twin brother Jan,and ends up choking to death on a bread roll.Aware of the mission that Karel has signed up for,Jan decides to secretly pretend to be his brother.Going back in time,Jan,Klaus and the other guests get an unexpected frosty reception from Hitler.

View on the film:

Shot when the Soviet Union was building major new infrastructure in the country,co-writer/(along with Josef Nesvadba & Milos Macourek) director Jindrich Polák and cinematographer Jan Kalis wrap the movie in an oddly optimistic atmosphere,thanks to breaking out of the studio and using the new buildings for a chic Sci-Fi sheen,and the frosty outdoors to cover the gang in the ice of Nazi Germany.Making most of the gang Nazi supporters,the screenplay by Polák/ Nesvadba and Macourek treads a fine line by taking a merciless dagger to the gang,who the writers hilariously paint as being a bunch of pompous, stubborn buffoons who even get on Hitler's nerves.

Joined by a funky score from Karel Svoboda,the writers superbly loop the Sci-Fi loop with real precision,as an avoidance of the "traditional" time travel changes history route leads to the opening of alt realities and sharp twist and turns in the trust that the gang have for each other.Taking on two roles, Petr Kostka gives an excellent performance as Jan and Karel Bures,who Koska makes look wonderfully uncomfortable in their own skin,as the Bures scald themselves with tea.

I'd love to see this again...

[Equitan · 13 June 2002]

This film is funny and warm and intelligent and slightly haunting, and I am delighted to recommend it. It was shown on BBC2 (UK) in a foreign film season (the Beeb used to have things like that before the dumbed-down era), maybe in the late 70s or early '80s. I never forgot it - and I have, over the years, kept coming across other people who had seen and not forgotten it, although no-one could ever quite remember its title. As far as I am aware, it's not been on TV again. Fingers crossed I'll get to see it again sometime...

Tomorrow...

[steben · 10/10 · 1 July 2009]

...I'll watch this film again. A side-splitting comedy with great puns, highly artistic visuals, and a plot that is a marvelous joke in itself.

Much funnier than you'd ever expect from a movie that starts with a multiplied "Heil Hitler" line, this flick features a band of aging Nazi émigrés that somewhere in the future decide to travel back in time to give a hydrogen A-bomb to Hitler. The shambolic plot is held together by some of the best Czech acting of the decade (all of the main protagonists were in fact extremely accomplished stage and movie actors) and a never-ending flow of visual jokes and puns. When the Plan goes horribly, horribly wrong, threatening to choke the future with countless clones of not-so-retired Nazis, the paradoxes are mostly solved by exterminating either the copies or the originals ("Now, I'm going to kill myself"). The moment where the chief Nazi opens his portable A-bomb suitcase in the presence of Hitler, only to discover that the box now contains lingerie, is one of the greatest comedy moments in Czech cinematography. I remember watching the conspirators' faces on slow-mo a dozen times again, and again, and I just couldn't stop laughing.

All the while, this movie has a touch of something greater than mere parody of time travel. As it is one of the last heirs of the inventive Czech New Wave, the movie's crew included many extremely skilled filmmakers, including T. Pistek, the maker of Amadeus' Oscar-awarded costumes.

Overall, if you think you can stand European cinematography, and don't require your average movie to feature Brad Pitt clones, you probably won't be disappointed. This is one of the 20-or-so Czech productions that I'd rank as world quality movies. See the quotes for some of the innumerable cool lines.

Clever slant on time travel and twins

[paulburton · 9/10 · 10 March 2000]

I've not seen this film for about ten years and still remember it well. A comedy about Nazi's trying to go back in time to give Hitler an atom bomb doesn't sound too good. The films handles the mistaken identities, misunderstandings and accidents well. Some nice visual gags run through the piece as the hero goes through multiple trips back in time to put everything right. Needs to be seen more often.

The actual story of the movie

[poldiman · 10/10 · 6 October 2007]

This is one of the best films ever made, and even the "Zabil jsem Einsteina, panove" (I killed Einstein, Gentlemen) isn't as good as this piece. Since I have read through comments, I feel need to write down the correct plot. It's being screened in Czech Republic once a year or like. I have a recorded VHS tape from the TV version in Czech, so I had gone through it two times now to be sure not to screw up the storyline.

