First Spaceship on Venus

First Spaceship on Venus

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Kurt Maetzig
Screenplay by Kurt Maetzig
Uncredited:
J. Barkhauer
Story by J. Fethke
W. Kohlhasse
G. Reisch
G. Rücker
A. Stenbock-Fermor
Based on Astronauci 
by Stanisław Lem
Starring Günther Simon
Julius Ongewe
Yoko Tani
Music by Andrzej Markowski
Cinematography Joachim Hasler
Edited by Lena Neumann
Production
company
Distributed by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb (East Germany)
Crown International Pictures (USA)
Release dates
  • 26 February 1960 (East Germany)
  • 7 March 1960 (Poland)

1962 U.S. release dubbed in English by Crown International Pictures

Running time
 93 minutes
79 minutes[1] (US)
Country East Germany
Poland
Language German

First Spaceship on Venus, German: Der schweigende Stern (en: The Silent Star), Polish: Milcząca Gwiazda, is a 1960 East German/Polish science fiction film directed by Kurt Maetzig and based on the novel The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem. The film is also known as Planet of the Dead, Silent Star, and Spaceship Venus Does Not Reply.

A much-shortened 1962 Crown International Pictures English dubbed release in the USA used the name First Spaceship on Venus where it was double billed with Varan the Unbelievable.

Lem was extremely critical about the movie.[2]

First Spaceship on Venus was featured in episodes of both Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Cinema Insomnia.

Plot

The film begins in 1985, when engineers involved in an industrial project to irrigate the Gobi Desert accidentally unearth a mysterious and apparently artificial "spool". When found to be made of a material unknown on Earth, the spool is circumstantially linked to the Tunguska explosion of 1908. The "spool" is seized on as evidence that the explosion, originally blamed on a meteor, was actually caused by a spaceship. Professor Harringway deduces the alien craft must have come from Venus. The spool itself is determined to be a flight recorder, and partially decoded by an international team of scientists led by Professor Sikarna and Dr. Tchen Yu. When radio greetings sent to Venus go unanswered, Harringway announces that a journey to Venus is Earth's only alternative. The recently completed Soviet spaceship Cosmostrator I (Kosmokrator in the original), intended to voyage to Mars, is redirected to Venus, a 30–31 day trip. During the voyage, Sikarna works furiously to translate the alien message on the disc using the ship's computer.

When the ship nears Venus, radio interference from that planet cuts the crew off from Earth. By then, Sikarna's efforts lead to a stunning discovery—the spool describes a Venusian plan to irradiate the Earth's surface, with the extermination of mankind being the prelude to an invasion. Rather than a "cosmic document" as had been expected, the spool bears a cold-blooded message of destruction. Harringway convinces the crew to press on towards Venus rather than return to Earth with news that would cause panic.

With the ship's robot Omega, American astronaut Brinkman pilots a one-man landing craft. On the ground, he encounters an industrial complex and finds small recording devices that look like insects. The rest of the crew follows when Cosmostrator lands, but find no Venusian life forms. Journeying across the planet, they find the remains of a deserted and blasted city centered around a huge crater—signs of a catastrophic explosion so intense, shadowy forms of humanoid Venusians are permanently burned into the walls of surviving buildings.

While the Venusians are gone, their machines remain functioning, including the radiation-bombardment machine intended for Earth. One of the scientists accidentally triggers the radiation weapon, leading to a frantic effort by the Earthmen to disarm it. Tchen Yu lowers Talua—the ship's communication officer—into the Venusian command center. When Tchen Yu's suit is punctured, Brinkman goes out to save him. Before he can reach Yu, Talua succeeds in reversing the radiation weapon. Unfortunately, this reverses the planet's gravitational field, flinging Cosmostrator into space. Brinkman is also repelled off the planet, beyond reach by Cosmostrator, while Talua and Tchen Yu remain marooned on Venus. The surviving crew members return home, where they warn the people of Earth about the danger of atomic weapons.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in East Germany.[3] It sold 4,375,094 tickets in the country after being released to cinemas.[4]

Editions

The first American edition was only 82 minutes long. All references to Hiroshima were edited out. The American Hawling became a Russian, named Orloff. The Russian Arseniev became the American Heddingway; the Pole Soltyk became the French Durand.

The original, uncut version of the film was re-released under the title The Silent Star by the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2004.[5]

In other media

In 1980, a short sequence of First Spaceship on Venus was used as "film-in-film" in the film Galaxina.

In 1990, the film was featured in the second season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was released on DVD in 2008 by Shout! Factory as part of the "MST3K 20th Anniversary Edition" collection.

In 2007, the film was shown on the horror hosted television series Cinema Insomnia.[6] Apprehensive Films later released the Cinema Insomnia episode onto DVD.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS (U)". British Board of Film Classification. 1963-01-23. Retrieved 2012-11-14.
  2. ↑ "Filmowe światy Stanisława Lema", citing Lem's interview, published in book Thus Spoke... Lem
  3. ↑ Allan, SeDn; Sandford, John (1999). DEFA: East German cinema, 1946-1992. Berghahn Books. p. 80. ISBN 1-57181-943-6.
  4. ↑ List of the 50 highest-grossing DEFA films.
  5. ↑ "DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst". DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
  6. ↑ "Cinema Insomnia". Cinema Insomnia. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
  7. ↑ "First Spaceship on Venus DVD". Apprehensive Films. Retrieved 20 July 2010.
Bibliography

External links