In contrast to films that romanticize the flying aces of the Great War, The Blue Max depicts the protagonist as a man who appears to have no regard for anyone but himself. Set against the realities of modern warfare, the film also explores the decline of chivalry and the advent of total war.
German Corporal Bruno Stachel leaves the fighting in the trenches to become a fighter pilot in the German Army Air Service. In spring 1918, he sets his sights on winning Germany's highest medal for valour, the "Blue Max", for which he must shoot down 20 aircraft.
Of modest origins (his father ran a small hotel), Leutnant Bruno Stachel sets out to prove himself. Oberleutnant Willi von Klugemann resents having a commoner as his rival. Their commanding officer, Hauptmann Otto Heidemann, is an aristocratic officer whose belief in chivalry and the laws and customs of war conflict with Stachel's disregard for them.
On his first mission, Stachel shoots down a British S.E.5, but does not receive credit for it because there were no witnesses. Stachel searches the countryside for the wreckage, which gives the impression that he cares more about himself than the death of his wingman.
Soon afterward, he attacks an Allied two-man observation aircraft and incapacitates the rear gunner. Instead of downing the defenseless aircraft, he signals the pilot to fly to the German base. As they near the airfield, the rear gunner revives and reaches for his machine-gun, unseen by the observers on the ground. Stachel is forced to shoot the aircraft down. A disgusted Heidemann believes that Stachel has committed a war crime just for a confirmed kill.
The incident brings Stachel to the attention of Generaloberst Count von Klugemann, Willi's uncle. When the general visits the base, he meets Stachel. As Stachel is a commoner, the general sees great propaganda value in him. Meanwhile, Kaeti, the general's wife, is carrying on a discreet affair with her husband's nephew.
Soon afterward, Stachel is shot down after rescuing a red Fokker Dr.I from two British fighters. When he returns to the airfield, he is stunned when he is introduced to the man he saved: Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. Richthofen offers Stachel a place in his squadron. Stachel declines, explaining his desire to "prove himself" with his current squadron.
With Stachel temporarily grounded by a minor injury, General von Klugemann orders him to Berlin to help shore up the crumbling public morale. The general invites him to dinner. Later, Stachel and Kaeti have sex.
Soon afterward, Stachel and Willi volunteer to escort a reconnaissance aircraft. When British fighters attack, Stachel's guns jam, but Willi downs three enemy planes. While returning to base, Willi challenges Stachel to a flying contest, flying under a railway viaduct. Willi clips the top of a tower and crashes. When Stachel reports his death, Heidemann assumes that the verified victories were Willi's. Stachel impulsively claims them, even though he fired only 40 bullets before his guns jammed. Outraged, Heidemann officially accuses him of lying, but the Air Service backs Stachel. Later, when he sleeps with Kaeti again, he admits he lied.
During a strafing mission covering the retreat of the German Army, Stachel disobeys orders and engages enemy fighters. The rest of the squadron follows him. Later, Heidemann confronts him because half his pilots were killed in the ensuing dogfight. Stachel does not care. He has shot down enough aircraft, even without Willi's kills, to qualify for the Blue Max. Enraged, Heidemann submits a report recommending a court-martial. Both men are ordered to Berlin. There, von Klugemann tells Heidemann that Stachel is to receive the Blue Max because the people need a hero. The general orders Heidemann to withdraw his report. Rather than do that, Heidemann resigns his command and accepts a desk job.
Later that evening, Kaeti visits Stachel and suggests they flee to neutral Switzerland, since defeat is inevitable. Stachel refuses.
The next day, Stachel is awarded the Blue Max by the Crown Prince in a well-publicised ceremony. Field Marshal von Lenndorf telephones von Klugermann to order him to stop the ceremony since an investigation has been opened into Stachel's claim. The general asks how the field marshal found out about that. He turns to his wife and realises that she is responsible. When Heidemann reports that the new monoplane that he has just test-flown is a "death trap" with weak struts, von Klugemann sees a way out and tells Stachel, "Let's see some real flying". Stachel's aerobatics causes the aircraft to break up and crash.
Cast notes:
The casting of George Peppard in the mainly international ensemble cast was considered a "safe" choice, as he was establishing a reputation for leading roles in action films. Although youthful looking, at 37 years of age, he was much older than the Stachel depicted in the novel. Peppard wanted to create an "authentic" performance and learned to fly, earned a private pilot's license and did some of his own flying in the film,[3] although stunt pilot Derek Piggott was at the controls for the under-the-bridge scene.
