First Spaceship on Venus (1962)

the audience applauded

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I'll never turn down the opportunity to watch an old sci-fi or horror B movie. They represent some of my favorite guilty pleasures. But this one didn't work for me at all.I have a feeling that the dubbed script didn't translate properly. I'm also sure the available version has been cut to shreds - at least I hope it was because I could make little sense from of any of it.The plot may potentially have been interesting but I was lost from the opening moments over the frenetic analyzing of the "spool" (or whatever it was). The casting went way overboard in trying to make the crew into a miniature League of Nations. I'm sure it was intended as a fine gesture but it was so contrived as to be irritating. The various creatures and situations encountered on the planet were all over the map (Venusian map that is). At some points I wondered if a different movie had been inadvertently spliced in during the editing process.I really don't like giving low scores to movies like this because I believe they need to be rated in an alternative manner but I'm stretching just to give it a 3.

Folks on the IMDb love this one. It's Kubrick-esque, they say. For it's time, the special effects are amazing, they say. I say I watched it over the course over two nights and even though I was sure it was nearly finished at the end of night one, I was dismayed to find out tonight that I had almost the entire film to sit through! For those asking, I have to split up films due to my demanding job of murdering blue bottles trapped in people's sheds in my local allotment. They pay me in runner beans.Folks on a multi-cultural, united Earth discover an object that seems to have some sort of recording from the planet Venus that ends up in the Gobi Desert via the Tunguska Explosion. Curious, they gather together a crew of many nations (something they got right, says I, from the racially tolerant world of 2017) and head off for Venus. This takes an awfully long time, even with all the exciting bits where a human plays a robot at chess, but eventually they do make it to Venus.Not much there makes sense, but at least our actors stand around for ages talking about every strange occurrence that happens, like when this guy's buggy explodes and he falls into a hall full of bouncing metal insects, or when someone else kicks a rock into some black mud which not only causes the black mud to chase them, but also happens to turn a huge golf ball shaped object red. You heard me.Yeah, the effects are good and the sets are good and the robot looks like something that would probably last about ten seconds on Robot Wars, but there's a huge amount of nothing happening in this film. I know it kind of ends up being the point of the film, but I was seriously on the verge of nap time during most of this film's duration. Next!

When an alien artifact discovered on Earth is found to have come from Venus, an international team of astronauts embarks to investigate its origins.Odd film made in East Germany during the cold war.When the film came to the states characters were switched in the dubbing.The film is interesting as a curio piece on two levels....the cold war angle AND just because it's sci fi from 1960 set in 1985.Over all the problem with the film is that it's overly slow. The action doesn't really get going until 2/3s into the film. But it's in color which is a rarity for a film made in 1960.It's worth a look see if you're a die hard early sci fi fan. If not you probably should move along.

Back when Germany was divided politically and ideologically the Communist East German half gave us First Spaceship On Venus which is a rather self explanatory title. It hasn't worn well with time, but it's still open to speculation what's on Venus.A magnetic spool containing Venusian recordings is found in the wreckage of what was thought to be a meteor hitting the Siberian tundra in 1908. Just enough to arouse scientific curiosity is translated and an international expedition is formed.Back in 1908 things were happening on Venus and it was a more advanced civilization on that planet and more warlike. But a big old disaster happened and the Venusians were all killed. What happened to the Venusians is why you watch the film.The film is a plea for universal disarmament and it was made sincerely with the best of intentions. The message is laid on with a sledgehammer and the acting not great and the dubbing even worse.Still Walter Ulbricht who led East Germany back then had no real reason to be ashamed of the film, but it is sadly and badly dated.