Film / Adele Hasn't Had Her Dinner Yet

Adele Hasn't Had Her Dinner Yet, or simply Adele's Dinner, is a 1977 Czechoslovakian film written by Oldrich Lipsky and Jiri Brdecka and directed by Oldrich Lipsky.

Nick Carter, the greatest American detective, comes to Prague to solve a mysterious case of a missing person which turns out to be much more. A Troperiffic Affectionate Parody of the pulp detective genre and mystery stories.

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This film provides examples of:

• The Ace: Nick Carter. He rocks in everything — in investigating, in science, in sport, in fights, and all the ladies dig him. Plus he boats with the title of the Greatest American Detective.
• Adventurer Outfit:
  • Detective Nick Carter wears a safari/jungle outfit in a flashback scene from African swamps when he remembers his famous defeat of The Gardener.
  • A man trying to fly a bicycle with wings and propellers wears the pilot variant.
• Affectionate Gesture to the Head: Police commissioner Ledvina comforts Nick Carter when he was recovering from the attack by The Gardener's chamberlain. Tap on the Head and chloroform, just to be sure? He deserved the affectionate pat, plus Ledvina promised him fresh air and beer drinking, if he would feel up to it.
• Affectionate Parody: It plays with Detective and Mystery Genre tropes and clichés. It also pokes gentle and not so gentle fun on Czech, European and American stereotypes.
• Almost Kiss: Twice in the movie do Nick and Kvetuska's lips come close to another, only for the Professor to interrupt the two love birds.
• And the Adventure Continues: In Egypt, we are told.
• Animated Credits Opening: The movie is live-action (with some stop-motion animation and a brief animated exposition). The opening has static pictures in style of classic comic books.
• Angry Fist-Shake: The dwarf and police commissioner Ledvina shake their fists at each other when the final confrontation starts. When the dwarf gets arrested and is being carried away, he's still seen shaking his fist.
• Arch-Enemy: Gardener and Nick are Arch Enemies for each other, though both try to deny that the other is anybody important or that hard to defeat. Both learn their lesson.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: Invoked with The Gardener taking on the Secret Identity of Baron von Kratzmar.
• Attempted Rape: Near the climax of the movie, Kvetuska is nearly violated while sleeping. Her would-be perpetrator gets eaten by Adela just in time.
• Badass Arm-Fold: Nick's pose in certain moments, for example he folds his arms in the flashback from the forest or when he interrogates Irma.
• Badass Bookworm: Nick has books about just everything — about the countries he travels to, their culture and languages. He is able to learn a language just from a book. One is titled Czech — quick and easy. He is well educated in science and says that physics and chemistry are an investigator's best friends. During one moment, he is saved by remembering a physics lesson about electricity.
• Bait-and-Switch Accusation: When Carter finds out about Baron von Kratzmar's true identity, he informs the Director of Police, who doesn't believe that his dear friend, Baron von Kratzmar, could be the "most mysterious criminal of the century". The Director then approaches the Baron himself, confronting him with the accusations. The latter shrugs, but then the Director starts to laugh, revealing that he didn't buy it himself and was only pulling the Baron's leg.
• Batman Cold Open: The opening sequence in Carter's office showcases the detective's skills as he effortlessly disables three villains in short succession.
• Been There, Shaped History: We learn that Nick Carter inspired the invention of the light bulb.
• Binocular Shot: The shot when Commissar Ledvina observes the surroundings from his hotel room via binoculars. Naturally, his attention gets drawn to the Butcher shop.
• Black-and-White Morality: The movie avoids dealing with moral ambiguity and paints all characters either pure good/innocent or evil.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: In one scene Nick uses his Hidden Weapons to shoot the gun out of the gangster's hand.
• Blue Blood: Lots of the Czech characters are Bohemian aristocrats: Baron von Kratzmar, Countess Thun and Director of Police Knight Franz von Kaunitz.
• Big Applesauce: New York, America's greatest city, is Nick Carter's home. The Gardener committed lots of his crimes there as well.
• Binge Montage: When Nick Carter arrives in Prague, he wants to see the sights and get to known the city. Police commissioner Ledvina shows him Charles Bridge and others and tells him the history; however, they end up touring pubs in a beer drinking montage which ends early in the morning.
