First Spaceship on Venus (1960)

Original title

Der schweigende Stern

Directed by

Kurt Maetzig

Genre

adventure film, science fiction film

Country

German Democratic Republic, Poland

Runtime

1h 30m

Rated

G

Rating

4.9 of 10 from 82 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Scientists on Earth uncover a flight recorder from a crashed alien spaceship. A crew travels to Venus to investigate. They find a dead civilization that once planned to destroy Earth but destroyed itself with nuclear war instead.

suspensefulretro-futuristicsoberingslow-burnmind-expandingcautionarycontemplative

What happens

Der schweigende Stern (literal English translation The Silent Star) is a 1960 East German/Polish color science fiction film based on the 1951 science fiction novel The Astronauts by Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem. In Poland, the film was known as Milcząca Gwiazda (which translates as The Silent Star). The film was directed by Kurt Maetzig, and stars Günther Simon, Julius Ongewe, and Yoko Tani. It was first released in February 1960 by Progress Film in East Germany, running 95 min. It was released in the US on 31 October 1962 retitled First Spaceship on Venus. After finding an ancient, long-buried flight recorder that originally came from a spaceship, apparently from Venus, a human spaceship is dispatched to the Morning star. The crew discovers a long-dead Venusian civilization that had constructed a device intended to destroy all life on Earth prior to invasion. Before they could execute their plan, they perished in a global nuclear war. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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