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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.

The movie starts 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 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.

When their spaceship nears Venus, radio interference from the 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 containing 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 panic mankind.

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 they 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 that shadowy forms of humanoid Venusians are permanently burned on to the walls of the surviving buildings.

The Venusians are gone, but their machines remain functioning, including the radiation-bombardment machine intended for Earth. One of the scientists accidentally triggers the 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 ventures out to save him. Before he can reach Yu, Talua succeeds in reversing the weapon. Unfortunately, this also reverses Venus’ gravitational field, flinging Cosmostrator into space. Brinkman is also repelled off the planet, beyond the reach of the spaceship, while Talua and Tchen Yu remain marooned on Venus. The surviving crew members must return to Earth, where they warn humanity about the dangers of atomic weapons.

Directed by Kurt Maetzig, written by J. Fethke, W. Kohlhasse, G. Reisch, G. Rücker and A. Stenbock-Fermor, screenplay by Kurt Maetzig and J. Barkhauer, based on „Astronauci” by Stanisław Lem, starring Günther Simon, Julius Ongewe and Yoko Tani.

Source: „First_Spaceship_on_Venus” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 15 April 2017. Web. 02 May 2017.

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46 odpowiedzi

  1. I sure am glad that the title description has "Science Fiction", otherwise I would have never of known. These days with the likes of Elon Musk, someday it might be mistaken as 'Documentary'.

  2. Having just built the scale model of the Cosmostrator by Pegasus, I had to finally watch the movie. Don't know how I missed it over my 67 years. 😊

  3. The German take on the genre: cooly different, with a diverse cast..and their AI plays chess! Intelligent fiction tho. In reality, 2 tragedies, lives lost, families wrecked, etc..was it worth it?? All that $ could have helped a lot of people..

  4. There are only two planets the Moon and Mars nothing else we can reach. The nearest star is 23 trillion miles away, give or take, 4.5 light years or 6.300 years at present technology to reach. Those simple facts prove space travel is a waste of money.

  5. in 60s in united states , Black people were still slave and cannot use restroom, washroom with whites… This black guy lucky to be in administrator not as slave.what a shitty world.

  6. I've read several positive reviews on this movie and I have to wonder what they've been smoking. It's so bad, I've watched a 3 times. My favorite part was when all the crew around the launchpad

  7. The movie had some good moments? Lmao at the end where the security people held back the crowd. They looked like the Mickey Mouse Club with the big letters on their shirts.

  8. Some quite creative stuff in plotting the extinct Venusians, and some ok ish science and realities of space exploration which would've blown away viewers in 1960

  9. I absolutely LOVE how racially and ethnically diverse this movie is, especially given the year it was made! Great job! And a pretty good movie, plot wise, too!

  10. I love campy 50's-60's sci-fi but honestly this one kind of sucked. The sets and costumes were great the special effects were horrid black tar goo was the creatures of Venus