• Body Double: Commissar Ledvina poses as a stand-in for Carter after a full-body makeover.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: "Always on alert!" is detective Nick Carter's Catch Phrase. When he receives a mysterious letter, it reveals two tickets. Police commissioner Ledvina is not too keen on going anywhere as it's fairly late and he's tired, and he asks where they are going this time. When he hears that their destination is a night club, he grabs his hat and sausages (he always eats), and very eagerly says: "Always on alert!
• The Butler Did It: In Czech, this trope is known as a phrase "The gardener is the murderer!" — a clichéd solution to pulp detective stories. What a surprise when the actual culprit of the original curious disappearance is a guy who is known as "The Gardener", the most mysterious criminal mastermind of the century. And his close, most loyal minion is his butler/chamberlain.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: One girl from school where professor Bocek used to teach was said to be well-endowed.
  Baron von Kratzmar: Even Fanynka Machackova. Do you remember her, Sir? The well-endowed one. She used to bring stuffed animals into your room.
• Catchphrase: Nick Carter's motto is "Always alert!" It's funniest when he says it when he's wasted and totally exhausted after a beer drinking montage.
• Chained to a Bed: Karin, the countess companion, falls into her own trap and gets chained to her bed. Cue Nick's Interrogation by Vandalism.
• Chaste Hero: Nick is very chaste. He's ashamed to even look at a lady in a Ms. Fanservice costume, and when she starts hitting on him in a rather aggressive way, he cries: "Oh, but what about my reputation? Oh, I mean your reputation?" He falls in love, but his love for Kvetuska is very chaste.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Police commissioner Ledvina always eats, usually junk food like sausages or pickled sausages, and he's seen using his own pepper-pot and salt-cellar. The pepper-pot saves Nick Carter's life. When he's being eaten by Adele, police commissioner Ledvina throws the pepper-pot into her mouth. Adele starts coughing and gagging, and she spits Nick out.
  • A man trying to fly a bicycle with wings and propellers can be seen in the background several times. Near the end of the movie, Nick borrows his flying machine, fixes its glitch and uses it to catch the Gardener who's escaping in a hot-air balloon.
  • The slingshot that Commissar Ledvina confiscates earlier comes in handy when the hot-air balloon needs to be shot down.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Spoofed. Nick Carter pretends he's Nick Ledvina, a Czech-American expatriate who is visiting his old country. Professor Bocek asks whether he met a guy named Ladislav Matejka who is related to Professor Bocek's family. Nick is mildly annoyed that the professor imagines America as a small Bohemian town and says he didn't have the pleasure. When Nick is leaving Prague on a train, Professor Bocek keeps waving and shouts " and if you ever happen to meet Ladislav Matejka..." Then all of the sudden, Nick's Identical Stranger appears out of nowhere, and he says in Czech with a strong American accent: "But that is me, Larry Matejka, a Czecho-American."
• Chick Magnet: All the ladies fall for Nick — The Countess has a Celeb Crush on him, Miss Karin shamelessly hits on him when he questions her, and Kvetuska experiences Love at First Sight.
• Code Name: Played for laughs when Commissar Ledvina forgets his code name at the variety show and Nick shouts "Eagle" across the room.
• Crazy-Prepared: Nick has always the right gadgets handy.
  • At his N.Y. office he activates a giant magnet that pulls the gangster's ax to the ceiling.
  • In Prague he has his hat stuffed with tear gas and an expandable boxing glove.
  • The guns from under his arms.
  • Spoofed with the random fox tail on Nick's belt which he uses to throw off a Man-Eating Plant at the Baron's place.
• Culture Equals Costume: When Nick Carter comes to Prague, he is dressed in a traditional folk/peasant costume in order to blend in, which of course makes him stand out in the modern city.
• Deadly Gaze: Nick applies this look against the Fantomas-look-alike gangster in the opening sequence.
• Depraved Dwarf: One of the Gardener's minions is a dwarf who has an evil giggle.
• Detective Drama: Closed mystery variant, and the case turns out to be a pretty damn big one!
• Dirty Old Man: Director of Police von Kaunitz. Nick's talks about Gardener's insane experiments and mentions a rose that can put a lady into coma. Gardener did it to Bara Sernhardt and violated her. Kaunitz says it's disgusting, but then pervertedly asks whether the rose is on the market.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Two from the villain.
