First Spaceship on Venus
| First Spaceship on Venus | |
|---|---|
|
|
| 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 date
|
|
|
Running time
|
93 minutes 79 minutes(US) |
| Country | East Germany Poland |
| Language | German |
First Spaceship on Venus, (a.k.a. in German: Der Schweigende Stern; in Polish: Milcząca Gwiazda; in English: The Silent Star (also Planet of the Dead and Spaceship Venus Does Not Reply) is a 1960 East German/Polish color science fiction film, directed by Kurt Maetzig, that stars Günther Simon, Julius Ongewe, and Yoko Tani. The film was first released by VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb in East Germany. It is based on the science fiction novel The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem.
In 1962 the much-shortened, 79 minute, dubbed release from Crown International Pictures substituted the title First Spaceship on Venus for the English-speaking market. The film was released theatrically in the U.S. in 1962 on a double bill with the 1958 Japanese film Varan the Unbelievable.
First Spaceship On Venus was later featured in episodes of both Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Cinema Insomnia.
In 1985 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 an alien spaceship.
Professor Harringway deduces the craft must have come from Venus. The spool itself is determined to be a flight recorder and is 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 the only alternative. The recently completed Soviet spaceship Cosmostrator intended to voyage to Mars, is redirected to Venus, a 30- to 31-day journey. During the voyage, Sikarna works furiously to translate the alien message using the spaceship's computer.
...
Wikipedia