Beginning. The group of old Nazi's in Argentine, who are rich and take pills to slow down aging, stoles the last atomic weapon in the world from museum. They intend to use the service of a time-travel company called Universum which is located in Prague. They hire Karel Bures, a lazy, nasty pilot who flies the time-machine rockets. His twin-brother Jan is an engineer and constructed those rockets (that's why he could easily switch places). Klaus Abard, a former SS-man (played by Josef Sovak) and Ing. Bauer (played by Vlastimil Brodsky), accompanied by a younger pro-Nazi gangster Kraus (Vladimir Mensik), travel to Prague.

Now, the good and little simple-hearted Jan (who is BTW in secret love with stewardess Helena), makes a tea and is in kitchen when his brother Karel, breakfast in bed, suffocates himself with a bake-roll. Jan hurries to doctor but he's late. When calling to his brother's girlfriend he for some unknown reason states he's Karel, not Jan.

Jan Receives call from Abard, who asks if the clothes and seats (means reservation and uniforms) are done. Jan, looking onto couch and in the closet informs him all is OK :)

He dresses up as a pilot and goes to visit the girlfriend's family. He refuses however to marry Karel's (or now his) girlfriend and is thus expelled. Goes to work, where he meets Helena, but is rejected as Helena has bad experience with Karel. Complications begin, when Jan gives his suitcase to a technician and it's put into the rocket luggage area. Another error comes up with an old American couple having bought two seats for the trip, appear and demands to accompany the three Nazis. Jan allows to do so cause he doesn't know about the Karel's deal with Nazis. Mrs. White suitcase is put into luggage too.

As the rocket starts, Abard requires to see the captain. However he's refused by the stewardess and by Jan, thus having to break into cabin and letting Ing. Bauer take over control. The rocket with Jan, stewardess Helena, three Nazis, and the American couple, travels through time and lands near Hitler's command.

As Abard, Bauer and Kraus wearing Nazi uniforms travel to Hitler's command, the rocket with locked rest of crew and passengers is discovered by a guard. Meanwhile, Abard finally enter's Hitler room, where he states he's "Coming in the darkest hour to save the Reich", and as proof he states than in few minutes Hitler will receive call from the Eastern front, that Russians have crossed the Oder River. However, the problems appear more. Ing. Bauer mistyped the entry data and the rocket landed in December '41. Germans stand at gates of Moscow and Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor.

Rest of the rocket crew and the couple is brought in. They recognize now nervous Nazi, and the final blow is when Abard presents the suitcase to Hitler, only to discover he switched the H-bomb case for Mrs. White's personal luggage. As lingerie is presented, order is given to take out all suspects and shoot them. In last desperate effort, Abard presents a player with few scenes from the "now future" course of war. (for those interested, music accompanying the short film is Tango Notturno from same name movie, perhaps sung by Pola Negri).

Hitler expels all personnel and watches the video, driving himself crazy. By means I will not bother to write down, Jan, Bauer and Kraus manages to escape, while old Abard and rest of the people is shot by war Abard. They get to time-rocket and go back to the present time.

Now, in present time, Jan explains how he switched place of his brother Karel and why he landed a day earlier. Kraus takes care of him and Bauer hurries to save original Karel,but is injured and unsuccessful. Kraus continues to the hotel room, where he shoots the previous version of Ing. Bauer (doesn't know that "his" Bauer is dead as well). As Kraus explains to Abard, they agree on the necessity to repeat the action, now correctly.

On the city garbage dump, Jan-Karel regains clear mind and stops a truck to city. Runs as well to save original Karel but is unsuccessful again. In some misunderstanding, original Jan doesn't believe that Jan-Karel is Jan, but always refers to him as Karel. They cause real mess and get killed original Jan and the girlfriend family. For now, the scene is ready for another escalation.

