THE HINDENBURG [1975 / 2017] [Blu-ray] [USA Release] The Truth At Last! Who Destroyed THE HINDENBURG! 97 Souls Boarded The Airship But Only 62 Survived!
George C. Scott leads an all-star cast in ‘THE HINDENBURG,’ a gripping suspense thriller that attempts to reveal the intricate plots behind the historic airship disaster of 1937. Assigned as a colonel by the German government to prevent any plans of sabotage during the Hindenburg's transatlantic voyage, Colonel Franz Ritter [George C. Scott] suspects everyone aboard the luxury ship, especially a German Countess Ursula von Reugen [Anne Bancroft] vehemently opposed to the Nazi regime. Stylishly directed by Robert Wise and co-starring Burgess Meredith, Gig Young, Charles Durning and Richard Dysart, ‘THE HINDENBURG’ brings to life one of the most infamous events in aviation history and one of the screen's most engrossing mysteries.
FILM FACT No1: Awards and Nominations: 1976 Academy Awards®: Win: Special Achievement Award: Peter Berkos for sound effects. Win: Special Achievement Award: Albert Whitlock and Glen Robinson for visual effects. Nominated: Best Cinematography for Robert Surtees. Nominated: Best Art Direction-Set Decoration for Edward C. Carfagno and Frank R. McKelvy. Nominated: Best Sound for Don Sharpless, John A. Bolger Jr., John L. Mack and Don Sharpless. 1976 American Cinema Editors: Nominated: Best Edited Feature Film for Donn Cambern.
FILM FACT No2: Filmed largely in Technicolor with a mock newsreel presented in black-and-white at the beginning of the film, and a portion of the film is presented in monochrome, edited between portions of the historical Hindenburg newsreel footage shot on 6th May, 1937. An interesting aspect was the film's transition from black-and-white to Technicolor and back to greyscale, beginning with a simulated Universal Newsreel that gave an educated view to the history of the lighter-than-air craft. While a narrator talks about the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, footage of the LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II being christened in 1938 is erroneously shown, indicating the newsreel was not from 1936. Photographs show the construction of the Hindenburg air ship, to which the narrator describes her as "the climax of man's dream to conquer the air, the new queen of the skies." Immediately afterwards the newsreel transitions into the film in colour, with the Hindenburg is shown outside its hangar you have a matte painting, but not of the actual film footage, and along with the opening credits the airship flies by before disappearing into the clouds.
Cast: George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, William Atherton, Roy Thinnes, Gig Young, Burgess Meredith, Charles Durning, Richard A. Dysart, Robert Clary, Rene Auberjonois, Peter Donat, Alan Oppenheimer, Katherine Helmond, Joanna Moore, Stephen Elliott, Joyce Davis, Jean Rasey, Ted Gehring, Lisa Pera, Joe Di Reda, Peter Canon, Charles Macaulay, Rex Holman, Jan Merlin, Betsy Jones-Moreland, Colby Chester, Teno Pollick, Curt Lowens, Kip Niven, Michael Richardson, Herbert Nelson, Scott Walker, Greg Mullavey, Val Bisoglio, Simon Scott, William Sylvester, David Mauro, Joseph Turkel, Sandy Ward, Norman Alden (uncredited), Wade Crosby (uncredited), Jimmy Davilla (uncredited), Susan French (uncredited), Arthur Hanson (uncredited), Shep Houghton (uncredited), Arch Johnson (uncredited), Ruth Kobart (uncredited), James Lashly (uncredited), Johnny Lee (uncredited), Stephen Manley (uncredited), Deanna Martin (uncredited), Todd Martin (uncredited), Lawrence Moran (uncredited), Rollin Moriyama (uncredited), Herbert Morrison (archive sound) (uncredited), James Murtaugh (uncredited), Vic Perrin (uncredited), John Pickard (uncredited), Ruth Schudson (uncredited), Rolfe Sedan (uncredited), Danil Torppe (uncredited), Robert von Dassanowsky (uncredited), Charles Wagenheim (uncredited), William Wintersole (uncredited) and Reporter Herbert Morrison (voice) (uncredited)
Director: Robert Wise
Producer: Robert Wise (uncredited)
Screenplay: Nelson Gidding (screenplay), Richard Levinson (screen story), William Link (screen story) and Michael M. Mooney (book)
Composer: David Shire (music score)
Cinematography: Robert Surtees (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 125 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Universal Pictures
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘THE HINDENBURG’ [1975] is an American Technicolor film based on the disaster of the German airship Hindenburg. The film stars George C. Scott and it was produced and directed by Robert Wise, and was written by Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson and William Link, based on the 1972 book of the same name by Michael M. Mooney.
