FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS / aka DER SCHWEIGENDE STERN / THE SILENT STAR (1960)

Don’t let the Kiddie Matinee title for the butchered Stateside cut mislead you, the original 93" Communist Bloc release, an East German/Polish co-production by award-winning director Kurt Maetzig from a Stanislaw Lem novel, is pretty sober-sided Sci-Fi for the period.  And why not?  The first film to try something approaching realism in space was also from Germany, Fritz Lang’s technically groundbreaking UFA silent FRAU IM MOND/’29.  (Technically, this film not too far from M-G-M’s FORBIDDEN PLANET/’55.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2016/05/forbidden-planet-1956.html)  And, as opposed to NASA’s all male/all-white astronaut bourgeoisie, behind the Iron Curtain crews are international.  (Or is it ‘Interntionale?’)  Multi-cultural/multi-ethnic cosmonauts with a German pilot leading one African Black*, one Chinese, a Pole, a white American physicist, even a female from Japan in spite of past entanglement with the Russian co-pilot.  OBJECT: Venus.  VEHICLE: Redirected Mars Rocket, now Venus bound.  MISSION: Find the cause of a crash landing on Earth by a ‘manned’ probe from Venus.  The choicest parts in here come early on (same true for Fritz Lang’s moon journey); once we land on Venus, the allegory of possible nuclear destruction on Earth takes over the narrative.  But the spacey ‘60s look in design and neat-o model effects hold loads of interest.  Plus: good restoration with subtitles and high resolution FREE on youtube.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xDtliUL2bo)  Be sure to check out the techie uniforms, they might be cheerleaders at Space U: Team ‘A’; Team ‘M’ and Team ‘T.’   Plus, great metal robotic insects still ‘alive’ on Venus and even a C3PO precursor named Omega.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, FRAU IM MOND; or THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL/’51 for the likely inspiration to this allegory.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2019/05/frau-im-mond-woman-in-moon-1929.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *Any cinematographer will tell you, surface textures & colors reflect light differently.  So while it’s great, and rather unusual in 1960, to see a Black cosmonaut on screen, ensemble shots haven’t been lit to properly handle light & dark complexions within a single frame.  Compositions where he’s included with other shipmates leave this African crew member all but depersonalized by prioritizing lighter skin tones in some of the subtlest racism ever seen on film.