Production: UFA

Director: Karl Hartl

Starring: Hans Albers, Sybille Schmitz, Paul Hartmann, Peter Lorre

Screenwriter: Walter Reisch, Kurt Siodmak

Based on F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht (1932) by Kurt Siodmak

111 minutes; B/W

F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht has been described as being in the tradition of Metropolis (1926) and Die Frau im Mond (1929), but Karl Hartl was no Fritz Lang. It is a slow-moving film about the construction of a giant floating runway (Flugzeug Platform 1) to be moored in mid-Atlantic for refuelling transatlantic flights, but is actually more concerned with a tedious love triangle. The story is about an intrepid aviator who sees flight as a near-mystical experience, and about sabotage and noble renunciations - all pulp materials, but with none of the slickness or verve of similar Hollywood films of the period. At great expense a flying platform was actually built for the film, on the island of Oie. The same production made Gold (1934).

An English version (F.P.1 Doesn't Answer) and a French one, starring Charles Boyer, were made of F.P.1 Antwortet Nicht at the same time as the German version.