Top 75 Spaceships in movies and TV

[Dave Monroe]

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/286589/top_75_spaceships_in_movies_and_tv.html#indexmain

E.g., ...

75: Friede - Frau im Mond (aka Woman In The Moon, By Rocket to the
Moon, 1929) | RETURN TO INDEX

Not only is the rocket in Fritz Lang's precocious space outing a
beautiful example of Art Deco sci-fi before the bulbous curves of
Flash Gordon took over, but it's also an amazing foreshadowing of the
'staged' separation that would ultimately take man into space (you can
see a video clip of that sequence here). Even thirty years later,
Hollywood was still stuck on the 'single stage' ship when depicting
space travel.

The film was very popular with Wernher von Braun and his associates,
who would ultimately take America to the moon with very similar
methods (even if they wisely chose not to launch the Apollo missions
from under the sea, as with the Friede). The first successful V2
launch from the rocket research facility at Verein für Raumschiffahrt
bore the logo of the Friede from Woman In The Moon. Consulting rocket
scientist Hermann Oberth had originally intended to build an actual
working rocket miniature for Lang, but was constrained by budget and
schedule. Happily the Friede has actually flown since, several times.

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/286589/top_75_spaceships_in_movies_and_tv.html#friede

Cf. ...

"Brigitte Helm in Metropolis. Great movie. Exactly the world Pökler
and evidently quite a few others were dreaming about those days, a
Corporate City-state where technology was the source of power, the
engineer worked closely with the administrator, the masses labored
unseen far underground, and ultimate power lay with a single leader at
the top, fatherly and benevolent and just, who wore
magnificent-looking suits" (p.578)

"They saw Die Frau im Mond. Franz was amused, condescending. He picked
at technical points. He knew some of the people who'd worked on the
special effects. Leni saw a dream of flight. One of many possible."
(p.159)

"The countdown as we know it, 10-9-8-u.s.w., was invented by Fritz
Lang in 1929 for the Ufa film Die Frau im Mond. He put it into the
launch scene to heighten the suspense. 'It is another of my damned
"touches,"' Fritz Lang said." (p.753)

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/gravitys-rainbow/extra/lang.html