A highly speculative thriller, ‘THE HINDENBURG’ depicts a conspiracy leading to the destruction of the airship. In reality, while the Zeppelins were certainly used as a propaganda symbol by the Third Reich and anti-Nazi forces might have had the motivation for sabotage, the theory of sabotage was investigated at the time, and no firm evidence for such sabotage was ever put forward.
George C. Scott plays Colonel Franz Ritter, a Luftwaffe colonel assigned the task of protecting the Third Reich’s prestigious dirigible, The Hindenburg, from various threats. Colonel Franz Ritter boards the ship for a voyage from Germany to America, along with the usual assortment of characters: a wealthy German aristocrat Countess Ursula von Reugen [Anne Bancroft] opposed to the Nazi regime, a pair of card sharks Burgess Meredith and Rene Auberjonois, a shady business executive Edward Douglas [Gig Young] and a typically villainous Gestapo official Martin Vogel [Roy Thinnes]. It soon becomes apparent that someone has planted a bomb on the ship, endangering the lives of all those aboard.
Perhaps the most curious observation one can make about The Hindenburg is that it isn’t really a disaster movie at all; in fact the disaster, which was over in a flash in real life, occupies no more than the last five minutes of the film, and is filmed in monochrome so that Robert Wise can splice footage of the real incident between shots of the various characters either jumping to safety or meeting their fiery demise. Writer Nelson Giddings attempts to overcome this problem by trying to engage the audience with a whodunit plot relating to the planting of the tiny bomb that’s scheduled to detonate when the airship arrives in the USA, but his characters are so dull and one-dimensional that he fails to create any audience interest. For the most part, they’re just names and faces allocated minimal screen time and little in the way of back story.
The plot is almost entirely speculative; apparently, with no real basis in fact, something which you would have thought would free the writer’s imagination, but which clearly doesn’t. The disaster, once it finally comes, looks quite impressive, but it’s a telling fact that the only sequence in the disaster film that generates any genuine emotional resonance is the shocked eye-witness account of Herbert Morrison, a radio reporter present when the airship exploded who delivered such a distressingly traumatised report that even today, nearly eighty years after the incident, it will send a shiver down the spines of all but the most hard-hearted of viewers.
For the estimable finale in which the infamous airship explodes, the jaw-dropping real-life footage narrated by journalist Herb Morrison is merged seamlessly by special effects maestro Albert Whitlock with Robert Wise’s recreation of events inside the stricken airship, hence the shift to black and white when infamy unfolds, upping the authenticity value to maximum. Universal Pictures even rope in the esteemed production designer Carafagno from the Golden Age of Hollywood who helped create the mighty sets for ‘Ben Hur’ in 1959 no less, imparting a thorough recreation of the luxury of the ship, including the steel skeletal innards that only tipping or dog owning passengers saw.
We are also afforded a peek inside the workings of an extraordinary mode of transportation rarely glimpsed these days but in the 1930’s seen as the way forward. The kitchenalia of the non-electric cigarette lighter, the steadiness test with an up-standing pen, the intricacies of landing. There are smart moments; during the opening scene, we see the vanity of the Nazis. Scott talks at length to Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels, but we see only that man’s portrait, fittingly caught in a moment of proud self-awareness. However, when the “fiery hell” part of the film finally arrives, it is certainly interesting and dramatic. Director Robert Wise makes the bold decision to cut to black-and-white at the moment the bomb goes off. This enables him to intercut staged scenes with the authentic classic newsreel footage of the actual Hindenburg going down, but what annoyed me was certain scenes had freeze frames inserted with the final demise of the airship and I felt it jarred my visual experience, which in my personal opinion was not at all necessary and definitely spoilt the final demise of the LZ 129 Hindenburg zeppelin, which was kind of odd, but the overall final filmed ending was a surprisingly effective dramatic ending to the film and you felt you was actually experiencing the heat of the high intensity of the flames. Highly Recommended!
