First Spaceship on Venus | 
| Director: Kurt Maetzig
Actors: Yoko Tani, Oldrich Lukes, Ignacy Machowski, Julius Ongewe, Michail N. Postnikow
Studio: Crown International Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.99
Buy New: $8.99
You Save: $1.00 (10%)
New (14) Used (7) from $7.99
Rating:  54 reviews
Sales Rank: 48379
Format: Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 79 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
UPC: 014381870923
EAN: 0014381870923
ASIN: B00004W19F
Theatrical Release Date: October 31, 1962
Release Date: September 19, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
In a utopian future of universal peace and brotherhood--1985 to be specific--a mysterious artifact found in Siberia is discovered to be a message from Venus. While the recording is studied, an international team of scientists is rocketed off to make contact with the mysterious planet. It takes the film some time to get going (worldwide harmony makes for a beautiful future but pallid drama when everyone gets along so nicely), but things begin to cook once they land on the misty wasteland of Venus. Swarms of metal bugs hop from glassy mutant trees and bubbling black mud oozes after our astronaut heroes, but no Venusians can be found amidst the geodesic architecture and buzzing power plants. What they discover instead is a terrifying conspiracy wrapped in an anti-war parable. Based on a novel by Polish science fiction legend Stanislaw Lem (whose work also inspired Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris), this German science fiction adventure is a visual treat, from the sleek, grand, silver spaceship and a funky purple Venus landscape of alien ruins and crystalline bubbles. Decently (if prosaically) dubbed and trimmed down to a brisk 78 minutes, it's an entertaining triumph of psychedelic art direction and desolate alien weirdness presented in all its brightly colored, widescreen glory. --Sean Axmaker
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 49 more reviews...
 Multi-Racial Space Adventure in the Sixties! December 1, 2008
James April (somewhere over the rainbow, USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Yeah, that should be the real title of this turkey -- I've read where this is a German/Polish foreign film, 1959. The story happens in the 1980s where we have a space station on the moon and we all live in peaceful harmony, which makes for a boring passage on board this ship. No one is a real hero, and although there are hints of a love triangle, nothing materializes there either.
I did like the take on the Venusians -- a civilization that was on the brink of atomizing the Earth, but something went wrong and they blew themselves up instead. Whew!
Cute little "R2D2" type robot that plays chess but has no heart. He even warns of danger, danger (no Will Robinson here, however).
An international multi-racial team, quite unusual in that time period. At the end, their ship is being subjected to extreme gravity since they accidentally turned back on the atomic whachamacallit (OOPS) -- two guys go back to turn it off and a third comes to rescue them, but then something else goes horribly wrong -- you get the idea.
Special effects are pretty good -- straight-flying rocket, meteor storm (why is there always a meteor storm and a spacewalk in all these??) and so on. Eerie clouds and storms on the formaldehyde surface of Venus...OOOOH>>>
The dubbing was passable and the story plodding along. Rocketship XM was made at about the same time and is the superior scifi. The story is based on the writings of Stanislaus Lem, more noted for the film adaption of his story Solaris. Solaris - Criterion Collection
Rental!
Get more for your money, you B-film fanatics:
First Spaceship On Venus; Widescreen TV.: Greeting Card: Merry Christmas
The DEFA Sci-Fi Collection
Yoko Tani's in these, too:
Samson & the Seven Miracles of the World
My Geisha
Worthless ...go for the seperate releases November 10, 2008
michael winburn (astoria, ny United States)
Unfortunately, even though First Spaceship on Venus was filmed in 2.35:1, the film is presented here in 1.33:1... might be less!!!!
I can't even begin to speak about the second film.
The case reads Fully Restored...hhhmmm.... do they mean they took it out of the garbage can and ran in through a projector onto a wall, then filmed it with a digital camera!?!.... Yep, thats not an overstatement... its that bad.
Beside the horrendous quality of the presentation, both films are highly enjoyable !!! Really!
So, if you can get this double set for $1 or 2, then go for it. If you want to see it in a quality presentation, go for another, seperate edition.
Venus God of War? July 13, 2008
Bearfax (Sydney, Australia)
First Spaceship on Venus There's something enjoyably unique about Japanese Sci Fi that's hard to identify. It shows in the early Godzilla and Mothra films, then there's Gamera that hot blooded turtle. Then there's the brilliant Mysterions and Battle in Outer Space. More recently it shows in their best Anime films like the quite intelligent android naval gazing in the Ghost in the Shell series (Star Trek's Data with soul).
The Brits? Well they make intelligent, clever if talky Sci Fis ( the wonderfully fun Dr Who an exception). The Americans like their Sci Fi brimming with special effects with little significant interaction between characters, unless they are the focus of the film and then they're superheroes (though their earlier Sci Fis like Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds (orig), Them and Day the Earth Stood Still were amongst the best ever made).
But the Japanese Sci Fis seem very much into imaginative action, hokey and at times cluttered, but there's a feeling something is always happening. There's little time for deep and meaningful contemplation like the Brits films and the special effects would be comfortable in the early Dr Who series ( though recent efforts are vastly improved).
But the Japanese like to experiment with ideas, some weird, some down right absurd but always fun. And they use what they have in effects to the best advantage. And they also almost always play the old Western formula of good guys and bad guys, and the bad guys are always the aliens (bad ET with attitude). Its probably got something to do with Japan leaving behind its militaristic past and seeking to become the recognised committed pacifists opposed to the expansionism of predatory thinking. Then again it may be that they only had a selection of white and black hats and what good guy wants to wear the black hat.
First Spaceship on Venus follows their usual formula. The humans are working together in international harmony and they have a nasty alien enemy on another planet (or do they?). There's lots of strange and clever happenings when they reach Venus. The general atmosphere is threatening (its always dark whenits threatening), there are the usual plethora of mysteries to investigate often with that sense of boreboding that something nasty is creeping up on you - and creep or should I say ooze, it does. The characters, the usual gaggle of scientists there to explain to us the tricky bits, are mere pawns for the many bizarre happenings and if you're old enough, it almost reminds you of the serial matinees before the main show at 50's film theatres, with continuous episodic cliffhangers and a 'what will happen to our intrepid heroes next week' feel. But you know the good guys will win out in the end 'cause they're on the side of right and virtue. The love elements in Japanese Sci Fis are always corny, so much so that it makes for comedic relief (perhaps we miss something in the translation or certain specific cultural ideosyncracies). But I always feel that I've had a good time watching a Japanese Sci Fi and this one is no different.
To be sure this is mental chewing gum entertainment, but its fun, its entertaining and you'll feel amused and good at the end. Then again I was an addict for Rocky Jones and Commando Cody from the 50's, and I tend to love these older rather simple fares.
 Vhs Quality Dvd disc. April 26, 2008
T. crow
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The movie was a good entertaining movie when I was a kid. This dvd product looks like a 1985 vhs quality tape. It is of extremely poor quality. The movie is a decent and intelligent movie. I am sending the dvd? Back.
 first spaceship on venus April 16, 2008
J. tanquary (california)
i hope i got this movie right i liked it alot at first it seems to be made by foreign type and has some asian person, black person and whites in it, it like star trek thing which i like. it has touch of what venus must of or could of been like and it could be what another palnet is like somewere in our galaxy. if like older stuff this is another winner, the polish guy smart to who did this movie. i think there a robot whois real short. if your IQ is above 150 you will understand some of it better and if not its still got some great scenes. it may seem funny for venus butt not for if it was another planet thousand of light years away from earth.
|
|
|
