8mm Forum: THE HINDENBURG (1975) 2x400

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Posted by Chris Fries (Member # 2719) on February 24, 2012, 09:12 PM:

The 1970's may be thought of as the decade of the Disaster Film but natural and man-made catastrophes have been scaring moviegoers since the dawn of film.

There are the all-star extravaganzas that are complete works of fiction. Airport, The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, Dante's Peak, Deep Impact, Twister, and The Towering Inferno fall into this category.

Some try to be historically accurate with actors playing real people. Movies in this genre include A Night to Remember, Alive, K-19, The Perfect Storm and Apollo 13.

Then there are films that are based on actual tragedies but have fictional or composited characters trying to survive a horrible event. San Francisco, In Old Chicago, and the highest-grossing disaster film of all time, James Cameron's TITANIC just to name a few.

Robert Wise's "The Hindenburg" from 1975 falls into the last category. This film deals with the theory that the destruction of the famous zeppelin was caused by sabotage.

"The Hindenburg" was released as a 2x400 from Universal 8. It cuts a 125 min. movie down to 30 min. Unlike the typical S8 digest of a Disaster Film, this one does not try to cram the entire all-star cast into the story. Gone are Anne Bancroft, Gig Young, Burgess Meredith, and Rene Auberjonois. Instead, this version focuses on George C. Scott as Colonel Franz Ritter and his attempt to stop William Atherton's Karl Boerth from blowing up the airship. It also has Charles Durning as the captain and Roy Thinnes as the Gestapo who is supposed to be helping Scott's character. And because of all the characters that were edited out, the explosion and fire play out more or less in real time. If you haven't seen it, the actual movie keeps freezing during the disaster to show what happens to everyone. The visual effects by Albert Whitlock are very good and are seamlessly edited into historical footage of the real Hindenburg disaster.

It is edited well and reminds me of the second digest of "Carrie". That version is basically about the relationship between Carrie and her mother and is a pretty intense story by itself. "The Hindenburg" is like that in that it primarily deals with just Scott's Colonel Ritter and Atherton's Boerth. And being a 2x400 digest, it allows time to enjoy both performances. There are some edits, yes, but the scenes between them are mostly intact.

The color on my copy has some fade but not too bad. One layer of blue cellophane over the lens and it looks very good. It has a letterboxed ratio of 2 : 1 which is very close to the original Panavision image. Compared to most Universal 8 digests of this era, the picture is fairly sharp.

"The Hindenburg" may be considered just another Disaster Film but I like it. It is well directed by Robert Wise and has very good performances from the cast. This is a digest that will defiantly have many viewings.

[ March 16, 2012, 12:34 PM: Message edited by: Chris Fries ]

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on February 25, 2012, 12:50 PM:

Chris,

Thanks for the review. I've always liked this film (I have the digest and a 16mm scope print of the feature) and I agree that U-8 made a wise choice in concentrating on the sabotage angle. The cutdown also includes much of David Shire's fine score. I remember the audience in the theater applauding when the narrator included the dog in the list of survivors!

U-8 released this with two different box covers. I'll have to locate the other one.

Doug

Posted by Gerald Santana (Member # 2362) on March 06, 2012, 01:08 PM:

Thanks for sharing this review and film Chris, here are some screen-shots from the two parter:

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