Product Description

Studio: Gotham (dba Alpha) Release Date: 06/02/2006

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48865 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-05-23
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 71 minutes

Customer Reviews

An enjoyable early talkie
The Lost Zeppelin was filmed in the days of gentleman officers. The glimpse of 1920s polite society is interesting, but you can skip over the first half-hour, or so, of the movie to get to the adventure. Caution, what follows is a plot spoiler.

The commander of a zeppelin about to journey to the South Pole discovers his wife is having an affair with his good friend and no.2 officer.

She tells him she's in love with the friend and just before he boards the airship, stiff upper lip and all that, he tells her he wants her to be happy and he'll have his lawyers prepare the paperwork for a divorce so she can be with the man she loves.

The zeppelin crashes in Antarctica leaving only two survivors, the commander and no. 2 officer. The rescue plane has room for only one passenger, so the commander orders his friend to take the seat and is later presumed dead. Meanwhile the errant wife suffers from buyer's remorse.

This is an early talkie with acting, a plot, and dialogue that could easily have come from a silent picture. The video and sound on the DVD would benefit from some restoration work, but with a low-volume release like this that's probably asking too much. The special effects using miniatures are interesting, and I've a weakness for zeppelins.

The Lost Zeppelin isn't a must-see classic movie, but it has its charm.

Plodding; Not Enough of the Zeppelin
The previous reviewer has outlined the plot pretty well, which generally will give you the whole story of the movie. Forget subplots; they don't exist. Watch the movie for the zeppelin and biplane and ice scenes, which are pretty neat. The soundtrack is poor, though.

It does seem that much of the acting was done as though the movie was going to be a silent picture, but since the movie was made in 1929, I suppose that's to be expected. The medium was still new, and the directors hadn't adjusted their stage direction to the talking medium very well. Anyway, it's interesting in old movies to look at the set decoration, such as the furniture and clothing styles.

I was a bit disappointed that the zeppelin itself probably got less "airtime" than the wife's overly dramatic fainting spell, but the miniaturization was pretty good, especially after the zeppelin crashed and only its internal skeleton remained -- covered in icicles. I'm not clear on what happened to the outer skin of the airship; supposedly the ship went down because it had a hole and was loosing gas, but there was no explosion or fire. Unfortunately, we never get a tour of the ship, either (I guess they had a small budget for making sets). I had hoped for more views of the zeppelin.

The movie is short, only 71 minutes, so make up some popcorn and get comfortable. It's not much of a thriller, but it's easy enough to watch in one sitting.

Early 'talkie' based on Italia airship disaster
ALPHA VIDEO offers bargain priced, often hard-to-find vintage movies that are ideal for those willing to skip DVD extras. Their transfers show no evidence of restoration, so quality varies from one title to the next, with "fair to good" being the average.


ALPHA's dub of THE LOST ZEPPELIN is a bit blurry but watchable, and audio is good. There's no breaks in the film, which has really primitive sound effects. For example arctic winds are simulated by penny whistles and musical saws, while airplane and other motors are unrecognizable noise.

Modern audiences seem put off by this picture's lack of technical perfection and by a necessary plot point introduced in its first 20 minutes. I on the other hand find fascinating the lovely '20s ladies fashions seen here: sequined evening gowns with layered skirts that have asymmetrical hemlines, bobbed hair with pin curls at the nape, and so on.

This section of the movie is most necessary to a crucial later event. At a farewell party for the airship's crew, Commander Hall (Tearle) catches his wife (Valli) in the arms of his second-in-command, Tom Armstrong (Cortez). After they're home and Hall confronts Miriam about evidence of infidelity, she coldly asks for a divorce on the very eve of his departure for a most hazardous mission.

Rather than plot spoilers, here's a bit of "Lost Zeppelin" trivia:
Music score is by Meredith Willson. This one-time member of Sousa's band wrote a symphonic piece for Chaplin's THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940), but is most famous for composing words and music to the Broadway hit, THE MUSIC MAN.


This exclusive (as of 10/09) Alpha release features an historic early talkie worth a viewing for most; it's one that aficionados of early 20th Century cinema will find eminently collectible.


Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 imdb viewer poll rating.

(5.8) The Lost Zeppelin (1929) - Conway Tearle/Virginia Valli/Ricardo Cortez/Duke Martin/Kathryn McGuire/Winter Hall