Today Amazon delivered the 1932 movie F.P.1 does not answer (F.P.1 antwortet nicht) in the german Version with Hans Albers. Though not really a good film (Albers has been much better in other movies), it has one of the best pulp stories ever - the original story was written by SF-pioneer Curt Siodmak (Donovan's Brain), who also wrote the scripts for classics like the wolf man.
The story is about a floating airfield (FP = Flugplattform / flight plattform) 500m long and 15m wide in the atlantic ocean to make regular transatlantic passenger flights possible. There is sabotage involved and of course lots of great aircraft - though sadly most of the time is spent with a rather lukewarm love story. The highlights are Albers flight to the platform in a Junkers F13 and the best auirplanes of the time coming to rescue FP1 - the Do-X and a Junkers G38 amongst them.
The movie was made in three versions - a german, english an french with different leading actors: Hans Albers, Conradt Veidt and Charles Boyer. Sadly, the DVD included only the german and is missing a 13 minutes making of from 1934, too. Expecially the Conrad Veidt version would be interesting, as he's been a really good actor.
The flight platform in the movie was mostly a model, of course - but for some shots they needed the real thing. So they encased a small island in the baltic sea with corrugated iron!
Great stuff for a remake with todays technology - and for wargames.
Some trivia:
#The main theme of the score is the airmans song/Fliegerlied of Extrabreit-fame, who made it a german new wave classic in the early 80ies.
#The leading actress in the german version was Sybille Schmitz. She reached stardom through this movie but is nowadays best remembered for "Die Sehnsucht der Veronica Voss", a Faßbender-movie about her later years.
May 19, 2008, 08:57:46 PM