Der schweigende Stern - The Silent Star
A mysterious magnetic spool found during a construction project is discovered to have originated from Venus. A rocket expedition to Venus is launched to discover the origin of the spool and the race that created it.
Der schweigende Stern (The Silent Star) is a 1960 East German/Polish film directed by Kurt Maetzig and based on the novel The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem. The film is also known as First Spaceship On Venus, Planet Of The Dead, Spaceship Venus Does Not Reply, Milcząca Gwiazda (Polish for Silent Star), and A Holtak Bolygója (Hungarian for Planet Of The Dead).
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 disowned the movie.
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 (http://www.umass.edu/defa/silentstar.shtml).
First Spaceship on Venus was featured in episodes of both Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Cinema Insomnia.
Plot Summary
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 Cosmokrator I spaceship, intended to voyage to Mars, is redirected to Venus, a 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 follow when Cosmokrator 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 Cosmokrator into space. Brinkman is also repelled off the planet, beyond reach by Cosmokrator, 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
* Yoko Tani as Japanese female doctor / Sumiko Ogimura MD
* Oldrich Lukes as American nuclear physicist / Prof. Harringway Hawling
* Ignacy Machowski as Polish chief engineer / Prof. Saltyk / Orloff
* Julius Ongewe as African communications technician / Talua
* Michail N. Postnikow as Soviet Astronaut / Prof. Arsenew / Prof. Durand
* Kurt Rackelmann as Indian mathematician / Prof. Sikarna
* Günther Simon as German pilot / Robert / Raimund Brinkmann
* Tang Hua-Ta as Chinese linguist / Dr. Tchen Yu / Lao Tsu
* Lucyna Winnicka as TV reporter / Joan Moran (as Lucina Winnicka)
Credits
* Directed by: Kurt Maetzig
* Written by: Stanisław Lem (novel The Astronauts), Jan Fethke (adaptation), Wolfgang Kohlhaase (adaptation), Günter Reisch (adaptation), Günther Rücker (adaptation), Alexander Stenbock-Fermor (adaptation), Kurt Maetzig (screenplay collaboration), J. Barkhauer (uncredited)
* Music: Andrzej Markowski
* Cinematography: Joachim Hasler
* Editing: Lena Neumann
* Release date: 26 February 1960 (East Germany), 31 October 1962 (USA)
* Running time: 93 minutes, 79 minutes (USA), 80 minutes West Germany, 95 minutes East Germany
* Country: East Germany / Poland
* Filming locations: DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme, Babelsberg, Potsdam, Brandenburg, Germany; WFF Film Studio, Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland
* Language: German
In Other Media
In 1990, First Spaceship on Venus was featured in the 2nd season of Mystery Science Theater 3000. That episode was released on DVD in 2009 by Shout Factory as part of the "MST3K 20th Anniversary Edition" collection.
In 2007, First Spaceship on Venus was shown on the horror hosted television series Cinema Insomnia (http://www.cinemainsomnia.com/show.php#episode). Apprehensive Films later released the Cinema Insomnia episode onto DVD (http://www.thecrippledmasters.com/cifirstspaceshipdvd.html).
External links
* First Spaceship on Venus listing at the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053250/).
* First Spaceship on Venus (dubbed in English) available for free download at the Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/details/the_first_spaceship_on_venus).
* The Silent Star (German with English subtitles) DVD available for purchase from the DEFA Film Library at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (http://defafilmlibrary.com/product_info.php?products_id=68).