  • Gert's mysterious disappearance was a case of revenge. He peed on Baron Kratzmar's leg, and he was therefore chosen to be Adele's first victim. You pee on the Gardener, you get eaten by the carnivorous plant.
  • The Gardener's motivation was to get a revenge on his old professor of biology from grammar school. Matěj Kráčmera didn't know a plant's stigma from its pistil, and therefore the professor failed him. Everybody laughed at him and he felt humiliated. He swore he would work hard and get his revenge, using the professor's very own weapons — botany and plants.
• Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest: At the end of the movie, Nick's doppelgänger appears, except he's blond. It's the very same Larry Matejka who was mentioned by Professor Bocek. Kvetuska quickly changes one dashing man for another.
• Dude, She's Like in a Coma: One of the Gardener's insane experiments was a plant that would invoke this trope. If a lady is hurt by the thorn of his rose, she would fall asleep. Probably for a hundred years. The gardener used it on a renowned actress, Bara Sernhardt. And he went past kissing...
• Dunking the Bomb: Nick disables the bomb at his N.Y. office by pouring coffee on it.
• Emerging from the Shadows: A variant where Nick emerges from behind a lamp shade at the Professor's place. The sight of his Arch-Enemy sends Baron Kratzmar into shock.
• Evil Eyebrows: The Gardener has them.
• Evil Laugh: Baron von Kratzmar has one of the greatest examples of this trope in Czech movie history, and perhaps one of the greatest ever. It's really devilish. When a policeman on the street hears it, he just crosses himself and quickly runs away.
• Extra! Extra! Read All About It!: The paperboy announcing the arrival of the great American detective in Prague.
• Fairytale Motifs:
  • A magical rose has a thorn that puts you into sleep if you get hurt from it. From Sleeping Beauty.
  • The Gardener managed to grow fast-sprouting beans and he used their stalks to carry him up to windows of New York apartments. Then he robbed them. From Jack and the Beanstalk.
• Falling into Jail: The Gardener's air balloon, that Ledvina shoots down with his slingshot, conveniently lands in a prison courtyard.
• Famed In-Story: Nick Carter is made out to be a Living Legend, internationally renowned as America's Greatest Detective, and he's friends with various famous people.
• Fantastic Flora: Courtesy of the Gardener. A flower with human-like eyes that sheds tears; a flower with pollen that makes people freeze on spot immediately; a rose that can pour tea from a pot to cups, or cut its own rosebud with a pair of scissors and give it to a lady as a present. He also cultivated fast-sprouting beans used to rob apartments or a rose that puts ladies into deep sleep, used for a very sinister scheme. The highlight of his devilish greenhouse is a carnivorous plant Adele that eats sausages, mice, dogs and people.
• Fast-Forward Gag: Some scenes are played at high speed for comedic use.
• Fate Worse than Death: Said word for word. The Gardener's main minion is promised to get Kvetuska, the Professor's beautiful granddaughter, and is allowed to do whatever he wants with her. He says he's going to prepare for her such a fate that is worse than death for a chaste woman. He plans to have his way with her, and then sell her to a South American brothel.
• Femme Fatale: Irma Chatte, a gorgeous woman dressed as a cat. She tries to seduce Nick and trap him. Luckily for him, he's a Chaste Hero so he saves himself.
• Flashback Effects: Countess Thun's recounting of the events that led to the disappearance of her dog are depicted as a succession of still images in sepia tone.
• Global Ignorance: Used for laughs as a way to undermine Nick's position of an Ace. Nick's sidekick Kuratko and Nick don't know where Prague is. Nick is sure it's in Vienna, though. (At that time, Vienna was capital of the Habsburg Empire. Prague was one of the empire's major cities and capital of Bohemian Kingdom.)
  Kuratko: The Police Board of Prague. Prague? Where the hell is that, Prague?
  Nick: (condescending) In Vienna. (...) But now, some vital information — about those antipodeans. (reads a book) I was of course not mistaken. It's almost in Vienna.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Carter uses one to secretly get from his hotel room to the rooftop and onwards to the Gardener's lair.
• Great Detective: Nick Carter, a private eye.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sweet Kvetuska. She's the classical ingenue — naive, pure and caring. She lives with her old grandfather who she takes good care of. Nick falls for her instantly, and so does she. When Nick needs her help and asks her if she's a brave girl, she answers with determined "I am a daughter of Jan Zizka's nation", referring to a great military leader from the Hussite Movement.
