L'odyssée du Hindenburg

This is very much a niche film--one that will appeal to some viewers but probably not most. I was attracted to it for two reasons--my love of George C. Scott films as well as because I am a huge airship lover and have always wondered what it would have been like to ride in one of these behemoths. However, given that most people DON'T have this fantasy and Scott is quickly becoming a forgotten name in films, I honestly can't see most people seeing or enjoying the film.

The film is a fictionalized account of the final voyage of the Hindenburg. While it is all supposition and guesswork, it is pretty exciting. Plus at the end of the film they did a nice job of integrating existing newsreel footage into the body of the movie. The acting is pretty good and the special effects excellent, but much of the spectacle is lost on television--it was amazing on the big screen.

Overall, history lovers will be happy but most others who have no idea about this event or its context will probably be left bored and confused.

Even the presence of someone like GEORGE C. SCOTT can't save THE HINDENBERG from being a less than extraordinary recreation of the famous tragedy at Lakehurst, N.J. when the German dirigible fueled by hydrogen caught fire during its landing during a lightning storm.

The most compelling footage comes toward the end of the film, when the craft is about to land and we know the unthinkable is about to happen. The special effects (designed by Alfred Whitlock) are especially strong here and combined with actual black and white footage of the event, it is mind boggling to watch. Ironically, the craft was so close to landing, with men on the ground already holding onto the landing ropes to secure the craft for its safe approach.

Unfortunately, the script Robert Wise directs is sub-par as far as interest in the characters. I'd be tempted to call it "Grand Hotel in the Sky" but there's not even enough soap-opera element to the cast of passengers that make any of them memorable, including ANNE BANCROFT, as a Countess, GIG YOUNG and BURGESS MEREDITH.

The plot is mostly fiction about a crew member causing a bomb to explode and ignite the huge aircraft, not really substantiated by the known facts although it makes for a compelling story. Historically correct or not, it's a film worth seeing but don't expect a disaster film comparable to THE TOWERING INFERNO or TITANIC.

What's really fascinating is seeing what the inside of the dirigible is like for passenger travel, truly elegant and comfortable...a reminder of the sort of elegance that greeted those aboard the TITANIC.

The 1970's were the age of the disaster films. Films featuring man made and natural calamaties with flashy special effects and big name stars were the "in" thing back then. Irwin Allen was the master of these when he made The Posiedon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. Jennings Lang also made an epic disaster film with Earthquake. In 1975, Robert Wise got into the act with The Hindenburg. Wise is one of our finest directors and I was so happy when he won the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award several years ago. Everyone loves a good mystery and the Hindenburg disaster is certainly one of them. What caused the explosion? We will probably never know. What we do know is that politics had a lot to do with it. The Hindenburg was filled with volatile hydrogen gas instead of helium. Helium is so safe it would actually smother fire. The American government did not wish to give the Germans helium because they feared they would use it for military purposes. This film has a first class cast with George C. Scott leading the way as the heroic Colonel Franz Ritter. Only a fine actor like Scott could have made a Nazi likeable. There are so many other fine thespians in the cast like Anne Bancroft and Charles Durning (as the Captain). A very fine character actor named William Atherton is the rigger who plants the bomb. Wise is a master of suspense because we all know what is going to happen and the ship is going to blow up, and yet you are on the edge of your seat as Ritter desperately races time to find the bomb. I would also like to mention how much I enjoyed Wise's masterful use of actual film footage of the disaster which he intermingles with scenes of the various actors trying to escape the burning ship. One of the fun things about these disaster films is watching who lived and who died at the end (what is really funny is that those near the top of the cast usually lived the longest!). There was indeed a theory that a rigger on the airship named Eric Spehl (they called him Karl Boerth in the movie) had indeed sabotaged the Hindenburg. The surviving crew members said that they had heard a sudden pop over their heads and looked up to see a circle of bright light that looked like a flashbulb igniting. It was near the axial gangway and this rigger was one of only a few who had acess to it. Spehl was known to have anti Nazi views. Did he plant a bomb? The theory is that Spehl had timed his explosive device (really a flashbulb attached to a photographic timer) to go off after the airship had landed. But the landing was delayed by a storm and he could not get back in time to re set it. Spehl was killed in the disaster and thus we will never know. The most chilling part of this film is where they play Herb Morrisons recording. He was the WLS Chicago reporter who was there to witness a routine airship landing and instead it was one of the most famous recordings ever made. Morrison lived until 1988 and resided near my home in West Virginia.

