The famous pilot Ellissen (Hans Albers) helps his friend Droste (Paul Hartmann) to have FP1 built, a platform in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean which will make a connection between the continents possible (in a time when non-stop flights with passengers were science fiction). During the years when FP1 is built and Ellissen is far away, his girlfriend Claire (Sybille Schmitz) falls in love with Droste. Saboteurs try to destroy FP1, so Ellissen must come to the rescue. "FP1 antwortet nicht" is an excellent piece of work for its time. First, the science fiction novel by Curt Siodmak provided a spectacular story. But then, Albers portrays a really interesting hero, a man who often doesn't succeed (he loses his plane in a crash in Australia, he loses Claire to his best friend) but always comes back. Claire tried to teach him the advantages of a normal life, but no, it will always be adventure for him, "life is too short", he once says. With this charismatic performance, it is easy to see why Albers was one of the most popular stars of his time. Peter Lorre of "The Maltese Falcon" fame is responsible for the comic relief here as a photographer who tries to get the first picture of FP1. Last not least, a memorable musical score with the theme song "Flieger, grüß mir die Sonne" contributes to the fame of the movie.

The German version of this sci-fi yarn comes a big disappointment all around. Chief liability is Hans Albers, a ham of the first water, who is not only allowed to dominate every scene but indulged with more dialogue than all the rest of the players put together. He just never stops talking. Exotic Sybille Schmitz manages to collar a few nice close-ups, but Peter Lorre is wasted. Most of the time, Lorre simply serves as a listening post for the garrulous Albers.

Oddly, the Droste character (played with reasonable force by Paul Hartmann) has even less footage here than in the cut American version. Indeed, despite the amazing fact that this German version runs 40 minutes longer, the action scenes are more complete and far more convincing in the 74-minute edit. The little bit of extra footage in which Albers is not featured are merely propaganda shots of the German air force conquering the skies.

"F.P.1 antwortet nicht" or "F.P.1 Doesn't Answer" is German movie that came out during the Christmas holidays 1932, so this one is already almost 85 years old. As such, it is of course still in black-and-white, but has sound already. And even if this was made one year before the Nazis came into Power here in Germany, it is just another example of how Hans Albers had already worked for a long time as an actor and was very much experienced here. The title may seem a mystery to many and I include myself here, but apparently the letters and number describe a certain airplane. The reason is that this film is about an aviator named Ellissen, played by Albers and we get to witness his struggles high up in the air and also those of a more personal nature down on the ground. The film comes fairly close to the 2-hour mark, but I must say it should have been shorter as there were in fact several sequences that were not too interesting and where the film dragged quite a bit. It's not Albers' fault. He gives his best and is nicely charismatic just like he usually is. I guess who is really to blame here are script writers Walter Reisch and the somewhat famous Curt Siodmak, who also wrote the novel this is based on. The director is Austrian Karl Hartl, who was among the most successful German-language filmmakers in the 1930s. But this one here does not make me curious about other efforts from his body of work. It is really only worth checking out if you are a huge aviation (film) fan and don't mind black-and-white movies. I give it a thumbs-down.