''Abschied von den Wolken'' () is a 1959 German

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as h ...

adventure film The adventure film is a broad genre of film. Some early genre studies found it no different than the Western film or argued that adventure could encompass all Hollywood genres. Commonality was found among historians Brian Taves and Ian Cameron in ...

directed by

Gottfried Reinhardt Gottfried Reinhardt (20 March 1913 – 19 July 1994) was an Austrian-born American film director and producer. Biography Reinhardt was born in Berlin, the son of the Austrian theater director Max Reinhardt (until 1904: Max Goldmann), mana ...

, written by Georg Hurdalek, based on a story by

Ladislas Fodor Ladislas Fodor (1898–1978) was a Hungarian novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Plays *''A Church Mouse'' (''A templom egére''); a comedy in three acts, adapted by James L. A. Burrell (1928) *''Jewel Robbery'' (''Ékszerrablás a Váci utcá ...

. The film stars

O. W. Fischer Otto Wilhelm Fischer (, ; 1 April 1915 – 29 January 2004) was an Austrian film and theatre actor, a leading man of West German cinema during the ''Wirtschaftswunder'' era of the 1950s and 1960s. Biography He was born in Klosterneuburg nea ...

, Peter van Eyck,

Sonja Ziemann Sonja Alice Selma Toni Ziemann (; 8 February 1926 – 17 February 2020) was a German film and television actress. In the 1950s, she was among Germany's most prominent actresses, awarded the 1950 Bambi for appearing, together with Rudolf Prack, ...

Horst Frank Horst Frank (28 May 1929 – 25 May 1999) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1955 and 1999. He was born in Lübeck, Germany and died in Heidelberg, Germany. Selected filmography * '' Der Stern von Afrika'' (1 ...

Linda Christian Linda Christian (born Blanca Rosa Henrietta Stella Welter Vorhauer; November 13, 1923 – July 22, 2011) was a Mexican film actress who appeared in Mexican and Hollywood films. Her career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara ...

and Paul Dahlke. ''Abschied von den Wolken'' was an example of the

disaster film A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters may include natural disasters, accidents, offensive (military), military/terrorism, terrorist att ...

, coming soon after the international success of

William Wellman William Augustus Wellman (February 29, 1896 – December 9, 1975) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and military pilot. He was known for his work in Crime film, crime, Adventure film, adventure, and Action film, a ...

's '' The High and Mighty'' (1954) where individual stories of passengers and crew were central to the dilemma of an aircraft in trouble. In the film, film historian Bertil Skogsberg described the scenario aboard an airliner: "The passengers are of various nationalities and dispositions: a revolutionary general fleeing his country with most of its cash, an old Nazi, and a Dutch adventurer, to name only a few. There is also a beautiful stewardess (Sonja Ziemann)". When marketed in the United States, the film was renamed ''Rebel Flight to Cuba''.Bergfelder, Timothy. ''International Adventures: German Popular Cinema and European Co-Productions in the 1960s''. New York, NY:

Berghahn Books Berghahn Books is a New York and Oxford–based publisher of scholarly books and academic journals in the humanities and social sciences, with a special focus on social and cultural anthropology, European history, politics, and film and media ...

, 2006. p. 111. .

Plot

Leaving the island of San Quinto , marked by revolutionary struggles, soldier-of-fortune Peter von Houten barely escapes a firing squad. He is pardoned and is to be deported on a scheduled flight en route from Mexico City to Bermuda. The San Quinto military government, however, forces the airliner down in an unscheduled stop. Inside the aircraft, Captain Pink Roberti and his copilot Richard Marschall are both in love with the stewardess Carla. In a hijacking attempt of the airliner to Caracas, Roberti is shot and van Houten manages to disarm the attackers but the aircraft landing gear is damaged. Ultimately, with the copilot unable to successfully master the approach to Bermuda, van Houten, a former pilot, takes charge. He lands safely after a breakneck approach, bringing in the airliner down in a belly landing, saving the lives of passengers, although the aircraft is seriously damaged. The co-pilot dies in the exploding aircraft.

Cast

as Peter van Houten *

as Carla * Peter van Eyck as Pink Roberti *

as Richard Marshall * Christian Wolff as Mischa Gomperz * Paul Dahlke as Dr. Quartz *

Chariklia Baxevanos Chariklia Baxevanos (born 15 March 1936) is a Swiss actress. She appeared in more than sixty films since 1952. Selected filmography References External links * 1936 births Living people Swiss film actresses Swiss television actres ...

as Stella Valencias *

Günter Pfitzmann Günter Pfitzmann (8 April 1924 – 30 May 2003) was a German film actor who appeared in more than 60 films between 1950 and 2001. He narrowly escaped death due to heart problems which lead to him cancelling his seat aboard Concorde flight ...

as Howard Sims *

Leon Askin Leon Askin (; born Leo Aschkenasy, 18 September 1907 – 3 June 2005) was an Austrian actor best known in North America for portraying the character General Burkhalter on the TV situation comedy ''Hogan's Heroes''. Life and career Askin was ...

