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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Thursday, April 5, 2018

First Spaceship On Venus (1960)

Starring Yoko Tani, Oldrich Lukes, Ignacy Machowski, Julius Ongewe, Michail N. Postnikow
Directed by Kurt Maetzig
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

After an alien recording from Venus is discovered on the Earth, a mission to Venus is launched, but the international crew aren't prepared for what they discover on the planet.

A German sci-fi production that's long been in the public domain, the picture has a certain beauty when viewed in a pristine print, but loses that quality in PD copies.  As a film, it lacks excitement during the long buildup to the astronauts' settling down upon Venus, which isn't really remedied when they explore the surface, which despite expansive sets, isn't decorated with much of interest.  The concept of an international crew is worthwhile, but we don't get to see much of the cast's personalities, and a fairly morose tone persists throughout the picture.  Still if you prefer a thinking person's sci-fi, the story has some compelling themes, decent production values, and non-conventional imagery.

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