Zeppelin - Das fliegende Schiff

Produced as Ronald Getty's (son of J.Paul Getty) venture into motion pictures it attempted to explore a subject that had up to its point only been explored through the explosion of the German airship Hindenburg. It attempted to tell the story of loyalties with the then current anti-military fashion (petty drum rolls when the more dramatic and militaristic "We Sail Against England" was originally written would have provided a contrast needed).

Since the general public's reaction to a philo-German film was unknown it was thought that any overt militarism (such as the "Blue Max") should be down because the subject matter of Zeppelins without swastikas (i.e., The Hindenburg) was an unknown commodity thus a safe course was taken and downed played and thus weakening the film. Originally, scenes of epic battles waging beneath the skies of blue were considered and deleted.

In a story meeting Bob Wise's underplay of German militarism in "The Sound of Music" was argued as the public's desire to see Germania topics -- as fodder for story antagaonists without their significance.

It remains at least to me an attempt to discuss loyalty, love's betrayal and history on a very very limited budget.

I remember researching it with dad. What interested Getty was that his father's oil company furnished Germany's airships during the First World War. His contribution despite his then titanic sums available to him for a variety of reasons was very modest. Rumor had it J. Paul called Jack Warner and was concerned that his son was investing in movies and what could he expect... Ronald should however be commended because without his involvement no film on zeppelin would have been made at all (of the very limited collection of zeppelin films thus far).

The film could have used an injection of drama that was unfortunately out of vogue during the time of its production. This sounds like an excuss but one must remember it took "Patton" ten years to be produced out of similiar concerns. It was private money after all...

To dad... thanks for the memory ol' fella will miss ya...

While I will admit that the plot of ZEPPELIN is okay and not the best I have ever seen, I still like this movie a lot. Michael York plays a British agent that pretends to defect in order to learn the German airship secrets. Along the way he meets the extremely attractive Elke Sommer, though what all that has to do with war, I never was really certain.

The film concerns an era that we seldom talk about--WWI and the terror that seized the Allies when the Germans first rained bombs on an unsuspecting London. For the life of me, I can't recall another movie that mentions this in any way, so historically speaking this is an important topic.

I was fortunate enough to have seen this film on the big screen when it first came out in the very early 1970s. I remember sitting in the first row in the balcony and watching the big screen as the Zeppelin first appeared up out of the clouds--pretty reminiscent of the shark attacking in the later film, JAWS! Much of the film is set on the dirigible, the scenery is great and the Zeppelin scenes are pretty realistic. Give it a try--it's a forgotten and worthwhile film.

Picture seeing a colossal silver fish resting on the surface of a Norwegian fjord. That image from "Zeppelin" is unforgettable. The story of a secret German airship raid on a Scotish Castle to destroy British historical documents hidden there, is fast moving with little time for character development. There is also a tremendous stretch of believability. Nevertheless the special effects are so superior, that the script deficiencies are easily forgiven. Michael York is adequate as the British spy, and Elke Sommer plays the wife of the zeppelin's designer. Though not always logical, the film is imaginative and surprisingly entertaining, with images that will not soon be forgotten. Recommended. - MERK

The movie is a fictionalized account from a German-born British official ( Michael York ) since his own point of view . He races against time to prevent a hateful scheme and thwart the plans of cunning , detestable baddies ( Anthon Driffing , Peter Carsten ). The Zeppelin made in scale model is the real star of the film , the enormous Blimp causes damages , wreak havoc , disrupts communications , rampage over cities and destroys vital points and gun positions, nowadays the Zeppelin is led a secret mission.

The film gets a magnificent creation of suspense , thriller and emotional drama including some exciting and well staged aerial images . A first rate cast with a valiant and sympathetic lieutenant well reincarnated by Michael York ( Three Musketeers , Cabaret ), a gorgeous beauty as Elke Sommer ( The prize ), her scientist husband old man ( Marius Goring of Red slippers) , Andrew Keir ( Quatermass and the Pit ) and of course the two top-notch devious villains as Anton Diffring and Peter Carsten , both of whom are usual in Nazi roles . Splendid aerial photography with impressive outdoors and sensational sky-shots by cameraman Alan Hume and good matte cinematography , besides fantastic maquettes of ingenious flying machine . Exceptional and atmospheric musical score by musician Roy Budd with extraordinary leitmotif as when the Zeppelin takes off from hangar . The picture is correctly directed by Etienne Perier . It's an acceptable picture and well produced with high budget and shot in Pinewood studies . Rating : Good , better than average .

While the film ends with a lot of threads still loose, the film is worth watching for great period costumes, sets, and especially the airship used by the Germans in the raid on England. Whether historically accurate or not in its design, the airship is in a lot of ways the true star of this film. The story does not fully develop the theme of divided loyalty completely and the ending seems a bit abrupt, but the action scenes are exciting and expertly directed. Great aerial footage and many scenes are filmed from very high up - you may not want to watch this one if you are scared of heights! Worth a look for World War I or aviation buffs.