Zeppelin

Belgian-born director Etienne Perier made two English-language films in the early '70s. One was the action-orientated Alistair MacLean adaptation When Eight Bells Toll; the other was Zeppelin, a WW1 story about an audacious raid on the British mainland. Neither film was a huge success, though both were pretty serviceable. Perier retreated back to Belgium after these two efforts, where he has continued making French-language movies ever since. If pushed to state which of his two English-language films I like the most, I would probably (marginally) go for Zeppelin, as it features an unusual storyline and is entertaining in its quiet, workmanlike way.

A German-born British soldier, Geoffrey von Richter-Douglas (Michael York), is called upon to carry out a tricky mission during WW1. It seems that the Germans have developed a very advanced zeppelin (giant airship) called the LZ36, which they could potentially use to carry out bomb raids and other such strikes against Britain. Von Richter-Douglas is ordered to "defect" to the German side and work his way into the full trust of the Germans so that they will allow him access to the LZ36. The only person who unconvinced that Von Richter-Douglas is committed to the German cause is Ericka Altshul (Elke Sommer), beautiful wife of the zeppelin's designer Christian Altshul (Marius Goring). Von Richter-Douglas talks his way aboard the zeppelin as it embarks on its trial run, but is horrified to discover that the supposed "trial run" is actually an intricately planned, top secret attack on the British mainland. The objective is to storm a fortress where the Magna Carta document is being kept and destroy the document, striking a blow against British morale by robbing them of one of their most valuable items of heritage and history. Unable to make contact with his superiors to forewarn them of the attack, Von Richter-Douglas is left to ride out the raid and wait for a chance to thwart the plot from within.

York's character is quite interestingly presented, being a German by birth but a Briton by nationality. Tension is created as the film progresses by making the viewer wonder if he will aid or hinder the German plan. Alas, York is not at his best in this film, and his stiff performance mars the action somewhat. The aerial photography is very exciting, though, with some good scenes aboard the airship as it drifts across the North Sea on the way to its devastating strike. The film is quite slowly paced for its opening half, but becomes brisker and more absorbing as it enters the second act. The climactic raid is quite excitingly done, although - as several reviewers have already noted - too many loose ends are left unresolved as the final credits roll. Zeppelin is a passable film and would go down well on one of those rainy afternoons when there's nothing else worth watching.

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.

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 .

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...

I loved it the music was great so was the cast the zeppelin looked just like a real one this is a great movie micheal york was great in it it shows many scenes of the zeppelin and the fight between the airplanes and the zeppelin was exciting I loved the movie I give it *****5 stars