History Film / WomanInTheMoon

* ProductPlacement: Mannfeldt drinks from a glass that says "Odol", complete with a closeup with the camera trained on the logo as Helius pours the drink. Odol was and is a German brand of mouthwash.

* HeroScientist: Friede Velten, who is the title character and heroine of the tale; although a student of astronomy, she is clearly inspired by real-life female aviators of the era. Impressive when you compare it to the later * patronising view of women in science fiction (see ''Film/ProjectMoonbase'').

* EqualOpportunityEvil: Five Brains and Checkbooks, who include a woman (Tilla Durieux) and an Asian man (Mahmud Terja Bey).

* SpaceIsCold: Note the rocket is painted with one side black -- that's so they can turn the dark side to face the sun when they need to heat the rocket, then rotate to the other side when it needs cooling.

* YellowPeril: One of [[EvilGenius Five Brains]].

* TheChick: Averted with Friede Velten, who is the title character and heroine of the tale; although a student of astronomy, she is clearly inspired by real-life female aviators of the era. Impressive when you compare it to the later patronising view of women in science fiction (see ''Film/ProjectMoonbase'').

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Frau_Im_Mond_4433.jpg]]

* YellowPeril: One of Five Brains.

After his stunning success with ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', German studio Ufa gave director Creator/FritzLang free rein on his next project. Excited by the idea of rockets and spaceflight (hugely popular in Germany at the time) he decided to make a film about a [[InterplanetaryVoyage rocket expedition to the Moon]].

* GravityScrew:
** Straps are placed all over the floor and roof of the cabin, and there's a sequence involving Friede and Windegger trying to drink from a bottle in zero-G. Once on the Moon, they use [[StickyShoes weighted boots to walk normally]] in the lower gravity.
** Oddly, however, despite including the straps on the floor and roof as a nod to the idea of walking around zero gravity, Lang didn't have the actors use them. So they simply [[SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay stroll around normally]] on their spacecraft.

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: The Finance Group and their representative, Walt Truner ([[Film/{{Metropolis}} Fritz Rasp]]), who want to [[GoldFever mine the Moon for its gold so they can control the world market]].

* GravityScrew: Straps are placed all over the floor and roof of the cabin, and there's a sequence involving Friede and Windegger trying to drink from a bottle in zero-G. Once on the Moon, they use [[StickyShoes weighted boots to walk normally]] in the lower gravity.

** Besides the countdown and the attention paid to the problem of acceleration and g-forces, this film also has the launch done via staged rocketry ("Launch rocket exhausted! Full thrust to middle rocket!"). This of course was how it was actually done when the Americans and Soviets started putting living beings into space in the 1960s.

* ShownTheirWork: Along with ''Film/DestinationMoon'' and ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', this was one of the few sci-fi movies where the creators paid serious attention to their technical advisors -- in this case, science writer Willy Ley and Romanian rocket scientist Hermann Oberth. So accurate was the film that the Gestapo later confiscated the release prints and a large cutaway model of the spacecraft, for fear that it would compromise Germany's secret ballistic rocket program.

* BatmanCanBreatheInSpace: The Moon has a breathable atmosphere, so they don't need spacesuits! Silent film actors depended greatly on facial expressions and body language [[InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace which would be obscured by bulky spacesuits and helmets]], so Lang was forced to compromise on this point.

* GravityScrew: Straps are placed all over the floor and roof of the cabin, and there's a sequence involving Friede and Windegger trying to drink from a bottle in zero-G. Once on the Moon, they use weighted boots to walk normally in the lower gravity.

After his stunning success with ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'', German studio Ufa gave director Creator/FritzLang free rein on his next project. Excited by the idea of rockets and spaceflight (hugely popular in Germany at the time) he decided to make a film about a [[InterplanetaryVoyage rocket expedition to the Moon]]. Lang insisted on such technical accuracy that, even though it’s a silent film made in 1929, ''Frau im Mond'' has uncanny similarities to the Apollo program three decades later. Just witness the moment where a giant three-stage rocket is assembled in a cavernous building, then trundled to the launch pad by means of a huge transport platform down a dual-tracked road. Several cliches seen in the sci-fi movies of the 1950's and onwards also originated with this film, such as the portrayal of the crushing pressures of acceleration ([[SpinningClockHands close-ups of dials]] and [[LudicrousSpeed straining facial expressions]]), the comedy of trying to eat and drink [[GravityScrew while weightless]], and a crewmember making a HeroicSacrifice [[ColdEquation so the others will have enough oxygen to survive]]. It was also largely responsible for changing the popular portrayal of a spacecraft from Creator/JulesVerne SteamPunk to [=SciFi=] Golden Age RetroRocket.

''Frau im Mond'' had interesting historical consequences. In order to promote the film Lang persuaded his technical advisor, Hermann Oberth, to construct and launch an actual rocket as a publicity stunt! As far as they knew ''no-one had ever done this'', as US scientist Robert Goddard had not publicized his experiments. Unfortunately Oberth, more suited to the quiet world of academia, broke down under the strain and failed to meet the deadline. The resulting publicity however provided the funding for amateur rocket enthusiasts to continue Oberth's project. This in turn attracted the attention of the German military, who offered the groups' most promising member -- a young [[ReluctantMadScientist Wernher von Braun]] -- a [[PiggybackingOnHitler contract to work on ballistic missiles]]. The rest, as they say, [[WorldWarTwo is history]].

''Frau im Mond'' had interesting historical consequences. In order to promote the film Lang persuaded his technical advisor, Hermann Oberth, to construct and launch an actual rocket as a publicity stunt! As far as they knew ''no-one had ever done this'', as US scientist Robert Goddard had not publicized his experiments. Unfortunately Oberth, more suited to the quiet world of academia, broke down under the strain and failed to meet the deadline. The resulting publicity however provided the funding for amateur rocket enthusiasts to contine Oberth's project. This in turn attracted the attention of the German military, who offered the groups' most promising member -- a young [[ReluctantMadScientist Wernher von Braun]] -- a [[PiggybackingOnHitler contract to work on ballistic missiles]]. The rest, as they say, [[WorldWarTwo is history]].

* BigElectricSwitch: The control panel resembles something you'd find in a generating station (which would be the most high tech installation at the time).

* BigElectricSwitch: The control panel resembles something you'd find in a generating station (which would be the most high tech installation of the era).

* BittersweetEnding: Wolf Helius (Willy Fritsch) [[HeroicSacrifice stays behind on the Moon]], but finds that Friede Velten (Gerda Maurus) has chosen to stay behind with him rather than return to Earth with her fiance and live.

* ColdEquation: The evil Turner gets killed in a shootout, but a bullet pierces an oxygen tank. The two remaining men end up DrawingStraws to see who will stay behind.