Novel
Jack Hunter's debut novel was published in 1964. The New York Times called it "entertaining".[4]
The novel was optioned by 20th Century Fox, which in October 1964 assigned Ben Barzman and Basilio Franchina to write the script.[5] In December, Fox announced that it would make the film the following summer.[6]
Compared to film
Pour le Mérite, informally known as the "Blue Max", the highest military honour that the Kingdom of Prussia could bestow during World War I.
The film differs from the book on which it is based both in the plot and the portrayal of the characters. Some of the differences are:
Stachel: The movie portrays Stachel initially as an idealistic, humble and naive man who evolves into someone willing to do whatever it takes to get his way. He is also depicted as being insecure about his lower-class background and desires to prove himself an equal aviator and man to the aristocrats by earning the Blue Max. The vain attempt by Stachel to confirm his first kill occurs only in the film. There is also no confrontation with Heidemann, who takes a swift dislike to Stachel over claiming aircraft that Willi had shot down.
Stachel was played by the 37-year-old George Peppard, in stark contrast to the 19-year-old character of the novel. From the beginning of the novel, Stachel is a deeply troubled alcoholic with a penchant for lying. Obsessed with earning the last of the new Fokker D.VIIs, he kills Willi to obtain it. In the novel, Heidemann exhibits an immediate favouritism toward the newcomer and credits Stachel with his first victories, and Kettering, the squadron adjutant, refuses to comply until Heidemann orders him to do so.
At the end of the novel, Heidemann reveals that he has been secretly boosting Stachel's achievements as part of an experiment in publicity management. Stachel earns his Blue Max not from 20 victories but by destroying three aircraft and capturing one after Heidemann's guns jam. (Stachel is so drunk that he cannot even recall the engagement.) He is also honoured for saving the life of a French girl who falls into a river. Stachel does not die in the book and in fact meets the future commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Hauptmann Hermann Göring. Stachel marries Kaeti von Klugermann after the death of Graf von Klugermann, as is noted at the beginning of The Blood Order, the second book in Jack Hunter's Stachel series.
Hauptmann Heidemann: Heidemann's deep longing to be with his wife and her growing depression over his absence are more subtle in the movie than in the book. In the novel, Heidemann does not accuse Stachel of brutality in the shooting down of the British aircraft over their airfield. He regards Stachel as the best pilot in the Jasta after himself and has already planned to assign Stachel one of the new Fokker D.VIIs. In the novel, Heidemann, not General von Klugermann, is the one who recognises the propaganda value of building Stachel up into a hero and uses that as a means to get himself reassigned to Berlin to be near his wife.
Willi von Klugermann: Willi is described as a "fat aristocrat" in the book who has only one victory more than Stachel. In the film, Willi is leaner and more arrogant and competitive and earns a Blue Max shortly after Stachel's arrival. In the book, Willi regards Stachel as a close friend, and his affair with Kaeti is revealed only after his death when Stachel reads his journal. Unlike the movie, they are never rivals for her affection. In the novel, Willi is murdered by Stachel to obtain the last of the five new Fokker D VIIs allotted to the squadron. In the movie, Willi is accidentally killed in an aerial competition with Stachel over who is the better pilot.
General von Klugermann: In the movie, the count is a career General-Oberst in the German Army. In the novel, his title is Graf, and he is a famous surgeon who has researched alcoholism and other addictions. Unlike the film, the Graf and the Gräfin do not have an open marriage. In the film, General von Klugermann recognises the social turmoil erupting in Germany and presents Stachel as a lower-class hero. Doctor von Klugermann, an aristocrat, recognises the unfair nature of Germany's class system and disapproves of it but makes no effort at change.
Käti von Klugermann: Käti's character in the book and film are similar. The Gräfin comes from the lower classes but relishes her status and wealth. Both characters deftly use sexuality to get what they want. In the book, while she is drunk, Stachel extorts money from Käti with his knowledge of her affair with Willi. Later, she blackmails Stachel to marry her by threatening to reveal his murder of Willi and two British pilots. In the film, she proposes for Stachel to run away with her to Switzerland, which he refuses. For that slight, she exposes Stachel's lies. Her husband, the General, then sends Stachel to his death in an unstable aircraft to preserve the honour of the officer corps.
Elfi Heidemann: In both the novel and the film, Elfi is a nurse stationed in Berlin. In the book, Elfi is an alcoholic who overcomes her addiction with the assistance of Doctor von Klugermann. Stachel recognises Elfi as his kindred spirit, and after Heidemann's death, seeks to form a relationship with her. Käti literally stops him at Elfi's door, which forces Stachel to marry her instead. Stachel ruefully accepts his fate to return to Käti and alcoholism.
