The Hindenburg | |
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![]() Original theatrical poster by George Akimoto | |
Directed by | Robert Wise |
Written by | Nelson Gidding Richard Levinson William Link |
Based on | The Hindenburg by Michael M. Mooney |
Produced by | Robert Wise |
Starring | George C. Scott Anne Bancroft William Atherton Roy Thinnes Gig Young Burgess Meredith Charles Durning Richard A. Dysart |
Cinematography | Robert Surtees |
Edited by | Donn Cambern |
Music by | David Shire |
Distributed by | Universal Studios |
Release date |
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Running time | 125 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $15 million[1] |
Box office | $27.9 million[2] |
The Hindenburg is a 1975 American Technicolor disaster film based on the 1937 Hindenburg disaster. The film stars George C. Scott. It was produced and directed by Robert Wise, and was written by Nelson Gidding, Richard Levinson and William Link, based on the 1972 book of the same name by Michael M. Mooney.
A highly speculative thriller, the film and the book on which it is based depict a conspiracy involving sabotage, which leads to the destruction of the German airship Hindenburg. In reality, while the Zeppelins were certainly used as propaganda symbols by Nazi Germany, and anti-Nazi forces may have been motivated to sabotage them, the possibility of such an act was investigated at the time; ultimately, no firm evidence was uncovered to substantiate the theory.[Note 1] A. A. Hoehling, author of the 1962 book Who Destroyed the Hindenburg?, also about the sabotage theory, sued Mooney along with the film developers for copyright infringement as well as unfair competition. However, Judge Charles M. Metzner dismissed his allegations.[3]
Filmed largely in color (with a mock newsreel presented in black-and-white at the beginning of the film), a portion of the film is presented in monochrome, edited between portions of the historical Hindenburg newsreel footage shot on May 6, 1937.
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