36 years since I saw this film, and I still love it

[cathydunwoody · 10/10 · 24 September 2018]

My story is exactly like many others here. I saw the film on BBC2 when I was a teen, and have never forgotten it since. Or indeed seen it since. But I remember loving the main character, the happy ending, and the amazing plot on the way to get there. So main plot points and scenes I can never forget.

Anyway, the reason I post this now is that I now share an office with a Slovakian of similar age who lived in Czechoslovakia until the 90's. I mentioned the film to him, and he immediately knew the film and director, who is one of his favourites. On a recent visit back home, he picked up a copy for me (apparently very cheaply). Now I will finally get to see it again, I hope it doesn't disappoint.

An unforgettable gem

[Anneliese-1 · 14 December 2004]

Like most of the other commentators here I saw this film as part of a BBC2 foreign film season in I think the very early 80s. I vaguely remember the next two in the series but this one has stuck in my mind ever since and I would dearly love to see it again. I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to describe it to friends! Twins (one dominated by the other), unrequited love, time travel, all good comedic potential - but add in Hitler and make sure that no element is overplayed and you have something quite unusual. The interplay between the twins in particular is beautifully handled. A touch of Groundhog Day, a touch of Back to the Future, a touch of Blackadder - sheer genius. Do you think that anyone will ever show it on TV again?

Great humorous time travel film

[r4l · 10/10 · 9 January 2000]

One of the best time travel films ever made. The hero is an airline pilot. It has great humour and great pace. It's a pity its in the Czech language, but that does not spoil its humour. The film does not get the viewings it deserves. Please try to see this film.

And I thought I was the only person to have seen this film!

[susan-leather · 10/10 · 26 October 2004]

Like all the other commentators, I saw it on BBC2 and loved it - and have been waiting ever since for another showing. Every so often, I've asked friends if they've seen it, but I obviously don't know the right people! And trying to describe the plot when I've had only the haziest ideas of what actually happens in the film has tended to produce some very weird looks. It's been brilliant to read everyone's comments and thanks for all the help in piecing together the storyline, most of which came flooding back, once prompted. If the Beeb ever does show the film again but on a digital channel, could someone please do an extra tape for me? Thanks in advance!

A terrific delight, cleverly and energetically blending sci-fi and comedy

[I_Ailurophile · 9/10 · 4 November 2023]

It was truly only an unlikely chain of circumstances that led to me discovering this film, and I really had no idea what I was getting into. I couldn't be more pleased that I did, though, because this is an absolute delight! It throws us right into the plot without a moment of hesitation or exposition, and even as the absurdity whips up right away it takes a while for the best of the comedy to truly take hold. Once it does, however, it more than makes up for the relative slowness of the early stretch, and the picture is wonderfully fun through to the very end. This is the anti-fascist Czechoslovak time travel comedy the world needed in 1977, and continues to be now; 'Tomorrow I'll wake up and scald myself with tea' is fantastic!

There's a lot that the feature asks us to accept at face value, and time travel is the least of the "near-future" technologies that's thrown at us. That matter-of-fact introduction of these plot elements only adds to the wild spirit, however, and the mirth continues apace in a tale of twin brothers, Nazis, changing the past, and love. All the while - even as the title takes some time to pick up steam - there is never any loss in the energy that it all carries, for every element it bent toward gleeful frivolity. This certainly goes for Jindrich Polák's direction, shrewdly maintaining a slight sense of dynamics and letting off the pressure intermittently just to allow it to pick up in the next moment, and ensuring that all the moving parts keep up. His task is made easier by working with a cast who are clearly having a blast, and the vitality they bring to the whole could not be more clear. Not to discount the work of anyone else, but naturally that goes most of all for star Petr Kostka, who most assuredly rises to the challenge of a dual role that kind of becomes even more. And still none of this would be possible with out Josef Nesvadba's short story, or more to the point Polák and Milos Macourek's adapted screenplay. The story is flush with weird, far-flung ideas to augment what is, in terms of twentieth century fiction a fairly familiar and almost "conventional" notion of time travel shenanigans. Each scene in turn is built to increasingly add more madcap silliness, and this really goes just as much for the dialogue. 'Tomorrow I'll wake up and scald myself with tea' is designed from top to bottom with joy first and foremost, and the result is unfailingly entertaining.

