It's a pity that this story of Dr. Werhner Von Braun was not made some 20 years later when we could have a full record of the man's achievements. The film would also be the story of the US beating the Soviet Union to the moon. Where it stops in 1960 we were just starting to play catch up.
Let me say that looking at Werhner Von Braun, Curt Jurgens looks absolutely nothing like him. But at the time Curt Jurgens was the best known German name internationally in the cinema. My guess is that one of the reasons he took the role was to give Germans a rehabilitated hero of sorts.
Von Braun was not a hero to Germans as say Max Schmeling or Erwin Rommel, two Germans tainted with Nazism and used for a time, but never really part of the Nazi movement. But Von Braun's achievements in rocket science did gain an admirer in Adolph Hitler who like most other leaders of government look to science to help war making capabilities. Though most aren't quite as brutal.
It was a good thing that Von Braun did get arrested by Himmler's SS towards the end of the war. It made most Americans willing to trust him with our own science during the Cold War.
With a brief prologue showing a teenage Wernher's interest in rocket science, the film is a biographical study of Von Braun from his days in Peenemunde developing the V-2 rocket weapons for the Nazis right up to the US Army's successful launch of the Explorer satellite which gave us an orbiting satellite to match the Russian Sputnik.
When the story sticks to Von Braun's achievements it's fairly accurate, but the producers felt a little espionage sideline involving shapely woman spy Gia Scala was also necessary. She gets fellow Peenemunde scientist Herbert Lom's hormones going and later on she's in a position to put a good word in for Jurgens and the rest of his colleagues. Also Von Braun did not marry Mrs. Von Braun played here by Victoria Shaw until after World War II. As I write this, the widow Von Braun is still alive.
James Daly as an American officer in Army intelligence is loath to use Nazi scientists, he regards anyone connected with Hitler in a minor way as evil. His role is similar to the one Richard Widmark played in Judgment at Nuremberg. Daly comes off as incredibly self righteous, but he does ask disturbing questions.
Werhner Von Braun did not have the biggest of budgets and was shot in black and white to take advantage of newsreel footage. Still the cast does this one in earnest and for those interested in the early days of the space race, this is a film for you.
Let me say that looking at Werhner Von Braun, Curt Jurgens looks absolutely nothing like him. But at the time Curt Jurgens was the best known German name internationally in the cinema. My guess is that one of the reasons he took the role was to give Germans a rehabilitated hero of sorts.
Von Braun was not a hero to Germans as say Max Schmeling or Erwin Rommel, two Germans tainted with Nazism and used for a time, but never really part of the Nazi movement. But Von Braun's achievements in rocket science did gain an admirer in Adolph Hitler who like most other leaders of government look to science to help war making capabilities. Though most aren't quite as brutal.
It was a good thing that Von Braun did get arrested by Himmler's SS towards the end of the war. It made most Americans willing to trust him with our own science during the Cold War.
With a brief prologue showing a teenage Wernher's interest in rocket science, the film is a biographical study of Von Braun from his days in Peenemunde developing the V-2 rocket weapons for the Nazis right up to the US Army's successful launch of the Explorer satellite which gave us an orbiting satellite to match the Russian Sputnik.
When the story sticks to Von Braun's achievements it's fairly accurate, but the producers felt a little espionage sideline involving shapely woman spy Gia Scala was also necessary. She gets fellow Peenemunde scientist Herbert Lom's hormones going and later on she's in a position to put a good word in for Jurgens and the rest of his colleagues. Also Von Braun did not marry Mrs. Von Braun played here by Victoria Shaw until after World War II. As I write this, the widow Von Braun is still alive.
James Daly as an American officer in Army intelligence is loath to use Nazi scientists, he regards anyone connected with Hitler in a minor way as evil. His role is similar to the one Richard Widmark played in Judgment at Nuremberg. Daly comes off as incredibly self righteous, but he does ask disturbing questions.
Werhner Von Braun did not have the biggest of budgets and was shot in black and white to take advantage of newsreel footage. Still the cast does this one in earnest and for those interested in the early days of the space race, this is a film for you.