SOS Eisberg

S.O.S. Eisberg (S.O.S. Iceberg) is a 1933 German-US drama film directed by Arnold Fanck and starring Gustav Diessl, Leni Riefenstahl, Sepp Rist, Gibson Gowland, Rod La Roque, and Ernst Udet. Written by Tom Reed based on a story by Arnold Fanck and Friedrich Wolf (uncredited in the credits after the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933 because he was Jewish and a member of the Communist Party of Germany), the film is about an Arctic expedition that goes in search of a party that was lost the previous year. S.O.S. Eisberg was filmed on location in Umanak, on the west coast of Greenland, in Iceland, and in the Bernina Alps, on the border between Italy and Switzerland. It was filmed simultaneously in German and English, and released by Universal Studios in both Nazi Germany and the United States. The film premiered on 30 August 1933 in Berlin.

Contents

• Cast
• Production
• Reception
• References

Among its stars were Leni Riefenstahl, who had just made her directorial debut in The Blue Light (1932). Riefenstahl co-starred with Gustav Diessl and Ernst Udet in the German version S.O.S. Eisberg, and with Gibson Gowland and Rod La Rocque in the English version S.O.S. Iceberg.

Cast

German version

Gustav Diessl as Dr. Karl Lorenz

Leni Riefenstahl as Hella

Sepp Rist as Dr. Johannes Krafft

Ernst Udet as Ernst Udet

Gibson Gowland as John Dragan

Max Holzboer as Dr. Jan Matuschek

Walter Riml as Fritz Kümmel

Arthur Grosse

Tommy Thomas

Nakinak as Hund

English version

Rod La Rocque as Dr. Carl Lawrence

Leni Riefenstahl as Ellen Lawrence

Sepp Rist as Dr. Johannes Brand

Ernst Udet as Ernst Udet, flier

Gibson Gowland as John Dragan

Max Holzboer as Dr. Jan Matuschek

Walter Riml as Fritz Kümmel

Nakinak as Nakinak, the Eskimo dog

Production

S.O.S. Eisberg was filmed on location in Umanak, on the west coast of Greenland, in Iceland, and in the Bernina Alps, on the border between Italy and Switzerland.

Reception

The film was a box office disappointment for Universal.