This film is a unique illustration of the Hindenberg disaster, which occurred on the evening of May 6, 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey when the gigantic hydrogen-filled zeppelin exploded on landing. Although a common theory for this event's cause was a discharge of electricity from the atmosphere triggering the fire, here it is suggested as form sabotage. As a result of the explosion, 36 people (one third of those on-board the German airship) were killed.

The movie goes along quite well in the way it is presented as a series of chronological events leading up to the explosion. The cast is flawless and in turn so is the superb and vivid acting. George C. Scott (as Colonel Franz Ritter, a German security officer) and Anne Bancroft (as the reluctant Countess) seem to be very suited and prepared for their parts as the main characters in the film. Other passengers to watch for include: Gig Young (as the sly Edward Douglass), Burgess Meredith (as gambler Emilio Pajetta) and Robert Clary, from the hit sitcom, "Hogan's Heroes", (as Joseph Spahn, a comedian.) These and many others provide an enjoyable overall performance in the movie while not only based on historical accounts, also provides other common genres of drama, suspense, comedy and even elements of romance between the two main characters.

This film may have a general theme of seriousness, as Colonel Ritter proceeds to investigate an array of people aboard who are suspects to an anti-Nazi conspiracy, yet it also resolves to make way for other moods as well. For example, midway through the film there is a very amusing sequence in which passenger Reed Channing (Peter Donat) plays on the airship's famous baby grand piano and sings a song entitled: "There's A Lot to be Said for the Fuhrer" while Joe Spahn performs. This scene obviously demonstrates how both passengers are clearly against the Nazi party, and here it is also interesting to note that during WWII, actor Robert Clary actually was confined to the Nazi concentration camps as countless other unfortunates were subject to during the Holocaust. There are also several humorous one-liners spoken throughout the film, such as: "Next time we'll take the Titanic!" followed by other memorable quotes.

As the film progresses, complications arise in the piloting of the Hindenberg as the crew and passengers encounter a brief experience with turbulence and St. Elmo's fire, (a flickering bluish glow sometimes appearing during storms) and repairing a rip in the fabric cover on the port side of the airship as it hovers over the frigid Atlantic Ocean. Events such as these, and Colonel Ritter's continuing investigation, prove to bring together desired elements of suspense, which certainly add up nearing the movie's climax ending.

Shortly before the Hindenberg's doomed landing, Ritter finally discovers the suspected sabotage and the passenger behind it in a perplexing turn of events. In doing so, he also finds that this well-planned demolition is i n the form of a timed-bomb that has been hidden in the airship's structure and that it is up to him to reach in time for deactivation. The last few thrilling seconds before the explosion in which Colonel Ritter slowly struggles to defuse the bomb have enough apprehension to make it seem an eternity as he meticulously works, but to no avail. From the moment in which the bomb goes off, there is enough action to keep you on the edge of your seat until the movie's end. The last few minutes (which combine both color, black and white images, and still frames of the fire as innocent passengers attempt to escape the flames) are exceedingly well filmed as well as both exciting and horrific. Through this vivid portrayal, one may wonder just what it would have been like to witness this tragic disaster. To any viewer its plain to see just why "The Hindenberg" received a special achievements award for its sound and visual effects and nominations for best cinematography and film editing.

With excellent writing credits provided by Nelson Gidding and under the careful direction of Robert Wise "The Hindenberg" proves to be a genuine and enjoyable movie to watch. This is a film that will undeniably age well, still seeming as timeless as it was the first time through. One of my favorite movies of all time, "The Hindenberg" can be highly recommended.

I actually thought the crash sequence in "The Hindenburg" looked pretty realistic. The combination of newsreel footage and special effects was effective as it was often difficult to distinguish between the two.

Robert Wise was an editor on "Citizen Kane" and he skillfully combined studio shots with stock footage on that great film as well. What worked on both of these movies was that the new shots were matched with the archival footage in terms of quality. Scratches, shaky camera movements and other imperfections were added to the special effects sequences to blend better with the existing newsreels.

Sure the script has some flaws but let's face it, you watch a film like this to see the disaster and "The Hindenburg" delivers.