• Hand Rubbing:
  • The dwarf, one of the Gardener's people, rubs his hands when their plan is working out.
  • The Gardener rubs his hands with gusto when his revenge is about to be fulfilled and Nick gets eaten alive.
• Headbutt of Love: Kvetuska and Larry Matejka lovingly lean to each other and join their foreheads at the end of the movie, smiling blissfully.
• Hero Stole My Bike: First Carter and Commissar Ledvina get hold of the baker's bike in order to pursue the Baron across town. Then Nick "borrows" the pedal-powered flying machine to follow the Baron in his hot-air balloon.
• Hidden Weapons: Nick has guns mounted under his arms which fire when his arms are raises.
• Idea Bulb: Spoofed. Nick is friends with Thomas A. Edison, and he has his signed photo with a picture of him with a bulb. The message reads: My dear Nick, thank you for your advice. It was a million dollar idea. Gratefully yours, Thomas A. Edison
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Baron Kratzmar downs two shots when he wakes up from his nightmare.
• The Ingenue: Kvetuska is a sweet girl who takes care of her grandfather. She falls in love with Nick, but their love is very chaste. They don't even share a kiss.
• In-Series Nickname: The Gardener, Nick's archnemesis who is the most mysterious criminal of the century. His origins were unclear, and this case revealed them: Baron von Kratzmar was the Gardener. However, this is also an alter ego. He's in fact a common person named Matěj Kráčmera.
• Instantly Proven Wrong:
  • When Nick Carter travels to Prague to meet the local inspector about a case, following conversation occurs as they ride down the street in a carriage:
    Nick Carter: I assume my arrival has been kept strictly secret!
    Inspector: But of course!
    Paperboy: The most famous American detective's in Prague!
    Inspector: [looks embarrassed]
  • Later, Baron von Kratzmar announces to a round of friends that the American detective won't be able to make it to their place, as he wrongly assumes his henchmen took care of him. Cue, Nick Carter's visit card arriving on a servant's tray.
• Instant Sedation:
  • When police commissioner Ledvina impersonates Nicks, Gardener's minions inject him and he's immediately intoxicated and loses consciousness. However, it was a pretty massive syringe.
  • Nick gets knocked out immediately when the fake room service attendant dunks him in a dish of chloroform.
  • Nick is dusted with pollen in the Gardener's greenhouse, and he freezes instantly.
• Institutional Apparel: The prisoners at the end wear an outfit with horizontal stripes and matching pillbox hats.
• Interrogation by Vandalism: Nick uses it on Irma Chatte. He threatens and starts destroying her hat, cutting its feathers. It works. She loves that hat as it's from Paris, and starts talking.
• I Work Alone: So Nick Carter claims. He accepts the offer to be shown around Prague, but then wants to work alone. However, he later reconsiders and fully cooperates with Ledvina. The last straw was when he asked Ledvina to hit him, expecting box or fist fight. He was, however, bitch-slapped, which confused him and convinced that he needs a sidekick.
• Labcoat of Science and Medicine: Baron Rupert von Kratzmar wears one during his experiments in his greenhouse.
• Latex Perfection: A latex mask is used to make Commissar Ledvina look exactly like Nick Carter. Also Nick uses a latex mask to convincingly pose as the Professor.
• Leitmotif: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Lullaby" is heard throughout the film.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: Just when Adele wants to swallow Kvetuska in her sleep, the gramophone runs out of power and the record stops, upon which Adele collapses.
• Love at First Sight: Kvetuska and Nick, both ways. It happens to Kvetuska once again with Nick's Doppelgänger Replacement Love Interest, and both of them fall in love. And yes, Kvetuska is really that pretty.
• Mad Libs Catchphrase: Nick's "A present from my friend [surname]" — he has many friends among scientists and inventors. They include Edison, Röntgen, Nobel, and Laser.
• Mad Scientist: Played for all its worth. He experiments with plants and he has achieved phenomenal results. For example, at the very beginning of the movie his plant with human-like eyes sheds a Single Tear. His schemes are very sinister.
