''Die gefrorenen Blitze'' (''Frozen Lightning''; English-language title: Frozen Flashes; French-language title: Et l'Angleterre sera détruite, ''England Shall Be Destroyed'') is a two-part 1967 East-German film. The plot revolves around the history of the resistance movement in

Peenemünde Peenemünde (, en, " Peene iverMouth") is a municipality on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is part of the ''Amt'' (collective municipality) of Usedom-Nord. The commu ...

during the Second World War and its attempt to sabotage the

V-2 The V-2 (german: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit=Retaliation Weapon 2), with the technical name ''Aggregat 4'' (A-4), was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was develope ...

program.

Plot

Part 1: Target Peenemünde

on 5 November 1939, the British consulate in Norway receives the

Oslo Report The Oslo Report was one of the most spectacular leaks in the history of military intelligence. Written by German mathematician and physicist Hans Ferdinand Mayer on 1 and 2 November 1939 during a business trip to Oslo, Norway, it described several ...

, but the Military Intelligence doubts its veracity. The German research in Peenemünde goes undisturbed from the British. In spite of this, various resistance groups gather information about the site and attempt to hinder the missiles' development, taking great risks.

Part 2: Password Paperclip

After an Allied bombing wreaks great damage in Peenemünde, the local resistance manages to smuggle V-2 parts to Britain, where they would be analyzed by the Allies' technical intelligence. The Allies decide that the genius of the rockets' creator must be exploited by them. As the end of the war looms near, Peenemünde is abandoned. In Los Alamos, a new, deadlier weapon is being developed.

Cast

* Alfred Müller as Dr. Grunwald *

Leon Niemczyk Leon Stanisław Niemczyk (15 December 1923 – 29 November 2006) was a Polish actor. Niemczyk developed into a leading box-office star throughout the 1960s, known for serious dramas, including historical dramas and war films. He appeared in over ...

as Stefan * as the 'rocket baron' (

Wernher von Braun Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun ( , ; 23 March 191216 June 1977) was a German and American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, as well as the leading figure in the develop ...

) *

Emil Karewicz Emil Karewicz (13 March 1923 – 18 March 2020) was a Polish actor. Early life His acting career began in Wilno, at the local theatre, where he played the role of a monkey in the "Quartet" by Ivan Krylov. During World War II he served in the Po ...

as Jerzy *

Victor Beaumont Victor Beaumont (born Peter Wolff; 7 November 1912 – 21 March 1977) was a German-born British film and television actor. Biography Beaumont billed under his birth name of Peter Wolff, appeared in a number of German films (''Revolt in the ...

as chief of British intelligence *

Mark Dignam Cuthbert Mark Dignam (20 March 1909 – 29 September 1989) was a prolific English actor. Born in London, the son of a salesman in the steel industry, Dignam grew up in Sheffield, and was educated at the Jesuit College, where he appeared in num ...

as Sir John *

Ewa Wiśniewska Ewa Maria Wiśniewska (born 25 April 1942) is a Polish actress. Her sister, Małgorzata Niemirska, is also an actress. Wiśniewska was awarded the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of Poland's highest Orders, and many other Orders, including Go ...

as Hanka *

Fritz Diez Fritz Diez (27 February 1901 – 19 October 1979) was a German actor, producer, director and theater manager. Biography Early life Diez's mother was a servant, and raised her three children alone. To support his family, the child began working a ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Mikhail Ulyanov Mikhail Ulyanov may refer to: * Mikhail Alexandrovich Ulyanov, actor * Mikhail Ivanovich Ulyanov, diplomat {{disambig ...

as General

Alexander Gorbatov Alexander Vasilyevich Gorbatov (russian: Алекса́ндр Васи́льевич Горба́тов; 21 March 1891 – 7 December 1973) was a Russian and Soviet officer who served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army during the Fi ...

Gerd Michael Henneberg Gerd Michael Henneberg (14 July 1922 – 1 January 2011) was a German actor and theater director. Biography Gerd Henneberg's father, Richard, was a theater director. After the young Heeneberg took private acting classes, he debuted on stage at a ...

as Albert Speer * Renate Blume as Ingrid *Werner Lierck as Private First Class Draeger *Georges Aubert as Father Mollard *Reimar Baur John as Dr. Kummerow *John Mercator as Colonel Briggs *

Alan Winnington Alan Winnington (16 March 1910 – 26 November 1983) was a British journalist, war correspondent, and Communist activist most famous for his coverage of the Korean War and the Chinese revolution. He is most well-known as the author of ''I Saw ...

as chief of the reconnaissance *Peter Doherty as squadron commander *Helmut Schreiber as attaché *Jiří Vršťala as Professor Rahn *Steffen Klaus as Colpi *

Vera Oelschlegel Vera Franziska Oelschlegel (born 5 July 1938) is a German actress, singer, artistic director, drama director and professor of drama at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts. She was a celebrity in East Germany before 1989. After that, from 1 ...

as secretary *Ingeborg Ottmann as Marianne *Achim Schmidtchen as the

Obergruppenführer ' (, "senior group leader") was a paramilitary rank in Nazi Germany that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the ''Sturmabteilung'' (SA) and adopted by the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissio ...

*Heinrich Narenta as

Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

Hannjo Hasse Hannjo Hasse (31 August 1921 – 5 February 1983) was an East German actor. Biography Hasse began studying acting in 1938, and attended Lily Ackermann's Institute for Stage Artists' Education in Berlin. At 1941, he was drafted for the Labour Ser ...

as SA officer Zech

Production

The work on ''Die Gefrorene Blitze'' began already at 1964, and took three years to be completed. Writer Harry Thürk and director János Veiczi conducted extensive research in four countries: the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Poland. The script was mainly based on Julius Mader's documentary report "The Secret of Huntsville—The Real Career of Rocketbaron Wernher von Braun" The producers deemed the film as one that continued the tradition of DEFA's classical antifascist pictures, focusing on the struggle of people from many different countries - including a catholic priest from France, a character whose portrayal as positive was not common in East Germany - to prevent the Nazis from developing long-range missiles. The title was derived from a common sobriquet for the V2 missiles - "Frozen Lightning".

Reception

The film was screened outside the competition in the

1969 Cannes Film Festival The 22nd Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 23 May 1969. At this festival a new non-competitive section called Directors' Fortnight was added, in response to the cancellation of the 1968 festival. The Grand Prix du Festival International d ...

. It won the Golden Apsara Award in the 1969 Phnom Penh International Film Festival.
Die gefrorenen Blitze
' on PROGRESS-Film Verleih.

References

External links

*
Frozen Flashes
' on the

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

. {{Authority control 1967 films 1960s spy films 1967 war films German spy films German war films East German films 1960s German-language films German black-and-white films World War II spy films Films about the German Resistance 1960s German films