F.P. 1 Doesn't Answer (Blu-ray)

A spectacular German science fiction film in the tradition of Metropolis (1927) and Gold (1934), F.P. 1 Doesn’t Answer dramatizes the creation of a massive floating airport serving as a way station between four continents. Hans Albers (The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes) stars as Ellissen, a dashing pilot who helps pursuade an heiress (Sybille Schmitz, Vampyr) to fund the visionary project. When communication with Floating Platform 1 is mysteriously interrupted, Ellissen risks his life to investigate its disappearance. Produced just as the Nazi government was taking control of the German film industry, F.P.1 was writer Kurt Siodmak’s last film before emigrating to England and eventually America, where (as Curt Siodmak) he would write The Ape, The Wolf Man, Donovan’s Brain, and many other classic Hollywood horrors). It was also the last pre-war German film of Peter Lorre (M, The Maltese Falcon), who costars as a sly photojournalist. This special edition includes both the restored German-language version of F.P.1 Doesn’t Answer as well as the English-language version, Secrets of F.P.1, featuring Conrad Veidt (The Man Who Laughs).