Corporal Rupp: Rupp has only a minor role in the movie. In the novel, he is an Unteroffizier and thoroughly distasteful character, and Stachel describes him as "a pig of a man". He earns extra money by smuggling cheap booze to Stachel and by using one of the squadron's reconnaissance cameras to take pornographic pictures for Kettering's extensive collection of erotica. In the end, it is Rupp who provides Kaeti with evidence that implicates Stachel in Willi's murder.
Conclusion: In the movie, Heidemann flies the monoplane first and determines that it is a "death trap" because the struts are too weak for the wing loading. General von Klugermann then sends Stachel to his death to shield the German Officer Corps from the shame of Stachel's false claim of two victories. In the novel, it is Stachel who tries out the new monoplane, finds the defect and then allows Heidemann to fly the aircraft. Before Heidemann takes off, Stachel tries to stop him to save his life, but Heidemann continues and dies. Hunter's novel ends with Stachel meeting a young Hermann Göring, who has assumed command of the vaunted "Flying Circus" after the death of its commander, Manfred von Richthofen.
Production
George Peppard's casting was announced in April 1965.[7]
The job of directing was given to John Guillermin, who had impressed Fox's studio head, Darryl F Zanuck, with two lower budgeted films he made for Fox.[8]
The film was shot in Ireland, at Bray, County Wicklow's Ardmore Studios.[9] The budget was originally $3 million.[10]
Fox spent $250,000 on building nine war planes.[11]
Peppard learned to fly for the film and later called working with Guillermin "the most exciting creative experience I've ever had."[12]
Director of photography Douglas Slocombe was hospitalized for three weeks with an injured back. Elmo Williams said Guillermin was "indifferent to people getting hurt as long as he got realistic action...a hard-working, overly critical man whom the crew disliked."[13]
Stunt flying
The majority of the aircraft used in the film were converted Tiger Moths and Stampe SV.4s. Two Pfalz D.IIIs were produced (by two separate companies) for the film, along with three Fokker D.VIIs and two Fokker Dr.I triplanes. Other German aircraft were represented by repainted Tiger Moths and Stampes. Two SE 5 flying replicas were made by the Miles Aircraft company at Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex, England. Other British aircraft were mocked-up trainers made into British S.E.5s. The German lozenge camouflage was not universal to all units at the time the story takes place (Spring 1918), but, in the film, aircraft of all German units are shown in this scheme.
The Fokker Dr.I triplanes were purpose-built replicas. The Tiger Moth silhouette was more appropriate to British aircraft of the period, such as the S.E.5a (one of which Stachel shoots down during his first mission) and presents a good general impression of actual contemporary aircraft.[14]
Fokker E.VFokker D.VIIIMorane MS 230
The "death-trap" monoplane at the end of the film, known as the "Adler" (German for eagle) in the novel, may have been inspired by the Fokker E.V, which was a late-war monoplane design which did indeed rapidly gather a reputation for poor construction of the wing, resulting in several crashes before being modified and re-designated the Fokker D.VIII. In the film it is portrayed by Patrick Lindsay's Morane 230 Parasol trainer, with a faired-over front seat to simulate a monoplane fighter visually.[15][16]
The depictions of aerial combat in the film are particularly realistic. The aircraft ground scenes were shot at Weston Aerodrome near Dublin (which should not be confused with RAFWeston-on-the-Green, England).
Pilots from the Irish Air Corps helped recreate the live dog-fight scenes, supported by number of civilians, including Charles Boddington and Derek Piggott. Piggott was the only pilot willing to fly beneath the spans of a bridge. Taking the role of both German pilots and with multiple takes from contrasting camera angles, he ended up flying 15 times under the wide span of the Carrickabrack Railway Viaduct in Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland, and 17 times under the narrower span. The two Fokker Dr.I triplane replicas had about four feet (1.2 metres) of clearance on each side when passing through the narrower span. He was able to fly through the arch reliably by aligning two scaffolding poles, one in the river and one on the far bank. Just before the scenes of flying beneath the bridge, one of the Triplanes executes what could be considered a near-perfect barrel roll as seen from aft of the two Dr.Is used for the scene. Off screen, actor George Peppard flew one of the Pfalz used in the movie.[17]
The director had placed a flock of sheep next to the bridge so that they would scatter as the aircraft approached to show that the stunt was real and not simulated with models. However, by later takes, the sheep had become accustomed to the aircraft, and had to be scared by the shepherd instead. In the printed take, the sheep continued to graze, creating a continuity error which can be seen in the finished film.