• Man-Eating Plant: Adele, aka Adelheide Kratzmari. Grown and cultivated with one purpose only: revenge! Her carnivorous abilities are multiplied if Mozart's lullaby is playing.
• Market-Based Title: The film has several international titles in English. Adele Hasn't Had Her Dinner Yet, Adele Hasn't Had Her Supper Yet, Dinner for Adele or Nick Carter in Prague.
• Marrying the Mark: The backstory of the mysterious villain Gardener says that he married a wealthy lady, "The Apple King"'s widow. The visuals imply that they married improperly soon after his death. The Gardener devoted his green thumb skills to fruit-growing, and then killed his wife, being her sole heir.
• Master of Disguise: Nick Carter's disguises are "proverbially perfect", however, his intention to blend in with the crowd fails epically in Bohemia. First, his books had perfect information about people and their life in the countryside, but not so much about towns. And also "everything gets noised abroad here", as police commissioner Ledvina kindly informs him. His Egyptian disguise was indeed quite impressive.
• Meaningful Name:
  • The Baron's mysterious tea from Tibet is named "Sweet Dreams". Guess what it's used for.
  • Nick's Code Name "Virgin" hints at his Chaste Hero image.
• Mighty Whitey: We learn from Carter's Lecture as Exposition that The Gardener lived with natives of the Amazonian jungle and healed their Man-Eating Plant with an extract made from the local Shaman, who's place he then took.
• Moment Killer: Nick and Kvetuska have a romantic moment alone at her house, but then the Professor appears and ruins it.
• Morning Routine: Nick's morning routine in his New York office consists of having breakfast, eating a doughnut and drinking a cup of coffee, and killing off several murderers and criminals who try to get him.
• Ms. Fanservice: Irma Chatte, a dancer and artist incognito with a cat mask performing at a nightclub. Men are crazy about her in-universe as well. She likes Nick best. She really fancies him, but it's also a trick — she secretly works for the Gardener.
• Nasty Party: Professor Bocek and his granddaughter get invited for tea at Baron von Kratzmar. He is to be eaten by a carnivorous plant and she is to be raped and sent to a brothel.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Gardnener has Commissar Ledvina in handcuffs and Adele has swallowed Nick. Looks like he has won, right? Little did he know that Ledvina still had an ace up his sleeve.
• Newspaper-Thin Disguise: One of the Baron's informers is a street painter who spies on Carter and Ledvina through a hole in his canvas.
• Naughty by Night: Countess' companion Karin who wear glasses, long skirts and reads books for her is Irma Chatte, the secret of Prague night, a gorgeous dancer masked as a cat.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: An actress known for her tragic roles gets mentioned — Bara Sernhardt. That doesn't sound like Sarah Bernhardt at all.
• Omniglot: Nick can apparently learn a language just from studying a book. When he arrives in Prague, he has a perfect knowledge of Czech and a clear accent to go with it.
• Once More, with Clarity: First we are presented with Carter's flashback of the Gardener drowning in the swamp. But later we are provided with the Gardener's version of the event and his flashback shows how he survived using his cigarette holder as a Reed Snorkel.
• Overly Stereotypical Disguise: Nick arrives in Prague in overly traditional Czech attire with bagpipes and all which makes him stick out like a sore thumb.
• Past Experience Nightmare: Baron Kratzmar keeps having nightmares about a plant's stigma. He keeps hearing "Where is the stigma? Where is the stigma?" They keep reminding him of his greatest humiliation which lead to him becoming evil.
• Pet Monstrosity: Baron von Kratzmar grew a huge carnivorous plant Adele. He treats her as his pet, calling her very affectionately "Adelka" and speaking very softly with her. He grew her with one purpose only, though — to get revenge on his former biology professor.
• Phlebotinum Breakdown: Nick's awesome ray gun works perfectly well when tested on a nearby tower but once he aims it at the Gardener, the sun disappears and renders the weapon useless.
• Private Detective: Nick Carter from New York. He frequently travels around the world to solve the most difficult cases. Every time when the local police enforcement is lost, they call Carter.
• Punny Name: Commissar Ledvina. Ledvina means "Kidney" in Czech. Given the plump Commissar's eating and drinking habits, his kidneys might not be faring that well... For foreign viewers, it counts as Bilingual Bonus.
• Reed Snorkel: The Gardener's cigarette holder functions as this. First, it helped him survive in the swamp. The Stinger then shows him breathing through his cigarette holder while hiding under a heap of coals.
