This is a remarkable film, made with a huge budget. F.P.1 stands for 'Floating Platform' One. It is a floating island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean for transatlantic aircraft to land on and refuel. It therefore foreshadows the naval aircraft carriers of the coming world war. Conrad Veidt is extraordinarily convincing, with the mad recklessness of a man addicted to dangerous adventures, but also with the lonely pathos which this brings him personally. It is one of his finer roles. The imaginative sweep of this semi-sci fi story is remarkable for the 1930s. It is a pity that the film is not better known. I have not seen the German or French versions, but this one is superb. One of the most haunting shots in the film is of a lengthy corridor full of men who have been gassed and are lying unconscious. No expense was spared to make this a big production. However, the producers should have realized that films with initials in their titles do not 'click' at the box office, give no hint to anyone what they are about (except to those familiar with this novel already), and no one could imagine what F.P.1 could stand for until they had seen the film! As a milestone in the history of the cinema, this strange and wildly ambitious film should not be overlooked.