It's not unfair to say that the post-production visuals are maybe a tad out of date even for 1977, but given the off-kilter flavors this bears aloft in its ninety minutes I think this is an instance where the artificiality adds to the romp rather than remove us from the experience. Setting that aside everything here looks and sounds splendid, from filming locations and art direction, to stunts and practical effects, to costume design, hair, and makeup. Karel Svoboda's music adds to the light mood; the editing and cinematography are adept. Everything here is done very well, truly - and still such details don't necessarily matter so much, because it's a movie that wanted above all else to be funny and have a good time, and in that effort it handily succeeds. It was the name alone that first caught my eye when I stumbled onto it, and I sat to watch with no foreknowledge or expectations. I could hardly be happier with just what this turned out to be, and I've difficulty imagining that anyone could spend time here and not step away with a smile on their face. As far as I'm concerned this is all but a must-see: I adore this film, and I'm glad to give 'Tomorrow I'll wake up and scald myself with tea' my very high, enthusiastic recommendation!

I need to see this movie again!

[asjbm · 15 December 2004]

I saw this movie years ago and have few more memories than the other reviewers. However, it has always remained in my mind and I have been looking for it online for years. I actually thought that it was called 'Tomorrow I will be scalding myself with hot coffee'.

I recall the doppleganger space pilot twin and the fact that the no hoper, non-pilot came back and took the place of his more successful brother. It was all very thought provoking.

I have spoken to many people about it, nobody else I know has seen it. If ever anybody gets hold of it I would love to see it again. Despite it being in subtitles it obviously had a profound effect on me!

Would love to see this again.

[dsisterson · 4 August 2004]

Like the user below, I saw this late one night on the BBC about 20 years ago - probably the only place it's been seen in the English-speaking world-! The plot as I remember it goes something like this: There are two twin brothers sharing an apartment. One is an untidy layabout, the other is a time machine pilot for a company that does tourist trips into the past. The smart brother is engaged to a nice girl whom the slob brother is also in love with. One of the time machines is hijacked by a group of Neo-Nazis who want to give Hitler the atom bomb (there is a scene of Hitler watching a movie of the fall of the Reich, brought to him by these people to prove who they are). Something goes wrong, of course, which somehow results, in the present day, of the smart brother, his girlfriend and all her family falling off a balcony to their deaths. The slob brother is left to sort things out and somehow manages to return to the present before he left and take the place of the dead brother, and marry the nice girl, who now isn't dead. So there are now two of him, one pretending to be the dead smart brother. If anyone else can add their fuzzy memories to this page please do - eventually we might be able to reconstruct the whole story; it seems unlikely we'll ever get to see the film again-! Maybe it only exists in another time continuum.

Tourist trips to the past

[Petey-10 · 25 August 2011]

In the 1990's people are able to make tourist trips to the past (if only).A group of aging Nazis, who are taking some pills to stay young, want to take advantage of that.They plan to travel back to 1944 (only they end up in 1941) and hand Adolf Hitler a hydrogen bomb.That way he would win WWII.Time travel pilot Karel Bures has been bribed to help them.But then Karel dies.He chokes on a croissant.And his twin brother Jan becomes him.Will he be able to stop the evil plan of these nasty Nazis? Or will the world suffer from Hitler's Thousand Year Reich? Jindrich Polák's Zítra Vstanu a Oparím Se Cajem (1977) is quite funny time travel movie.Its English title is Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea.Petr Kostka plays both Jan and Karel Bures.Jirí Sovák plays Klaus.Kraus is played by Vladimír Mensík.Valerie Chmelová plays Helena.I saw this movie on TV last night.I haven't seen too many Czechoslovakian movies in my life, but when I read the plot of this one, I just had to see it.The whole time travel theme has always fascinated me, ever since I saw Back to the Future.It's most enjoyable to watch those time travelers telling Hitler, and showing him some moving image, of how he will lose the war.Czechoslovakian time travel movie doesn't get too much better than this.