FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS (1960)
aka DER SCHWEIGEND STERN
Article 2149 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-2-2007
Posting Date: 7-1-2007
Directed by Kurt Maetzig
Featuring Yoko Tani, Oldrich Lukes, Ignacy Machowski
When a strange object is discovered to be a spool with a recording from another planet, scientists discover it must have come from Venus. Attempts to contact the planet prove unsuccessful, so an expedition is planned to take a spaceship to the planet.
With at least fourteen minutes missing, so-so dubbing and an altered soundtrack (it sounds mostly like stock music), it’s really difficult to judge what this movie was like in its original form. It’s confusing on first watching, but it proves more interesting on rewatching, and I suspect that it is somewhat better than its reputation would lead you to believe (it’s currently sitting with a 3.3 rating on IMDB). Still, though it’s interesting, it never quite becomes compelling, and the actual trip to Venus is full of cliches about weightlessness and meteor showers. The high point of the movie is seeing the landscape on Venus; it’s a surreal skeleton of a world, full of bizarre little pieces of technology and other touches, such as a seemingly sentient piece of slime and little hopping metal machines which apparently serve as some sort of tape recorder. I’ve heard that the original version of the movie is also out there, and I may just have to pick it up one of these days; I suspect that it’s a lot more interesting than the USA release. And I do find it an interesting touch that the cute little robot turns dangerous at one point in the proceedings.
Fantastic Movie Musings and Ramblings 
BRINKMANN’S ADVENTURES IN VENUSIAN LAND?
Or a.k.a. BRINKMANN’S ADVENTURES IN VEUSIAN-LAND :-)?
Liking yr succinct takes very much, so wanting to add likewise, pity a longer version seems to be AWOL* as all in all this is pretty impressive technically and visually for the period of such spacecapade entries: plus being it’s a then Communist East German production, also notably and nicely anti-atomic – (“disarm / planning an atomic attack” when hoisted by own petard- ish) – perhaps it’s those explicit Commie ideology refs that have been excised. Plus, probably regrettable loss of some superb daft dub dialogue / techno / atomic ref gobbledegook (e.g. “The negative gravity is increasing” (what?!) and astrophysicist ‘Sumiko’ and lovesick ‘Brinkmann’: “you will SEE your heart” (what?) hinting at some past assignation that SHE put an end to); then her delicate surgery whilst Venusian mayhem rages outside; then note the pre-launch sleep arrangement, surely nicked – er, inspired I mean – for / by Scott for Alien: (also, just one token black guy, too!); ,and yup, the cute little tank-like robot “gadget”, pre-dating the R2D2 critter 15+ years earlier than SW! So, put in the right frame of date reference mind, really great stuff, I think.
*Clear dialogue cuts occur at 11.53, 52.49, plus clumsy reel changeover at 56 mins.