Customer Reviews

The Lost Zeppelin

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

ALPHA VIDEO offers bargain priced, often hard-to-find vintage movies that are ideal for those willing to skip DVD extras. Their transfers show no evidence of restoration, so quality varies from one title to the next, with "fair to good" being the average.


ALPHA's dub of THE LOST ZEPPELIN is a bit blurry but watchable, and audio is good. There's no breaks in the film, which has really primitive sound effects. For example arctic winds are simulated by penny whistles and musical saws, while airplane and other motors are unrecognizable noise.

Modern audiences seem put off by this picture's lack of technical perfection and by a necessary plot point introduced in its first 20 minutes. I on the other hand find fascinating the lovely '20s ladies fashions seen here: sequined evening gowns with layered skirts that have asymmetrical hemlines, bobbed hair with pin curls at the nape, and so on.

This section of the movie is most necessary to a crucial later event. At a farewell party for the airship's crew, Commander Hall (Tearle) catches his wife (Valli) in the arms of his second-in-command, Tom Armstrong (Cortez). After they're home and Hall confronts Miriam about evidence of infidelity, she coldly asks for a divorce on the very eve of his departure for a most hazardous mission.

Rather than plot spoilers, here's a bit of "Lost Zeppelin" trivia:
Music score is by Meredith Willson. This one-time member of Sousa's band wrote a symphonic piece for Chaplin's THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940), but is most famous for composing words and music to the Broadway hit, THE MUSIC MAN.


This exclusive (as of 10/09) Alpha release features an historic early talkie worth a viewing for most; it's one that aficionados of early 20th Century cinema will find eminently collectible.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.8) The Lost Zeppelin (1929) - Conway Tearle/Virginia Valli/Ricardo Cortez/Duke Martin/Kathryn McGuire/Winter Hall

The previous reviewer has outlined the plot pretty well, which generally will give you the whole story of the movie. Forget subplots; they don't exist. Watch the movie for the zeppelin and biplane and ice scenes, which are pretty neat. The soundtrack is poor, though.

It does seem that much of the acting was done as though the movie was going to be a silent picture, but since the movie was made in 1929, I suppose that's to be expected. The medium was still new, and the directors hadn't adjusted their stage direction to the talking medium very well. Anyway, it's interesting in old movies to look at the set decoration, such as the furniture and clothing styles.

I was a bit disappointed that the zeppelin itself probably got less "airtime" than the wife's overly dramatic fainting spell, but the miniaturization was pretty good, especially after the zeppelin crashed and only its internal skeleton remained -- covered in icicles. I'm not clear on what happened to the outer skin of the airship; supposedly the ship went down because it had a hole and was loosing gas, but there was no explosion or fire. Unfortunately, we never get a tour of the ship, either (I guess they had a small budget for making sets). I had hoped for more views of the zeppelin.

The movie is short, only 71 minutes, so make up some popcorn and get comfortable. It's not much of a thriller, but it's easy enough to watch in one sitting.

Got this for my 93 year old dad and he loved it. It was priced well and it came on time.

very ndissapointed, perhaps just too old a movie for present tastes and sophistication ( I have over 20 lighter than air hours. Much prefer the movie Zeppalin Jon.