Post Script: The film ends with the narrator informing us that 13 passengers, 22 members of the crew, one Navy linesman all died, and luckily there were 62 survivors, but at the very end of this list it is mentioned the last survivor mentioned is the dog. In fact there were two dogs aboard the Hindenburg and both died. It seems that audiences can apparently handle dozens of people dying but not a dog. Also near the end of the film we hear Herbert Oglevee "Herb" Morrison (May 14, 1905 – January 10, 1989) who was an American radio journalist for Radio Station WLS-AM 890 Chicago in Illinois who gave the best known broadcast for his dramatic report of the Hindenburg disaster, a catastrophic fire that destroyed the LZ 129 Hindenburg zeppelin on 6th May, 1937.
THE HINDENBURG MUSIC TRACK LIST
THERE’S A LOT TO BE SAID FOR THE FUEHRER (Music by David Shire) (Lyric by Edward Kleban) [Performed by Peter Donat and Robert Clary] (uncredited)
MOUNTAINEER MARCH (uncredited) (Traditional) (Arranged by John Cacavas) [opening newsreel sequence]
VIENNA, ALWAYS VIENNA (uncredited) (Music by Johann Schrammel) (Arranged by John Cacavas) [opening newsreel sequence]
REGIMENTAL MARCH (uncredited) (Music by Joseph Haydn) (Arranged by John Cacavas) [opening newsreel sequence]
YOU’RE A SWEETHEART (uncredited) (Written by Harold Adamson and Jimmy McHugh)
I WON’T DANCE (uncredited) (Written by Jerome Kern, Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields and Otto A. Harbach)
LOVELY TO LOOK AT (uncredited) (Written by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields)
COME, JOSEPHINE, IN MY FLYING MACHINE (Written by Al Bryan and Fred Fisher)
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Universal Pictures presents us a stunning 1080p image, with an equally impressive 2.35:1 aspect ratio, which really excels when it comes to showing off the faces of the actors, the very expensive looking clothes, and various diverse and luxurious looking interior shots around the airship, as well as the nicely appointed dining areas to the interior structure walkways away from the areas that is not inhabited by the passengers. The colours are extremely well defined and natural look to give a very pleasant experience, particularly the deep red colours of the Nazi banners, especially on the airship. So all in all it gives a very filmic look, especially for the age of the film.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Universal Studios Pictures brings us the most part a good 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio experience. The dialogue is heard very clearly and the ambient sounds are nicely handled for the age of the film. The only slightly negative aspect of the audio experience is when you see the actors in the centre of the airship where the engines seem to overpower the sound and you can hardly hear what the actors are talking to each other. The composed film music score is very lush and gives the film a solid ambient definition spread across the two front speakers. So all in all the audio experience gives you a great deal of depth especially when in the main construction part of the Hindenburg airship, and even more impressive at the end of the film when the airship explodes in flames and descends towards the ground and eventually impacts the earth in the most spectacular way.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras: Unfortunately this Blu-ray release of ‘THE HINDENBURG’ contains no supplemental content.
Finally, ‘THE HINDENBURG’ film story moves along at a nice pace. The editing is rather good. In fact the whole production is very professional and engaging. The ending left me severely mouth-slapped. I knew what was coming but I didn't expect it to revert to black and white and intercut between the 1975 shots and original footage taken of the disaster in 1937. It only took sixteen seconds to go down, but it is edited very cleverly and the time is stretched to a good few minutes. That's what you paid your money for after all, especially for a great film of this calibre, and you can tell I enjoyed it because now seeing it on this Blu-ray disc where you get to fully appreciate all of those lovely matte shots. Let's all stand to attention and salute Albert Whitlock, The Master. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