as General Cordobas *

as Countess Colmar *

Erica Beer Erica Beer (19 January 1925 – 27 December 2013) was a German film actress. She was born in Munich. Selected filmography * ''Captive Soul'' (1952) * ''The Last Waltz'' (1953) * '' Heartbroken on the Moselle'' (1953) * '' They Were So Young'' ...

as Cecily Sims *Cora Roberts as Doris *Olga Plüss as François Leclerc *Silvia Reinhardt as Eva Roberti *

Paul Esser Paul Esser (24 April 1913 – 20 January 1988) was a German stage and television actor and voice actor. He is remembered for playing the lead role in the Sender Freies Berlin version of the detective series '' Tatort''. Esser was born in Ge ...

as Monsignor Scarpi * as Rabbi Birnbaum *

Friedrich Schoenfelder Friedrich Schoenfelder (17 October 1916 – 14 August 2011) was a German actor. Schoenfelder was born in Sorau/Lower Lusatia and died in Berlin. He was 94. He was the German dubbing voice of David Niven and Vincent Price. In the German versio ...

as Reverend Wilson *Hans W. Hamacher as Joe *

Werner Stock Werner Bruno Wilhelm Hermann Stock (20 October 1903 – 30 April 1972) was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films and television shows between 1932 and 1971. Selected filmography * ''Spoiling the Game'' (1932) * ''Decoy'' (1934 ...

as 1st chess player *Hugo Lindinger as 2nd chess player *Jochen Blume as radio operator Emilio *Heinz Spitzner as Prof. Thomas *Bruno W. Pantel as Businessman *

Wolfgang Völz Wolfgang Otto Völz (16 August 1930 – 2 May 2018) was a German actor. He is known for his roles in theatre plays, TV shows, feature films (especially German films based on Edgar Wallace works) and audio dramas. He was also a very prolific vo ...

as Engineer Albert *Gerd Martienzen as Man in the Tower Airwork Hermes IVA at Blackbushe

Production

Despite being a low-budget film, ''Abschied von den Wolken'' used at least one real aircraft, seen in stock footage. Flying for the fictional "Aerovias Internationales", a Handley Page HP. 81 Hermes had the registration "DN-947". The Hermes IV was filmed at

Berlin Tempelhof Airport Berlin Tempelhof Airport () was one of the first airports in Berlin, Germany. Situated in the south-central Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg, the airport ceased operating in 2008 amid controversy, leaving Tegel and Schönefeld as the ...

, where the British Skyways of London operated. A scale model of the Hermes was used for aerial views. Other scenes included a

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a retired British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. T ...

take-off and the engines and the landing gear of a

Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960 ...

, a type that resembled the Hermes. A scale model of a

Fouga Magister The Fouga CM.170 Magister is a 1950s French two-seat jet trainer aircraft that was developed and manufactured by French aircraft manufacturer ''Établissements Fouga & Cie''. Easily recognizable by its V-tail, almost 1,000 have been built in Fr ...

was used to depict a San Quinto military aircraft.Santoir, Christian
"SOS Landing gear damaged: 'Abschied von den Wolken' (1959)."
''Aeromovies''. Retrieved: 26 May 2019. Interiors were shot at the

Spandau Studios The Spandau Studios or CCC Studios were film and television studios located in Spandau, a suburb of Berlin. They were established in 1949 following the Second World War by the producer Artur Brauner controller of CCC Films, on the site of a forme ...

with sets designed by the

art director Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supe ...

Paul Markwitz Paul Markwitz (16 July 1908 – 19 March 1968)Kay Weniger: Das große Personenlexikon des Films Volume 5, Berlin 2001, , pg. 281f was a German production designer, art director and set decorator. He worked on over 50 films between 1935 and 1 ...

and

Heinrich Weidemann Heinrich Weidemann (1899–1982) was a German art director.Lowe p.179 Selected filmography * '' The Gambler'' (1938) * '' The Swedish Nightingale'' (1941) * '' Ghost in the Castle'' (1947) * '' The Trip to Marrakesh'' (1949) * '' Scandal at the E ...

. Using his connections to

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

, director

managed to have ''Abschied von den Wolken'' released in the United States. The English-language version was re-titled ''Rebel Flight to Cuba''.

Reception

Film historian and critic

Ephraim Katz Ephraim Katz (11 March 1932 – 2 August 1992) was a writer, journalist and filmmaker who devoted his life to gathering the information in his book, ''The Film Encyclopedia'', first published in 1979. Biography Katz, born in Tel Aviv, studi ...

wrote in the ''International Film Encyclopedia'' (1990), "O.W. Fischer as a jack-of-all-trades and unshaven friend of humanity aboard an airliner threatened by storms, criminals and technical catastrophes. Staged according to common patterns, the bundling of adventurous moments of danger does not contribute to the credibility of the story."

References

Notes

Citations

External links

* {{Gottfried Reinhardt 1950s disaster films German disaster films West German films Films set on airplanes German aviation films Films set in the Caribbean Films about aviation accidents or incidents Films about aircraft hijackings Films shot at Spandau Studios Films directed by Gottfried Reinhardt 1950s German films 1950s German-language films Films scored by Werner Eisbrenner