F. P. 1 Doesn't Answer

Films with the theme of transatlantic transportation were quite common in this era.I can think of High Treason and The Tunnel.Additionally films made in two or three language versions were quite common.The acting of Conrad Veidt overpowers everyone else.

(This review refers to the English-language version of "F.P.1", which was made in simultaneous German and French-language versions with three different casts. The French-language version is presumed to be lost.)

"F.P.1" is of greatest interest as one of very few science fiction features made in the 1930s. Curt Siodmak's screenplay was based on his own novella, the story of Flight Platform 1, a huge aircraft refueling station in mid- Atlantic. Designed to aid transoceanic flight, it frustrates surface shipping interests, who connive to destroy it. Amidst the intrigue is a love triangle between the F.P.1's creator, his aviator buddy, and the shipping heiress who makes it all possible.

It's a great premise, with some unique model and effects work and moments of real adventure. However, there just isn't enough of them. It's not just that the airplane and action scenes are so brief (the German version included a good bit more.) It's that what is left over is so typically tepid and slow-moving - a real tragedy for a film with any pretense to futurism. Result: a muddle, though an intermittently entertaining one.

And what the heck is Conrad Veidt, that preening, sinister aristocrat of the B's, doing playing a daring round-the-world aviator? His Major Elissen spends more time in white tie and tails than in a flight suit, and his appeal to strongheaded heiress Claire (Jill Esmond, delectable in white satin evening dress) is hard to explain. Perhaps he slipped something into her drink. Veidt didn't yet speak English very well in 1932, and his performance is a bit off, leering and simpering over Esmond rather than enveloping her in suave allure. His sidekick "Sunshine" (Donald Calthorp), a shabby news photographer, could have been Veidt's comic foil if he weren't so very underplayed.

Claire eventually does throw Elissen over in favor of his best pal, straight-arrow Commander Droste (Leslie Fenton, "Nails" Nathan from "The Public Enemy"), designer-captain of the F.P.1. The romance angle recedes at that point. Droste is merely a stand-up guy, although he needs Elissen's help not just to build the F.P.1, but eventually to save it from the shipping cabal.

An actual floating soundstage was built in the Baltic Sea just off Hamburg for the F.P.1 sequences. It's fascinating to see, with its broad expanse of concrete flight deck, humungous ballast valve system, and chromium Art Deco chairs for Elissen to throw through windows during a gas attack. Yet Elissen's plane is an open-cockpit Junkers whose slab sides and corrugated aluminum skin give it all the grace and aerodynamics of a grain silo. And few other planes - except a derelict old crate - figure in the action.

The German-language version, "F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht" (F.P.1 Doesn't Answer) retains more of the techno-geek footage and is worth hunting down if you are curious. Not that it's much better in pacing or performance. Hans Albers and Paul Hartmann, the male leads, are way overage for their roles, and Albers is an awful ham even if you don't understand a word of German. But there's Sybille Schmitz as a strong and hauntingly sexy Claire, and Peter Lorre as the sidekick has a more substantial piece of the picture.

An aside in the narrative unintentionally calls the whole F.P.1 concept into question. Elissen at one point is said to be flying a new plane that can go around the world without refueling! You have to love a sci-fi flick where the key technology is already obsolete by the end of the second reel.

The real problem with "F.P.1" was beyond the director's or the studios' control. It should have been made by Frank Capra, then still in his Poverty Row adventure days ("Flight", "Dirigible"). It positively cries out for Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, a streamlined Lockheed Vega monoplane, and American-style snappy patter to leaven the love stuff. And what a formidable "Sunshine" Lionel Stander might have made...

The acronymic "F.P.1" stands for "Floating Platform #1". The film portends the building of an "F.P.1" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, to be used as an "air station" for transatlantic plane flights. Based a contemporary Curt Siodmark novel; it was filmed in German as "F.P.1 antwortet nicht" (1932), in French as "I.F.1 ne répond plus" (1933), and in English as "F.P.1" (1933). Soon, technology made non-stop oceanic travel much more preferable.

Stars Conrad Veidt (as Ellissen), Jill Esmond (as Droste), and Leslie Fenton (as Claire) find love and sabotage on and off the Atlantic platform. Karl Hartl directed. Mr. Veidt is most fun to watch; but, he is not convincing in the "love triangle" with Ms. Esmond and Mr. Fenton. The younger co-stars were the spouses of Laurence Olivier and Ann Dvorak, respectively. Both the concept and film have not aged well.

**** F.P.1 (4/3/33) Karl Hartl ~ Conrad Veidt, Jill Esmond, Leslie Fenton

Austrian director Karl Hartl assumes an enormous assignment at Berlin's UFA Studios: leading three separate casts in disparate language productions of Curt Siodmak's debut novel (listed as Slodmak on the screen credits), featuring Hans Albers (German), Charles Boyer (French) and Conrad Veidt (English), obviously a daunting task, but one that he manages to complete in an artistically successful manner. Although the plot is raimented with the trappings of science fiction, it is in fact a romance flavoured by shadowy industrial espionage, with "F.P.1" being a prototypical floating platform destined to serve as a re-fueling depot in mid-Atlantic waters for international aircraft, constructed by London's Lennartz Shipyard firm, of which young Claire Lennartz (Jill Esmond) is one-third owner. Claire is attracted to, and desired by, two men, Captain Droste (Leslie Fenton), the designer of the seaborne aerodrome, and Major Ellisson (Veidt), a renowned test pilot, and the melodramatic complications of this love triangle form the heart of a work that was a financial success upon its release with its depiction of construction efforts for a gigantic landing platform accurately forecasting military aircraft carriers. It is instructive to view the three versions in succession to discover how the players adapt their roles to their personalities, with the English language release arguably the best, despite an unfortunate loss of a great deal of footage over the years, including Veidt's moving singspiel "Where the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay"; however, the direction, camera-work, creative sets, as well as the spirited performing of Veidt and Esmond provide a goodly amount of pleasure.

I guess this was supposed to be an early science fiction - adventure story, about an aviator with personality quirks, but I couldn't find myself interested in the plot very much.

What was with Conrad Veidt's teeth in this movie? His front teeth all had huge gaps in them, which made them look black. He looked old before his time; he actually looked better years later playing Major Strasser in "Casablanca", which was released only a year before he dropped dead from a heart attack in 1943. Warner Brothers obviously knew how to package him so that he looked more debonair in the later film. Poor guy, he really needed a dentist. I couldn't get into the tame romantic scenes at all, since Jill Esmond, who played Claire (very pretty first wife of Sir Lawrence Olivier), looked young enough to be his granddaughter.

I watched the English video version put out by Video Yesteryear. Halfway through the tape it got interrupted by a "PLEASE STAND BY WHILE WE CHANGE REELS" message. I burst out laughing. What was that for?

I bought this to watch the performances of the principals, and to see Warwick Ward in another film, other than the Pola Negri one I watched awhile ago with him in it, from 1929. Had trouble finding him at first, but he played the First Officer. Handsome man, very intense eyes. Maybe he should have been given the role of the rival for Jill Esmond's character's affections.

5 out of 10. Interesting as an example of an early sound Brit film, but not much else.