Evidence of an alien spaceship is found in a meteorite excavated in the Gobi Desert which came from the 1908 explosion in Tunguska, Siberia. Cryptographers and linguists determine that a glassy "memory spool" is from the planet Venus.
In 1985 eight international scientists from the World Space Agency go to Venus on an expedition in the silver spaceship Cosmostrator 1, which resembles a candelabra. The crew includes a Japanese physician, African cosmonaut, a Hindu linguist, a Chinese mathematician, an American captain, a German scientist, and a French scientist. Omega is the chess champion robot and is quite amusing. George Lucas obviously ripped off this dome-headed robot for R2-D2 in STAR WARS (1977).
During their trip the on-board linguist announces that the magnetic spool contains plans for an invasion of Earth. There is a meteor shower and cosmic interference prevents radio contact with Earth. Cosmostrator lands on Venus and the crew discover a strange purple landscape, foggy with swirling pink and blue clouds. Civilization has been destroyed by nuclear war, although buzzing power plants and machinery are still operating. There is a large sphere, geodesic architecture, crystal bubbles, swarms of metal bugs, and they are attacked by blob creatures.
They also find a gravity weapon aimed at Earth and it seems the Venusians were intent on destroying Earth, but accidentally destroyed themselves. Dr. Tchen Yu's (Tang Hua-Ta) spacesuit is punctured and Kurt Brinkmann (Gunther Simon) and Talua (Julius Ongew) rush to his aid, but all three are lost when the ship is sent back to Earth by an accidental discharge of the gravity beam.
When the Cosmostrator returns to Earth, each survivor gives a brief statement to the press. Dr. Sumio Omigura (Yoko Tani) says, "We have learned much but we have sacrificed a lot. Too much." The last lines spoken are, "We still have a great task before us. We must use our other planets to fly further and further. It is mankind's destiny."
The cast also includes: Oldrich Lukes (Professor Harringway), Ignacy Machowski (Professor Orloff), Michail N. Postnikow (Professor Durand), Kurt Rackelmann (Professor Sikarna), Lucyna Winnicka (Joan Moran), Ruth-Maria Kubitschek (Mrs. Brinkman), Eduard von Winterstein (Weiland), Fritz Decho, Eva Maria Hagen, Gertaud Kreissig, and others. Writing credits are Stanislaw Lem, Wofgang Kohlhaase, Gunter Reisch, Kurt Maetzig, J. Barkhauer, Jan Fethke, Gunther Rucker, and Alexander Stenbock-Fermor. Music in the original film is by Andrzej Markowski. The US version was scored by Gordon Zahler, and the same futuristic music is used in other films. Kurt Maetzig directed.
FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS is a German and Polish production. It is an adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's 1951 novel "The Astronauts". Lem is a great Polish sci-fi writer who also wrote "Solaris" and "Test Pilot Perx", and he repudiated this film. The production is good but stilted, and it tends to be somewhat boring with a few unintentional laughs. It's intelligent, serious, and dignified, not much fun and the pacing is slow. Most characters are two dimensional, with the notable exception of Yoko Tani, who has difficulty dealing with her husband's death. Chemistry between the crew members is relatively poor and acting tends to be wooden with stiff dialogue, probably because of the scientific nature of the astronauts and the dubbing. Perhaps it was not intended to be entirely entertainment.
Expressionistic visual effects are quite nice, especially the surreal Venusian landscape. The miniature sets are impressive, as good as LOGAN'S RUN (1976). Sometimes the film looks a bit cheesy and it always looks quite different from similar Hollywood movies, although it has beautiful cinematography. It's refreshing to watch films without a Hollywood aesthetic. The interior of the rocket is well done, costumes are interesting, and the chess-playing robot is cute. Voices are dubbed into English fairly well but there is too much puzzling scientific jargon about advanced astrophysics. However, best of all, it has an optimistic worldview, with Earth at peace and all people equal.
This co-production has the German title "Der Schweigende Sterne" ("The Silent Star"), and the Polish title "Milczaca Giazda". It is also known as: "Planet Of The Dead", "Spaceship Venus Does Not Reply", "Molczaci Krzydla", and "Raumschiff Venus Antwortet Nicht". The original runtime is 130 minutes, which was edited to 78 minutes by its American distributor, resulting in an incoherent plot. It was not released in the US until 1962. This film is now in the public domain.
