First Spaceship on Venus (1960) on Netflix
A spool of unknown material found during irrigation work in the Gobi Desert is tied to the 1908 Tunguska explosion. Professor Hawling traces it to Venus, and a crew sets out.
- Netflix2.4/5
- IMDb4.7/103,693 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1985, a project to irrigate the Gobi Desert turns up a spool of a material unknown on Earth. The find is linked to the Tunguska explosion of 1908, long blamed on a meteor. Professor Hawling concludes that the ship it came from was Venusian, and the spool proves to be a flight recorder. An international team under Professor Sikarna and Dr. Tschen Yü decodes it, while greetings sent toward Venus bring no reply. Hawling therefore calls for a journey to the planet, and a Soviet spaceship built for Mars is redirected to Venus for a voyage of thirty to thirty-one days. Its crew includes commander Professor Arsenjew, pilot Brinkmann, communications officer Talua, Dr. Sumiko Ogimura and chief engineer Professor Sołtyk. Sikarna works on the alien message with the ship's computer during the flight.
Cast
- Julius Ongeweas Afrikanischer Fernsehtechniker…
- Hua-Ta Tangas Chinesischer Linguist(Tang Hua-Ta)…
- Karen Fredersdorfas Brinkmanns Mutter(uncredited)
Show all 20 cast
- Peter Kiwittas Bit Part(uncredited)
- Karl-Helge Hofstadtas Bit Part(uncredited)
- Fritz Dechoas Reporter(uncredited)
- Karl Brenkas Bit part(uncredited)
- Christoph Beyerttas Bit Part(uncredited)
- Klaus Bambergas Bit Part(uncredited)
- Fredy Bartenas Bit Part(uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about First Spaceship on Venus (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Julius Ongewe, who played Talua, the Kosmokrator's communications officer, was a medical student in Leipzig from Nigeria or Kenya. He became the first black actor to be portrayed travelling in space.
- Polish writer Stanisław Lem, whose 1951 novel The Astronauts the film adapts, was so critical of the adaptation that he wanted his name removed from the credits, protesting its extra politicization compared with his original.
- East German officials, including DEFA finance director Herbert Volkmann, had ideological concerns about the script and brought in new writers, so that twelve different versions of the script were eventually created.
- The spaceship mock-up built at the Berlin-Johannisthal airfield was turned into a newspaper hoax: Der Kurier's front page presented it as a failed attempt at spaceflight in the Soviet occupation zone.
- The 1962 US dubbed release, retitled First Spaceship on Venus by Crown International Pictures, cut all references to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
- The film was noted for its early, extensive use of electronic sounds, which illustrated the computer deciphering the alien message, the message itself, and the devastated Venusian landscape.