The entire collection of aircraft, uniforms and supporting equipment was purchased from 20th Century Fox by ex-Royal Canadian Air Force pilot Lynn Garrison. He kept the collection together in Ireland under his company, Blue Max Aviation, Ltd. Over the following years they played a part in You Can't Win 'Em All, Darling Lili, Zeppelin, Von Richthofen and Brown, and various television commercials, including a classic Ridley Scott production promoting Opel's limited edition "Blue Max." Both of the Pfalz replicas and one Fokker D.VII now belong to New Zealand film director Peter Jackson's 1914–18 Trust, with the Viv Bellamy-designed Pfalz now being on display at the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in New Zealand. All three aircraft are kept in fully airworthy condition. Another of the Fokker D.VII's is on display at the Southern Museum of Flight in Birmingham, Alabama.
Locations
The scenes where the Germans come into the French village were filmed on Calary Bog in County Wicklow, Ireland. For many weeks, the building of the village attracted the locals to watch it coming up. Then it was bombed and made to look destroyed. It was a local tourist attraction for a long time after the film had wrapped.
The Berlin scenes were shot in Dublin. Christ Church Cathedral and Leinster House, the seat of the Oireachtas, the Irish national parliament, are easily recognisable in the background of many scenes and Trinity College served as the army headquarters where von Klugermann's office is located.
Many of the flying scenes were shot at Weston Aerodrome (EIWT) near Lucan, Ireland, about 10 miles west of Dublin hence the name confusion with Weston-on-the-Green. Today there is a restaurant named after the movie at the Aerodrome.[18] The final scene where Stachel meets his fate was filmed at Baldonnel, the Irish Air Corps' main base. The hangars seen in the movie were built for the Royal Air Force in 1918.
The Carrickabrack Viaduct in Fermoy, County Cork was used for the scenes where Stachel and Von Klugermann flew several times under the railway bridge. The view from the 19th century railway bridge which spans the River Blackwater is spectacular and it was one of the reasons the producers of The Blue Max chose it as one of the locations for the film.
Historical accuracy
In an article entitled "About The Blue Max" the author, Jack D. Hunter, wrote:
On the day of our arrival at the Bray Studios, we were shown to canvas director’s chairs with our names on the back and treated to rushes of some key action sequences. And I was literally left speechless when I saw Fokker D-7s with inverted engines and 1916-style insignia, Dr-1s with radial engines and smoke canisters on their landing gear struts, machine-guns that looked like Space Cadet props spouting flame without benefit of ammo tracks, every pilot wearing an Uhlan uniform and Battle of Britain style goggles, Gypsy Moths pretending to be Albatros D-3s, a Stampe presented as an RE-8—the anachronisms and goofs compounded. When I asked Delang about it later, he merely shrugged, rolled his eyes, and sighed resignedly. When I challenged the art director on something so glaring as a D-7 with curve-sided crosses, he shrugged, too. "That kind of cross photographs better," he said. Ah, but how about those machine-guns with no ammo feed tracks? Another shrug. "No big deal. People just watch the muzzle flashes."
