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George C. Scott stars as a German officer tasked with preventing a saboteur from blowing up the Hindenburg before it lands in America. Robert Wise (The Sound of Music, West Side Story) directs this slow-moving disaster movie, one that relies on a tepid mystery surrounding the identity of the saboteur before finally getting to the ‘disaster part’ of the disaster movie in the final ten minutes. Wise incorporates real footage of the 1937 disaster, one that ended the travels of the world’s largest flying machine. It’s widely believed the zeppelin exploded due to an accidental spark, but the screenplay here runs with a plot involving espionage and anti-Nazi rebels trying to make a statement by destroying Germany’s biggest symbol of ingenuity and achievement.
The photography and the production design are pleasant enough, but The Hindenburg is never as gripping as it should be. The cast is as large and impressive as other disaster movies like The Towering Inferno or Earthquake, but the characters aren’t as dynamic or interesting. Scott does his best to carry the film, but his quest to identify the saboteur and find their bomb never gains traction. Instead, viewers are more likely to grow impatient waiting for the inevitable, fateful explosion. Anne Bancroft makes the most of her role as a Nazi-hating baroness defecting to America and William Atherton (Ghostbusters) is memorable as a disgruntled zeppelin worker. The rest of the considerable cast are little more than window dressing, including Burgess Meredith, Charles Durning, Richard Dysart, Katherine Helmond, and Rene Auberjonois. Diminutive Robert Clary has a strange but memorable scene in which his character, an acrobat, dances for the passengers to the tune of a song called, “There’s a Lot To Be Said for the Fuehrer.” Needless to say, the performance doesn’t tickle everyone’s fancy.
With Gig Young, Roy Thinnes, Peter Donat, Alan Oppenheimer, and a good score by David Shire.
Academy Awards: Special Achievement in Visual Effects, Special Achievement in Sound Effects
Oscar Nominations: Best Art Direction, Cinematography (Robert Surtees), Sound