The Lost Zeppelin

1929 "The Mightiest Thrill Picture of All Time!"
5.3| 1h12m| NR| en
Details

Explorers to the South Pole in an airship Zeppelin crash in the frozen Antarctic and must struggle for survival in the land of eternal snow and ice.

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Producted By

Tiffany-Stahl Productions

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Reviews

Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
VividSimon Simply Perfect
Ceticultsot Beautiful, moving film.
Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
JohnHowardReid Conway Tearle (Commander Hall), Virginia Valli (Mrs Hall), Ricardo Cortez (Tom Armstrong), Duke Martin (Lieutenant Wallace), Kathryn McGuire (Nancy), Winter Hall (Wilson).Director: EDWARD SLOMAN. Screenplay: Frances Hyland. Dialogue: Charles Kenyon. Story: Jack Natteford. Film editors: Martin G. Cohn, Donn Hayes. Photography: Jackson Rose. Art director: Hervey Libbert. Set decorator: George Sawley. Special effects: Jack Robson, Kenneth Peach. RCA Sound System. A Tiffany-Stahl Production. Recording engineer: Jerry Eisenberg. Sound technician: John Buddy Myers.Copyright 10 December 1929 by Tiffany Productions, Inc. New York opening at the Gaiety: 1 February 1930. U.S. release: 20 December 1929. 8 reels. 6,882 feet. 76½ minutes.SYNOPSIS: A dirigible crash-lands near the South Pole.COMMENT: The Tiffany-Stahl company bills itself as "The Better Entertainment". Better than what, one might ask? The New York Times reviewer had his finger on the pulse when he described all three of the principal performances as "not especially praiseworthy", the story as both unintelligent and uninteresting, the plotting as "clumsy", and the special effects as "far from impressive". Well, maybe he was a little over-hard on the effects. Aside from one or two remarkable achievements like the fall down the snow- cliff, realistic they are not. But some of the glass shots of the dirigible on the ice have a certain pictorial splendor, and some of the model- work is not bad. All the same, the story is trash, the principals are a dull, lifeless trio. Mr. Cortez tries hard to instill a bit of vigor into a thankless role, but wooden Tearle and that impossibly painted doll with her silly little voice, Virginia Valli, are a dead loss. Ed Sloman's tepid, static, colorless direction is no help either.
SimonJack I struggled to stay with this film to see it to the end. I give it two stars just for a try at a plot. Besides some very good silent films of the 1920s, I've rated about a dozen talkies of 1929 from 7 to 10 stars. Those were all produced by Paramount, MGM, Warner Brothers and a British studio."The Lost Zeppelin" was made by one of the 80 or so poverty row studios that existed in the early years of movie making. Tiffany-Stahl lasted longer than most, from 1921 to 1931, and turned out 70 films in that time. This was one of its last. And this film is a good example of why it and the host of poverty row studios didn't last. The few good directors and technicians that started in the lower echelons eventually made it into the big studios or went with a successful independent that would later make it big or merge into one of the other studios. Normally, I wouldn't bother to review a film I rate so low. But since this is now out on DVD, I thought prospective viewers might like more comment than has been posted on IMDb to this time. I won't urge folks not to watch this – but you should know what to expect before you plunk down cash to buy or rent it. Indeed, I had some inkling of what it was about, but I wanted to see it for myself. And, I'm glad I did – because I now know what the very cheap poverty row films were like.Everything about this film is poor, with the possible exception of the sound from the dialog. The sets are very amateurish and poor – such as an airplane door that slides open. No kidding – just like a sliding door in a house. Then, when a crew person opens the door, it starts to fall out of its track and he shoves it back. The airplane engine noise is some strange irritating sound created by sound effects, and doesn't sound anything like a plane engine. The film quality itself is barely watchable. The script is something that a third-grade student might create today. But the directing and acting are the very worst. Conway Tearle and Ricardo Cortez had small movie careers through the 1930s. But those were mostly in B films. The rest of the cast are actors who couldn't make the transition from silent to sound. Virginia Valli had made more than 60 films in the silent era; but after this, she made only two more before retiring from films at age 35. That's when many of the best actors begin to shine. The acting is very hammy in this, and one can see long pauses and long glances at the camera – techniques used in the silent films to allow subtitles to show. While the voices of all this cast were OK, they apparently couldn't transition to real acting. There were many silent film stars who didn't succeed in sound films because their unusual voices didn't fit their images in the minds of the movie-going public. So, this isn't likely to be very entertaining; but if you want to see an example of the hundreds and even thousands of early films that aren't around anymore – and of the type of films put out by the short-lived and over-night cheap studios, then you may enjoy watching "The Lost Zeppelin."I found this bit of trivia that movie buffs might enjoy. Apparently, MGM bought Tiffany's original film library and used it for fuel in "Gone with the Wind." It went up in flames in the scene of the burning of Atlanta. I doubt if it was very expensive kindling.
earlytalkie That this exsists at all is probably a minor miracle. Legend has it that David Selznick purchased all of the Tiffany-Stahl studio's negatives to utilize for the burning of Atlanta sequence in Gone With The Wind. Extant prints of films from this studio are rare, indeed. That aside, The Lost Zeppelin shows that the little studio was indeed trying to be up-to-date in marketing all-talking pictures. The dialouge delivery in the first section of the picture, before we get to the meat of the story, hearkens back to The Lights of New York (1928). Pregnant pauses and actors unsure about how to properly deliver dialouge are apparent. When the story gets to the dirigible party and their problems, the pace picks up and there are some pretty neat (for their time) effects. The studio must be praised for putting forth a story that is at once novel and original. This was released at Christmastime 1929 and it seems to have been successful in some quarters. In it's premiere in St.Louis, for example, the ads reported a take of $30,900 for the Christmas weekend. Pocket change today, but we must remember the time in which it was released. Conway Tearle and Virginia Valli are the top-billed players. The opening credits proclaim that this was "Synchronized by RCA Photophone". The print on the Alpha DVD was acceptably clear. In all, a film which will probably appeal to those who enjoy the early talkies. There are plenty of 20s fashions, hairdos and a huge radio in the living room of the heroine. Radio, in fact, is utilized throughout the film as a way to chart the progress of the Zeppelin. The Zeppelin itself is neatly represented by stock footage and the use of some neat miniatures. This is not an expensive film to buy and will be entertaining to those who enjoy film history.
xerses13 THE LOST ZEPPELIN (1929) a Tiffany Studio release (who ever they were) features a typical service triangle with the romance of early aviation. Zeppelins (ie Dirigibles) were hot stuff at this time popularized by their successes during World War I (WWI) and commercial traffic developed by Germany postwar.The best part of the film is the second half that concentrates on the Antartic flight of the titled character, it's wreck and the rescue of the survivors. There is some references to the disaster of the Scott expedition (1912) where the entire polar party died on the way back from the pole. For those unfamiliar with the story read the Roland Huntford book 'The Last Place on Earth' for the triumph of Amundsen and the defeat of Scott.The film is technically adapt for the time but you can see the problem the actors where having with the early sound equipment. The actors freeze and will not move even their heads in case they miss their marks and the microphones. In many scenes voice overs were used to cover multiple actors. To show how fast things improved in just two (2) years watch DIRIGIBLE (1931) Columbia Pictures, Frank Capra directing. Pretty much the same stuff, romance triangle and Antartic expedition though this time with AeroPlanes (Ford TriMotor) and two (2) Zeppelins. Balloons, Blimps and other period aircraft were also featured. The picture benefits from two (2) years of technical advancements and we would rate it six (6) stars ******.