• Replacement Goldfish: Gert was Countess Thun's beloved companion. Nick thought he was a person, but he's actually a Great Dane. Near the end of the movie, the countess is seen with a new puppy named Gert, though this time he's a hand-bag dog.
• Rock Beats Laser: A literal example. Nick tries to take down The Gardener's air balloon with his sun-powered laser gun but is unable to do so when the sun hides behind clouds. Then Commissar Ledvina steps forward and shoots down the air balloon with his slingshot.
• Romancing the Widow: The Gardener married an American woman, a widow after an Apple King, and he devoted himself to fruit-growing. He offed her later, inheriting all her money.
• Room Disservice: The Depraved Dwarf and another of the Gardener's minions disguise themselves as room service in order to get their hands on Carter and the plant.
• Running Gag: Nick uses several gadgets and he always introduces them as "a present from my friend X". These include Edison, Röntgen, Nobel, and Laser. When the last gadget fails, commissioner Ledvina takes out a present from his friend Messer. 'Messer' means 'knife' in German, and his knife saves them at the end.
• Science Hero: Nick Carter. Chemistry and physics are an investigator's best friends. To say nothing about his friends who are famous scientists and inventors and provide him with prototypes and useful gadgets.
• Sexier Alter Ego: Karin is very pretty in a prim-and-proper way, but Irma Chatte is the sexiest lady in a cat mask from that era. Maybe ever.
• Secret Identity:
  • Nick Carter pretends to Kvetuska and Professor Bocek that he's Nick Ledvina, a magician and Czech expatriate who came back from America to his old country.
  • Irma Chatte, a gorgeous mysterious dancer is Miss Karin, Countess Thun's companion. Another spoiler: she also works for the Gardener. When surprised Nick says she leads a double life, she laughs at him and says that a cat has seven lives.
  • Baron von Kratzmar plays a philanthropic scientist who is a friend to widows and orphans, and a close personal friend to Countess Thun. He's in fact the Gardener, the most mysterious criminal mastermind of the century. One layer deeper, he's Matěj Kráčmera, a former unfortunate student who failed biology in grammar school and was humiliated in class. He swore revenge to his professor, and he also swore he would use botany, the very thing that got him failed.
• Secret Underground Passage: One of the gangsters escapes from Irma Chatte's dressing room through a closet that apparently connects to the sewer system.
• Shoot the Rope: Nick frees Commissar Ledvina by shooting his handcuffs.
• Shout-Out: In bucketloads, to real-life historical characters, to literature and to film.
  • In the introductory morning sequence, Nick destroys several criminals while having breakfast. One of them is Fantômas, a villain from French film franchise which was quite popular in Czechoslovakia.
  • Countess Thun's favourite literature? Dante, Göthe, and Nick Carter's stories.
  • There is Sherlock Holmes' picture in Nick's office that says: If I were not Holmes, I should wish to be Carter. Which itself is a Shout-Out to Alexander the Great's quote about him and Diogenes.
  • Thomas A. Edison is friends with Nick. Apparently, it was Nick Carter who inspired him to invent a bulb.
  • Alfred Nobel is one of Nick's friends as well. He uses his dynamite once.
  • The Greek philosopher Diogenes and his habit of dwelling in a barrel is mentioned when the Gardener is pleased that his minions got Nick and keep him in a barrel.
  • Nick using a device from Roentgen, which may not seem like much until you learn that X-rays were once going to be called Roentgen-rays.
  • The Gardener himself, being a Troperiffic early 20th century pulp villain, is very similar to Dastardly Whiplash in terms of appearance.
• Sidekick:
  • In New York, Nick works with Kuratko, but we don't see much of him.
  • Whenever Nick is abroad, he prefers working alone. However, he deems Prague too weird a place and gladly accepts police commissioner Ledvina's help and insight.
• Slippery Skid: In the climatic chase scene, when one of Nick's bullets hit the Baron's car, it starts to leak oil or fuel. Ledvina's bicycle then slips on the smeary road.
• Slipping a Mickey: Kvetuska accidentally becomes part of Gardener's revenge It's revenge on her Grandpa, and she's in the way. He drugs her tea and she falls asleep, and she nearly gets violated by Gardener's chamberlain. She would then be sent away to a South American brothel. Said word for word that it's a fate worse than death for a chaste woman.
