Hello. Today's film is disaster movie melodrama. Hard to believe the director also did The Sound of Music.
THE HINDENBURG
The zeppelin Hindenburg is a symbol of Nazi Germany and thus many people have a
motive to destroy it. Franz Ritter and Martin Vogel are German agents sent
independently on board to try and protect it. Their suspicion falls on Boerth, a former
Hitler youth leader who has become disillusioned with the Nazi regime. When Vogel
tries to arrest him, he appeals to Ritter, whose son died the previous year and
agrees to help him. When Boerth learns his girlfriend has been killed trying to escape arrest back in Germany, he
decides to stay on board as his bomb goes off.
The bomb is set to go off when all passengers will be off the ship.
Vogel becomes suspicious and again tries to arrest Boerth. Ritter and Vogel
fight and Vogel is knocked out. Boerth,
who was injured in the fight, tells Ritter where the bomb is. He now wants to
disarm it as delays mean that the bomb will go off when people are still on
board. While trying to disarm the bomb, Ritter is attacked by an awakened Vogel
and the bomb goes off. The film segues into the infamous newsreel showing the
destruction of the ship on May 6, 1937. [1:23:00 to 2:00:45]
Much better
at special effects than character development. Not the greatest disaster film
ever made, but it is watchable. This is
a fantasy, not a fact based film. To date no evidence has been found that there
was a bomb on the Hindenburg.
Air and Space Disasters of the World by Xavier
Waterkeyn (New Holland Publishers, London, 2007) at page 31 and the film at
1:23:10 give this date for the disaster
Director: Robert
Wise
Producer: Robert Wise
Starring:
George C. Scott as Col. Franz Ritter
Anne Bancroft as
Ursula, The Countess
William Atherton as Boerth
Roy Thinnes as Martin Vogel
Gig Young as Edward Douglas
Burgess Meredith as Emilio Pajetta
Charles Durning as Capt. Pruss
Richard A. Dysart as Capt. Lehmann
Robert Clary as Joe Spah
Rene Auberjonois as Maj. Napier
Peter Donat as Reed Channing
Alan Oppenheimer as Albert Breslau
Katherine Helmond as Mrs. Mildred Breslau
Joanna Cook Moore as Mrs. Channing
Stephen Elliott as Capt. Fellows
Joyce Davis as Eleanore Ritter
Colby Chester as Eliot Howell III
Michael Richardson as Rigger Neuhaus
Herbert Nelson as Dr. Hugo Eckener
William Sylvester as ''Luftwaffe'' Colonel
Screenplay: Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson & William
Link
Awards: he film won
the Best Sound Effects and Best Visual Effects Oscars. It was also nominated
for the Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Sound Oscars.
Running Time: 2 hours and 5 minutes
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