DIE FRAU IM MOND

(vt By Rocket to the Moon; vt The Girl in the Moon; vt The Woman in the Moon)

   Film (1929). UFA. Dir Fritz LANG, starring Gerda Maurus, Willy Fritsch, Gustav von Wangenheim, Fritz Rasp, Klaus Pohl. Screenplay Lang, Thea VON HARBOU, based on Frau im Mond (1928; trans as The Girl in the Moon 1930 UK; cut vt The Rocket to the Moon 1930 US) by von Harbou. 156 mins, cut to 107 mins, cut to 97 mins. B/w.

   After the success of METROPOLIS, Fritz Lang's next sf film was a disappointment. Overlong (inits original form) and melodramatic, it concerns an ill matched group of people travelling to a MOON which seems little different from the Swiss Alps, airlessness and low gravity being ignored: the explorers are able toamble about picking up chunks of precious metal and jewels (the trip having been arranged by industrialists who believe, correctly, that the Moon is rich in gold). The build-up to the take-off, however, is much moreconvincing; Lang used rocket experts Hermann Oberth (1894-1989) and Willy LEY as technical advisers, and the model rocket they produced wasprophetic in its design - it was even constructed in two stages. The blast-off itself was also impressive, with good camera-work by Oskar Fischinger and effects by Konstantin Tschetwerikoff. Later the Naziswithdrew the film from distribution and destroyed the rocket model, afraid that its accuracy would give away secrets about their own development of military ROCKETS.

   JB/PN

   See also: CINEMA; GERMANY.