• Slow-Motion Fall: When the Gardener cuts the rope to dump Carter from his hot-air balloon, the first shot of Carter falling is in slow motion.
• Smith of the Yard: Nick Carter has "America's Greatest Detective" written on his office door, the newspapers report about his cases and even his arrival in Prague makes the headlines.
• Speech Impediment: Baron Rupert von Kratzmar suffers from rhotacism. He pronounces his r's and ř's incorrectly. It's a fairly common Speech Impediment among Czech speakers. It's part of his disguise and Secret Identity. He speaks normally when he's only with his servant.
• Spirit Advisor: When Carter is being attacked by the vines of a Man-Eating Plant, he remembers the advice his professor gave him when he was still in school.
  Voice in Carter's head: "If we rub a carbon pole with a fox's tail, student Carter..."
• Spit Out a Shoe: After Adele has finished eating, she spits out indigestible parts of her meals, like Gerd's collar or the clothes of the swallowed henchman.
• Steampunk: A lot of the gadgets used by both Nick and The Gardener.
• The Stinger: Nick and Police Commissioner Ledvina successfully catch the Gardener in a very thrilling show down, and he falls right into prison. Then during the credits, the Gardener appears in the coal compartment of the train on which Nick travels to Egypt. He was helped by Karin/Irma who is working there, putting coal to heat the locomotive.
• Stop Motion: Animations of Adele in close-up are done this way.
• Stop, or I Will Shoot!: Nick Carter, an American private eye investigating in Prague, but cooperating with a local police commissioner, uses this phrase twice when he's chasing the Gardener's chamberlain. While going after him, he accidentally meets Kvetuska who doesn't know he's a detective, and he tells her that he's playing a game of "Cops & Robbers" with a friend.
• Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Nick Carter. All the ladies fancy him. He has dark hair and rather darkish complexion, and he has Innocent Blue Eyes and his face is classically shaped, as Irma tells him.
• Tap on the Head:
  • Kvetuska gets accidentally hit by one of Nick's gadgets, and she's unconscious for a rather long time.
  • The chamberlain gets hit on his head when Nick and commissioner Ledvina escapes and try to catch the Gardener. This case is quite realistic, as he's unconscious for a brief moment and wakes up rather quickly.
• Thinking Tic: Nick Carter often folds his arms and put fingers on his lips or face. He sometimes points out that he's deep in thoughts or "investigating intensively" when he's disgruntled that police commissioner Ledvina is not as invested in the case as he is.
• Tin-Can Telephone: Nick and Ledvina use one to communicate at the variety show.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: The Gardener killed his wife.
• Title Drop: The line "Adela hasn't had her dinner yet!" is uttered by one of the Baron's henchmen.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Afer Adele has Nick Swallowed Whole, Ledvina throws his pocket pepper-pot into her mouth which makes her spit out Nick at once.
• Train-Station Goodbye: At the end, Nick is boarding the Orient Express. He's traveling to Egypt to investigate why the Pyramid of Cheops disappeared. He's saying goodbye to his love Kvetuska – who is sad but understands that he is the only one who can solve "the pyramidal mystery". He's also saying goodbye to Professor Bocek, Kvetuska's grandfather, and his Prague sidekick police commissioner Ledvina.
• Trash Landing: A variation appropriate for a time before garbage bags were invented. When Nick is cast from the balloon, he conveniently lands on a huge haystack and comes out unharmed.
• The Triple: Countess Thun's favourite reading? Dante, Goethe, and Nick Carter's stories.
• Unconventional Vehicle Chase: The Gardener in his car is pursued by Commissar Ledvina riding a bicycle while carrying Nick Carter in a wooden basket on his back.
• Urine Trouble: Not seen, but that's what got Gert killed. He shouldn't have tinkled Baron's leg.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Irma Chatte has a letter for Nick hidden between her breasts.
• The Von Trope Family: The "von" in Baron von Kratzmar's name points to his evil nature.
• Wicked Cultured: The Baron is playing the violin, if only as part of an experiment to make his plants cry.
• You Got Murder: Spoofed and subverted. The suspicious letter contained only a free ticket to a night club, but savvy Nick checked with a device from his friend Roentgen.

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