So much for the definitive World War I aviation movie.[19]
Music
The producers chose Jerry Goldsmith to compose the score after offering the job to Ron Goodwin, who was working on another score.[20] With Goldsmith, they requested a Germanic composition. Goldsmith was even introduced to the project with scenes incorporating a "temp track" from Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra. Goldsmith said of this experience "I admit it worked fairly well but my first reaction was to get up and walk away from the job. Once you've heard music like that with the picture, it makes your own scoring more difficult to arrive at."[21]
Goldsmith used a large orchestra, some cues requiring over 100 musicians, with large brass and percussion sections as well as a wind machine. On 4 April 1966, he conducted the soundtrack with the National Philharmonic Orchestra led by Sidney Sax at Shepperton Studios in London. These recordings were released on LP by Mainstream Records in 1966, and re-released on LP by Citadel Records in 1976. The soundtrack was released on CD by Varèse Sarabande in 1985 and by Sony in 1995 (with seven cues of source music from the movie arranged by Arthur Morton). The score was once again released, this time complete and in correct film order with accurate track listings, by speciality-label Intrada in 2010.[21]
On 4 March 2014, LaLaLand Records reissued the score on a 2-disc set, including all source music and alternatives. Mike Matessino performed the restoration and remastering, making this the definitive release of this score, with vastly improved sound.[citation needed]
André Previn chose an extended passacaglia from the score to perform on his television program Previn and the Pittsburgh in 1978 on the episode "Music that Made the Movies".[21]
Five tracks of music from the film ("Overture", "First Flight", "The Bridge", "The Attack" and "Finale") were recorded on 11 March 1987, at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, London, and are incorporated as Tracks 1–5 into the CD, Goldsmith Conducts Goldsmith, played by the Philharmonia Orchestra and subsequently released by Silva Screen Records in 2002 (FILMCD336), though it had been originally released in 1989 by the Decca Record Co. Ltd./Filmtrax plc.[21]
Reception
Critical
Although The Blue Max was seen as a quasi-historical account, some critics decried what they considered an intrusive sub-plot tying a World War I story into the "modern theme of the corruption of the military-industrial complex."[22] Even though the music and the flying scenes were considered the film's redemption, some aviation observers criticised what they thought was a wooden characterisation by Peppard's performance of a dog-fighting combat pilot from military aviation's heroic age.[14]
Robert Alden of The New York Times wrote, "What is by far the best thing about 'The Blue Max' ... is that this élan, this glory, is captured on film once again. With the technological improvements of the years, the skies were never bluer or wider, the war in the air or on the ground never more realistic ... The question each filmgoer will have to ask himself is how much of what is bad in 'The Blue Max' is he willing to take in exchange for what is good. Much of the earthbound drama of this lengthy film is tangled, confusing, clumsy."[23]
Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "a World War I combat drama with some exciting aerial sequences helping to enliven a somewhat grounded, meller (sic) script in which no principal character engenders much sympathy."[24]
Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote of the film that "The aerial dogfights have thrilling impact ... Its fault is that it doesn't give one anybody to pull for, so that aside from admiration for the men who fly these flimsy, antiquated crates one's sympathies are rarely engaged."[25]Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote that "the flight sequences and the fantastically frail-looking planes run away with the picture ... Director John Guillemin rightly makes the most of Skeets Kelly's aerial photography and those fabulous flying crates, but on the ground he misses what might have been an absorbing statement."[26]
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that "the aerial dogfights are imaginative and lively" and James Mason "is in fine form," but "the film is padded out with tedious chunks of indoor chat between its set of largely unpleasant characters, filmed flatly in gloomy shades of grey and green for the most part."[27]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on reviews from 6 critics, with an average rating of 6.1/10.[28]
The Blue Max was a financial success at the box office, earning $5 million in North American rentals in 1966.[30] It was one of the twelve most popular films at the British box office in 1967.[31]
According to Fox records, the film needed to earn $14,200,000 in rentals to break even and made $16,850,000.[32] By 11 December 1970, it made Fox a profit of $2,830,000.[33]
^Looking at Hollywood: Spy Comedy Gets Crew from Van Dyke Show
Hopper, Hedda. Chicago Tribune 29 April 1965: b6.
^How Zanuck Brought Life to Ailing 20th Century-Fox
Champlin, Charles. Los Angeles Times 24 April 1966: b1.
^Two twentieth century fox films to be made here. (8 April 1965). The Irish Times
^CALL SHEET: Belgrade Site of 3 Movies
Martin, Betty. Los Angeles Times 28 April 1965: c11.
^Wager, Walter (12 December 1965). "'Blue Max' Turns Erin Green As Great War Rages Again". The Washington Post and Times-Herald. p. G3. ProQuest142422468.
^Hendrick, Kimmis (1 February 1966). "'I'm an actor, not a star'". The Christian Science Monitor. p. 4. ProQuest510788886.
^MAKING THE BLUE MAX
Hollway, Don. Aviation History; Leesburg Vol. 25, Iss. 6, (Jul 2015): 54–58.
^Hunter, Jack, D. "The Blue Max revisited". jackhunter.com, 2008. (Article first appearing in Over the Front, Official Quarterly Journal of the League of World War I Historians, Volume 13, Number 3, Fall 1998.) Retrieved: 9 September 2013.
Farmer, James A. "Hollywood's World War One Aviation Films." Air Classics, Volume 24, no. 12, December 1988.
Harwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies". The Making of the Great Aviation Films, General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
Mayo, Mike. VideoHound's War Movies: Classic Conflict on Film. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1999. ISBN1-57859-089-2.
Mizrahi, Joe. "The Blue Max." Air Classics Volume 2, Issue 6, May 1966.
Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1.
