"The Hindenburg is a 1975 American Technicolor disaster film based on the Hindenburg disaster, produced by Universal. The film stars George C. Scott. It was produced and directed by Robert Wise, and was written by Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson and William Link, based on the 1972 book of the same name by Michael M. Mooney.
"A highly speculative thriller, the film and the book it is based on depict a conspiracy of sabotage leading to the destruction of the German airship Hindenburg. In reality, while the Zeppelins were certainly used as a propaganda symbol by Nazi Germany, and anti-Nazi forces might have had the motivation for sabotage, the theory of sabotage was investigated at the time, and no firm evidence for such sabotage ever was put forward. A. A. Hoehling, author of the 1962 book Who Destroyed the Hindenburg?, also about the sabotage theory, sued Mooney along with the film developers for copyright infringement as well as unfair competition. However, Judge Charles M. Metzner dismissed his allegations.
"Filmed largely in color (with a mock newsreel presented in black-and-white at the beginning of the film), a portion of the film is presented in monochrome, edited between portions of the historical Hindenburg newsreel footage shot on May 6, 1937." - Wikipedia
Scoring the film fell to David Shire, who composed a lovely, lyrical score to reflect the grace and fluidity of the Zeppelin airship. It's a highly dramatic score, only partially represented on the soundtrack LP and CD recordings.
I love that score and film. The blu-ray is fantastic. The climactic sequence of the the movie edits alternating with the original footage was a masterstroke.
I saw a program on our History channel this past week going into a re-examination of the cause of the explosion.
Rather than sabotage, they made a case for a series of unfortunate events that included rain on the outer skin and conductivity of electricity by the mooring ropes when they hit the ground. While the skin was designed to stop electricity, that did not function properly when the skin was wet. The Hindenburg went through rain clouds and was wet on its outer skin at the time they dropped those lines. The sequence of events they were examining was whether St. Elmo's Fire might have caused the explosion.
Nothing is set in concrete, naturally, but it precluded a bomb or sabotage by someone on board.
The Hindenburg was truly a Surprise Comedy. Did they have Razzie’s in 1975? Oh The Humanity on who the Screenplay to The Hindenflop. This German Airship can’t get off the ground from Poor Acting, Horrible Screenplay, and Everyone on this Burg is a Suspect, including Anne Bancroft. If I didn’t know better, Even I was a Suspect of Blowing Up the Hindenflop!!! Over at Rotten Tomatoes The Hindenflop has a true steady score of 36%!
Someone in Universal Studios thought it was a Great Idea to go over to the Old Folks Directing Home on 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Hollywood…and Dig Up Robert Wise! Who could not direct a dog peeing. This Hindenflop makes Irwin Allen’s The Swarm seem like Shakespeare! Universal Studios proved that having top notch American Actors Playing Germans, who truly spoke Excellent English! LOL and WTF. And someone over at Universal Studios and along with Very Old Robert Wise thought it would be a great idea in their version of Blowing Up The Hindenflop for Five Minutes sequence VS a 30 Seconds True Event! Oh the Pain …wait if only Dr. Smith was written in!
Yes FSM…We all know that Robert Wise had great working relationship with Jerry Goldsmith, But lucky for Jerry, he was busy with 11 scoring Projects in 1975 and could not be available to score Hindenflop! Turkeys don’t Fly!
But I will be honest about one thing, that David Shire’s score to Hindenflop is today a damn good score. Truly wonderful and the only good value to a useless Universal comedy flop.
I wouldn't say the score by David Shire is "lovely". What's lovely about this score? It's dramatic and at times majestic. The repair scene is solid cinema with terrific music.
The Hindenburg crash is a fascinating story. The film takes some elements of thruth and fiction, resulting in a typical Hollywood mix. A missed opportunity to produce a really great film with an arresting story.
I thought the whole cast was exceptionally well chosen. As an admirer of Charles Durning, I was very pleased to see him playing the role of the Hindenburg's Kapitän.
This is my favorite Shire score. I believe that the album is fairly complete but if there is more music I would like to see an expanded release.
Apart from Shire's music the other hero was Albert J Whitlock. Whitlock won his only Academy Award for his VFX in this case matte painting. Green lighting the film was contingent on his saying he could the project.
Albert is considered the greatest matte artist of all time.
Someone in Universal Studios thought it was a Great Idea to go over to the Old Folks Directing Home on 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Hollywood…and Dig Up Robert Wise! Who could not direct a dog peeing.
Said a person who apparently never saw CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, BODY SNATCHER, THE SETUP, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, THE HAUNTING, probably the most frightening film of all time, and managed to steer the mammoth and troubled STAR TREK-TMP to its release date, and for whatever disputes remain about the film itself, managed to create a memorable big screen cinematic experience.
So, the statement is absurd and ill-considered.
That said, THE HINDENBURG was no one's finest hour except perhaps Whitlock's and Shire's.
Grafting a fictional narrative onto a real-life disaster is fairly risky*, but I gotta say, I got drawn into the story. George C. Scott can sell anything and the production is decent. Shire's music is quite lovely. Pity that he couldn't record with the female vocal.
* - Is this a bad time to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Cameron's Titanic?
Someone in Universal Studios thought it was a Great Idea to go over to the Old Folks Directing Home on 1313 Mockingbird Lane in Hollywood…and Dig Up Robert Wise! Who could not direct a dog peeing.
Said a person who apparently never saw CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, BODY SNATCHER, THE SETUP, THE SOUND OF MUSIC, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, THE HAUNTING, probably the most frightening film of all time, and managed to steer the mammoth and troubled STAR TREK-TMP to its release date, and for whatever disputes remain about the film itself, managed to create a memorable big screen cinematic experience.
So, the statement is absurd and ill-considered.
That said, THE HINDENBURG was no one's finest hour except perhaps Whitlock's and Shire's.
Robert Wise was an excellent Editor, Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, and Good Director. And did a Good job on The Day the Earth Stood Still. And Co-Director on West Side Story, another Great Film… But as Robert Wise got way older, and someone over at Paramount thought it would be a great idea for Wise to direct that Bloated Star Trek, Paramounts efforts to cash in on the Space Race Movies. Robert Wise was out of his league with Star Trek and all of its rich history about…Not Vger, but a simple concept Friendship. In Which Director Nick Meyer Got right in Star Trek 2. The Hindenflop was a truly poor film. Poorly written and poorly wooden, phone in performances. Yes Albert Whitlock and David Shire were probably the Best Things that happened to The Hinden-Turkey.
Grafting a fictional narrative onto a real-life disaster is fairly risky*, but I gotta say, I got drawn into the story. George C. Scott can sell anything and the production is decent. Shire's music is quite lovely. Pity that he couldn't record with the female vocal.
* - Is this a bad time to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Cameron's Titanic?
Here is what it would have sounded like with the vocalist
