“Woman in the Moon” Film Review

“This is a journey to the past.”

Jeff Rapsis on “Women in the Moon”

The Flying Monkey Movie House and Performance Center showed the silent film “Women in the Moon” (1929) on Thursday, Oct. 13.

The German-made science fiction film is directed by Fritz Lang, starring Willy Fritsch and Gerda Maurus. Thursday’s film was accompanied by Jeff Rapsis on the keyboard.

The story is about Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch,) who wants to fly to the moon. He gives up his love for Friede Velten (Gerda Maurus,) whom he names his rocket after, just so he can pursue his dream.

Helius goes through losing everything, and making a deal with the man who stole everything from him just so he can get to the moon.

They make the rocket, and Helius, his assistant Windegger, Friede and her husband Turner take off for the moon.

After quite some time on the moon, the four decide they must return home. They discover there is not enough air for everyone to survive the trip back. The men draw straws to see who stays behind, and Friede’s husband draws the short straw.

Since he is Friede’s husband, Helius decides to stay in his place. Right after the rocket takes off, Helius looks around and discovers that Friede stayed behind as well. The movie ends with them embracing each other in a very loving hug.

This film was actually restricted from release at the time of its making because of the fact that it gave too much insight into how to make a rocket. As said before, this is a German-made production, and it was filmed during Hitler’s regime. Hitler felt as though the film would give other countries too much information about traveling in space.

It was not released until many years later. Although they did have quite a bit wrong in the movie, like their claim that there was breathable air on the moon, the movie did contain spectacular number of accurate facts about space travel.

It is truly amazing how even when something, like speech, is missing from a film, so much can still be understood.

The next film in The Flying Monkey’s silent film series is Victor Hugo’s “The Man Who Laughs” (1928), playing on Oct. 25 at 6:30 p.m. For more information, visit http://www. flyingmonkeynh.com.