A good-looking sci-fi film with a naively optimistic view of the future and with characters that are difficult to care too much about.
Directed by Kurt Maetzig
Screenplay by Kurt Maetzig, J. Barkhauer (uncredited)
Story by J. Fethke, W. Kohlhasse, G. Reisch, G. Rücker, A. Stenbock-Fermor
Based on The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem
Cinematography: Joachim Hasler
Edited by Lena Neumann
Music by Andrzej Markowski
Production companies: Roter Kreis group of DEFA, Filmowe Iluzjon film studio
Distributed by Progress Film (East Germany), Crown International Pictures (US)
Running time: 93 minutes / 79 minutes (English dub)
Box office: 4,375,094 tickets
Cast
- Günther Simon as Raimund Brinkmann (Robert Brinkman in the US release), the Kosmokrator's German pilot
- Julius Ongewe as Talua, the African communications officer
- Yoko Tani as Dr. Sumiko Ogimura, the Japanese medical officer
- Oldřich Lukeš as Professor Hawling, a US nuclear physicist (Orloff in the US release)
- Ignacy Machowski as Professor Sołtyk (Durand, a French engineer, in the US release), the Polish chief engineer
- Mikhail Postnikov as Professor Arsenjew, Soviet astrophysicist and commander of the mission (Harringway in the US Release)
- Kurt Rackelmann as Professor Sikarna, an Indian mathematician
- Tang Hua-Ta as Dr. Tschen Yü (Chen Yu in the US Release), a Chinese linguist.
- Lucyna Winnicka as Joan Moran, television reporter
- Eduard von Winterstein as a nuclear physicist
- Ruth Maria Kubitschek as Professor Arsenjew's wife
The World of 1960: A Taste of the Times
- OPEC ( Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ) is formed and will eventually comprise twelve member countries: six in the Middle East( Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates ), four in Africa ( Algeria, Angola, Libya and Nigeria ), and two in South America ( Ecuador and Venezuela ), Collectively they will end up by the 21st century holding most of the world’s crude oil reserves and a significant proportion of its crude oil production.
- As the Cold War intensifies, a Soviet SA-2 guided surface-to-air missile shoots down the US Lockheed U2 spy plane piloted by Francis Gary Powers.
- In the wake of the French withdrawal from Vietnam, the United States announces that 3,500 American soldiers are going to be sent to Vietnam. The Domino Theory involves the belief that if one country was to fall to communism each nearby country would also likely fall, especially with the financial and military support of North Vietnam by the Soviet Union and China. Thus begins America's involvement in a long and many would argue futile war against communist North Vietnam.
- Following major food shortages in East Germany 160,000 refugees cross to West Germany, Nikita Khrushchev orders the construction of the Berlin Wall
- The Irish Republican Army (IRA) starts it's fight against the British
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law. The purpose of the law is to close loopholes from the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and mainly dealt with voter disenfranchisement.
- The United States Supreme Court decides the Boynton v. Virginia case which arose from an incident in which Bruce Boynton, an African-American law student,being arrested for trying to order at a “whites only” restaurant in a bus terminal. The court ruled in a 7-2 decision that racial segregation in public transportation was unconstitutional as it violated the Interstate Commerce Act.
- In South Africa Afrikaner police open fire with sub machine guns on demonstrators in the black township of Sharpeville.
- The first televised U.S. Presidential debate takes place between Kennedy and Nixon
- John F Kennedy wins the presidential Election with one of the smallest margins in history.
- The sexual revolution begins with the use of birth control pills and the opening of the first Playboy clubs in Chicago.
- Technical achievements include the invention of the Laser and a heart pacemaker.
- With its testing of its first atomic bomb, France joins ‘nuclear bomb club.’
- 100,000 people Join the"Ban The Bomb" Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament rally on April 18th in London.
- In the USA the yearly inflation rate sits at 1.46%. The average cost of a new house is $12,700.00 while the average monthly rent is $98.00. A gallon of gas will set you back 25 cents to fuel your $2,600.00 new car. When you get home you can put your feet up, relax and watch your 23 inch television.
- In the new frontier of space exploration, (in which the Soviet Union seems to be forging ahead of the US) NASA launches the Pioneer 5 space probe that will travel between the orbits of Earth and Venus to gather information about deep space between the two planets. Pioneer 5 is able to establish communications with Earth at a record 22.5 million miles away, but contact with the craft is lost after that point.
- NASA also launches TIROS-1 (Television Infra-Red Observation Satellite), one of the world’s first successful weather satellites. TIROS-1 weighs about 270 pounds and measures 19 inches in height and 42 inches in diameter. The satellite can only function during daylight hours but manages to transmit thousands of photos of cloud patterns and document the formation of cloud systems. It will continue to function for about 78 days.
- The Summer Olympics are held in Rome, Italy and were the first games to be fully covered on television. The geo-political rival superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States, along with host country, Italy win the most medals.
- To Kill A Mockingbird novel
- Alfred Hitchcock’s Pscho
- Coronation Street - UK TV series ( I spent many a night in the ‘60s watching that British soapy with my parents)
- The Flintstones cartoon series
- Rawhide western TV series
- Chubby Chequer and The twist dance craze.
- The Etch A Sketch art toy/gadget (It really seemed like magic!)
Trailer
An alien artefact is discovered on Earth originating from from Venus
A rocket expedition to Venus is launched to discover the origin of the artefact and the beings that created it.
Read on for more…