Kapitän Halls große Liebe

First Off, the Scuttlebutt Says that MGM Bought Up All of the Nitrate Prints from the Defunct Studio "Tiffany" to use as "Fuel" for the "Burning of Atlanta" Scene in "Gone With the Wind" (1939).

Hubris and Insensitivity to the "Arts" Aside, if True, it is Amazing that Any Movies from the "Little" Studio are Found Today (they are very rare).

But Here is "The Lost Zeppelin" for your Consideration...It's Quite Awful.

The Groaning Dialog, the Awkward Pauses, the Forced Repeated Narrative. The Film just Slogs From Beginning to End and is a Tough Watch Today.

Squeaky Voiced, Deer in the Headlights, Actress Virginia Valli Made 60 Silent Films and after Attempting a Few Talkies Retired at the Age of 35. She Literally Brings the Movie to a "Crash-Landing" Anytime She's On-Screen.

Ricardo Cortez Fairs Better But Can't Put HIs "Latin Lover" Persona to Much Use, Given the Stale, Stilted, Story of the "Love-Triangle".

The SFX, Sets, Models, and the Rest are Not On Screen Enough to Make an Impression.

The Sappy Dialog and Headline Readings are Recorded OK, but the "Sound Dept" was Over-Thinking the New Technology and Used Over-Modulated, Irritating "Buzzing" for the Crafts and that "Artic-Wind" Howls, and Howls, and Howls.

Most Movies Made at the Time with this Kind of Talent and Resources were Not Much Better. It was a Tough Transition Time Morphing from the "Silents" to "Talkies".

As a Curiosity it is...Worth a Watch

But Be Prepared for some Major "Retro-Shock" Disappointment.

Stiff upper lips abound in Edward Sloman's frigid tale of love and adventure, not only because zeppelin pilots Conway Tearle and Ricardo Cortez are thoroughly decent chaps at heart, but because the talkies were in their infancy and - with the exception of Tearle - everyone seems to have temporarily forgotten how to act in front of a camera. Cortez's character might be making the moves on Tearle's willing wife (Virginia Valli) but at least he feels awfully guilty about it. Dreary stuff that's only set apart from the countless other drawing room dramas flooding cinemas during the early years of sound by its set-bound Arctic scenes.

THE STORY & GENRE -- This is an adventure tale, not genre, but we're reviewing because it's in the ASHSFF book under "Tangential", probably for the quality of special effects, which is quite high, rather than for any fantastical machinery. Good drama subplots.

THE VERDICT -- Even with primitive sound quality, and a bit of stiff acting, this is quite the accomplishment. As well as technically sound, the story-line is interesting and I did not find it unbelievable, as some others have.

FREE ONLINE -- Yes. Full 72 minutes.

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 ******.

Conway Tearle is the stiff-upper lipped commander of a dirigible expedition that sets off on an arduous trip knowing that the wife he leaves behind "Miriam" (Virginia Valli) is in love with one of his colleagues "Tom" (Ricardo Cortez) and wants a divorce! Hardly an happy basis to start such a perilous mission, and when the winds and currents drive them to the frozen Antarctic their goose looks well and truly cooked (or frozen!). Can they survive these hostile climes long enough for rescue planes to arrive? Though there is some aerial photography, the vast majority of this story is relayed to us via his wife listening to updates on the radio, and after a while I found that quite dull. The audio tries far too hard to compensate for the visual wintry conditions - that are clearly studio set-bound, and the stilted acting - especially from a shockingly poor Valli really does spoil the adventure elements that I thought this might include. It's worth remembering that this was made when talkies were in their infancy, so I ought not to be too critical, but there is just too much melodrama and nowhere near enough adventure here and it's just not very good.