| The Silent Star / First Spaceship on Venus | |
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 German theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Kurt Maetzig |
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| Based on | The Astronauts by Stanisław Lem |
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| Cinematography | Joachim Hasler |
| Edited by | Lena Neumann |
| Music by | Andrzej Markowski |
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| Language | German |
| Box office | 4,375,094 tickets[3] |
Milcząca Gwiazda (German: Der schweigende Stern), literal English translation The Silent Star, is a 1960 East German/Polish color science fiction film based on the 1951 science fiction novel The Astronauts by Polish science fiction writer Stanisław Lem. It was directed by Kurt Maetzig, and stars Günther Simon, Julius Ongewe and Yoko Tani. The film was first released by Progress Film in East Germany, running 93 min.[4] Variously dubbed and cut versions were also released in English under other titles: First Spaceship on Venus, Planet of the Dead, and Spaceship Venus Does Not Reply.
After finding an ancient, long-buried flight recorder that originally came from a spaceship, apparently from Venus, a human spaceship is dispatched to the Morning star. The crew discovers a long-dead Venusian civilization that had constructed a device intended to destroy all life on Earth prior to invasion. Before they could execute their plan, they perished in a global nuclear war.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
fpwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS (U)". British Board of Film Classification. 23 January 1963. Retrieved 14 November 2012.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
DEFAwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ An entry about Der schweigende Stern and DEFA film database (retrieved 27 October 2018)