Holy space travel, Batman!

When stuck with a mountain of ironing (family of four, right?) I like to watch old movies on Youtube; usually B flicks that don't require paying too much attention. Yesterday's film was quite a surprise, and a good one.

It's a science-fiction story, far more accurate (scientifically-speaking) than most of what could be seen in its era. It's got a spaceship with a racially-integrated crew. Gender equality is treated as a matter of course. Humanity is united and is at peace in a society geared toward the betterment of all and the pursuit of knowledge. Sounds like the premise of Star Trek? Yes it does, but it's The first spaceship on Venus, an East German/Polish film from 1960 (badly dubbed in English, but that's hardly the producers' fault).

The acting is woody, I'll admit that, and there is a distinct lack of personal emotional tension. Everything is quite... soviet-like, would be the word? As in "every crew member, being of good will and sound principles, does their job to the best of their ability using reliable machines"? But there are so many refreshing aspects to this film that I'll easily forgive it these little faults.

To begin with, this is real science-fiction, not science-fantasy. When you stop a rocket's engines in space, for example, it doesn't slow down; you need "braking rockets" to do the job. An airplane cannot fly properly in a heavy gravity field. Alien beings do not speak English, nor anything resembling human speech. Astronauts are scientists first and foremost, not reckless action heroes.

Politics are treated very lightly. Yes, the tone is clearly socialistic: humanity is united, everyone is honest and hardworking, every machine provided by the system works fine and so on. There is no traitor on board, there is no weak link to the team, there is no evil foreign spy, there is no coward who will chicken out at the critical moment just so the hero will look better. In fact, there is no single hero -although two characters go out in pretty heroic fashion.

The film also eschews what I view as a cardinal sin in general fiction: a chess scene in which supposedly good real players get checkmated by a surprise move. Come on, people, that's impossible!!! Only amateur players can't see two or three moves in advance. Here, we have a scientist who's playing against a robot; he first remarks how the machine elegantly foiled his gambit by moving a piece, and a bit later learns that it will be checkmate in a few moves. That's how it's done, Hollywood! (And yes, Star Trek, I'm looking at you). 

The plot is neat, and the film manages to preserve a sense of mystery even as we discover things, a bit like 2001 would do a few years later. The concluding message is kind of old-fashioned ("humanity should really not nuke itself out of existence") but I'm sure that it carried a lot of weight in 1960.

Recommended to all those who have some ironing to do, and even to those who simply want to see an intelligent B-movie.