Insomniac Theatre: "The Hindenburg" (1975)

I recently bought a "Disaster Movie 4-Pack", and since disaster movies are very much a common sight on late night TV, I figured I would pop one into the machine for the latest visit to The Insomniac Theatre.  The 4-pack had the classic "Airport" (1969), "Earthquake" (1974), "Rollercoaster" (1977), and finally the 1975 film, "The Hindenburg"...

After a letter is received at the German Embassy, warning of a plot to blow up the famous airship, The Hindenburg, Colonel Ritter of the Luftwaffe is assigned to discretely investigate, and potentially eliminate any threats to the prized symbol of Nazi Germany's might and prestige.

While dealing with suspicious passengers, crew, and an undercover Gestapo agent, the Colonel soon realizes that everyone is a suspect... including himself...

As the title says, this movie is based on the tragic fire that destroyed The Hindenburg in 1937.  One of the theories put forth as to the cause of the fire was a bomb.  "The Hindenburg" deals with that particular theory as it's plotline.  It's not a bad concept, actually- and I enjoyed that this was done as more of a mystery/spy type movie than a standard disaster movie from the 1970's  It's paced very much like an Agatha Christie mystery, with a few interesting twists and red herrings in it.  Unfortunately, since it is based on a historical event, we all know from the start how it'll end.

History is the biggest spoiler for movies like this.

Many of the characters are based on actual people that attended that fateful flight of the great airship- with only a few names changed.  The backstory for characters like Colonel Ritter, Karl Boerth, The Countess, are fairly well developed, and were quite engaging for me, while the remaining weren't bad... but nothing stellar was done with them.

George C. Scott (Colonel Ritter), Anne Bancroft (The Countess), and William Atherton (Karl Boerth) did a decent job with portraying their characters, but were a little expressionless for the majority of the movie.

The visuals for "The Hindenburg" for the most part were highly praised when it was released for it's historical accuracy in terms of the interiors, and the model of the airship.  It did draw some criticism for the artistic, but lackluster use of black and white film for the final scenes- and the way it sloppily cut between the actors and actual archival footage of the burning Hindenburg.  I have to agree, the sets and model work were great, but the editing of the final scenes were less than impressive.  The scene depicting the initial explosion that led to the fire was- in my honest opinion, horrid.  Just out of style with the rest of the film, and "ugh".

While this movie had some great elements to it, the acting, the lack of any real tension (due to Historical Spoilers), and the visuals of the final scenes, I'm going to have to put "The Hindenburg" on the cups of "The Bad/The Ugly".  Your opinion could go either way depending on your mood.