Review of The Blue Max (1966) by Matt R — 08 Nov 2010

The Blue Max is one-of-a-kind. It is the only film about WWI pilots that I have seen which combines great flying scenes, a good script and good acting. Many have great aerial scenes: Hell's Angels(1930), The Red Baron (2008) and Von Richthofen and Brown (1971) all have exciting dogfights but lack substance when the film is on the ground.

Aces High (1976) had a very strong script and excellent cast but the aerial work is not as impressive as the other films. The Blue Max is based on a very good novel by Jack Hunter, although the adaptation is fairly loose the basis of the novel is preserved.

Bruno Stachel is an ambitious officer from a working class background who has worked his way from the trenches into the aristocratic German air force and is willing to do anything to shoot down 20 enemy planes and earn Germany's most prestigious medal The Blue Max.

The film benefits from a good cast. Peppard as Stachel is a little wooden, but nonetheless plays the roles with conviction. James Mason is great as always as the manipulative propaganda man who hopes to use Stachel to raise the common people's morale.

And the original Bond girl, Ursula Andress, plays his adulterous wife. Karl Michael Vogler as Stachel's CO and Jeremy Kemp as his biggest rival are also on fine form. The battle scenes are some of the best ever filmed, with reasonably accurate replica aircraft doing battle in the air.

Also, the scenes flying over the wasteland of the Western front as the squadrons bomb and strafe are spectacular. The film also has a wonderful music score by Jerry Goldsmith. The subject of WWI in the air has been filmed many times, usually with mediocre results.

The Blue Max is the exception to this trend. It is flawed, to be sure, but it has never been bettered. Hopefully one day it will be!