F.P.1 antwortet nicht is a 1932 German film that got an English version the following year and was released under the title F.P. 1 Doesn't Answer. Rather than redubbing the film they shot new scenes with English actors. CryptFilms has out a dvd that has both versions. It's a bootleg of fair to middlin' quality. The story started as a 1931 book by Curt Siodmak, then it got made into a 114 minute film in Germany, which was re-shot and re-edited into a 70 minute version for the English speaking world. According to the German Wikipedia there was a French version shot at the same time with Charles Boyer as the loser dashing pilot, who is played by Conrad Viedt in the English and Hans Albers in the German. The dashing pilot tries to help his friend, a ship designer, by stealing some plans for a floating oceanic airstrip and hotel. The stealing gets the plans noticed by the three owners of a family shipyard and the platform gets built. The designer and the dashing pilot both fall for the sister of the trio. The dashing pilot goes off on a 2 year plane journey while the construction is going on, and the sister falls for the designer. There is some intrigue and sabotage on the platform. Oh, no. The saboteur gasses everyone and starts the pumps going. The platfom will sink. Here comes the dashing pilot and sister to the rescue. More trouble. Everyone nearly dies but the day is saved. We watched the English version. It was understandable, except for the story that is, and the German was subtitle lacking. We did watch some bits of the German version and it has some interesting changes. Here's a great translated page about this very meldramatic film that drifts between interesting and tedious. Possibly the German version would have been different enough to make the story better. It's more an interesting curio.
As is Just Imagine, a 1930 science fiction musical that depicts the futuristic life of 1980. It's an odd thing, very of the times, I liked it pretty much. I'll have to get a copy some day. It's not available through the usual channels. Here's a nice illustrated page that talks about the movie. Here's a page at SciFi Channel that doesn't like it as much. Forry Ackerman liked it. Here's a page with some picutres from the film.
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