The Blue Max **** (1966, George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp) – Classic Movie Review 2938

Director John Guillermin’s 1966 historical action adventure movie proves a very decent World War One flying spectacular. It stars George Peppard as a young German air force fighter pilot who ambitiously sets out to win the German High Command medal of the title in 1918. Wilfred Shingleton won the 1967 BAFTA Film Award for Best British Art Direction (Colour).

Though Lieutenant Bruno Stachel is disliked as lower class and lacking in chivalry, he tries to earn the medal offered for 20 kills. The General, Count von Klugermann, arranges for him to test-fly an untried fighter.

Peppard gives a good account of himself as Stachel but even so the top acting medals here go to classy James Mason as the aristocratic general Count von Klugermann, and Jeremy Kemp as Willi von Klugermann, both of whom give eye-catching performances and easily run rings round the rather less lustrous Peppard and Ursula Andress as Mason’s wife and Peppard’s mistress, Countess Kaeti von Klugermann.

The biplane battles are a spiffing main attraction, as it would be expected, with the aviation sequences easily outpacing the drama in impressive awe factor. Douglas Slocombe’s striking cinematography, Wilfred Shingleton’s art direction, John Furniss’s costumes and Jerry Goldsmith’s famous score give it a thumping boost and make it seem a lot better and more fun than perhaps it would otherwise be, giving it class and quality.

Also in the largely Anglo-German cast are Karl Michael Vogler, Derek Newark, Carl Schell (as Von Richthofen, aka The Red Baron), Anton Diffring, Derren Nesbitt, Loni Von Friedl, Peter Woodthorpe, Harry Towb and Friedrich Ledebur.

The screenplay by David Pursall, Jack Seddon and Gerald Hanley is based on a novel by Jack D Hunter, with adaptation by Ben Barzman and Basilio Franchina.

British film-maker John Guillermin, director of The Towering Inferno, the 1976 King Kong, Death on the Nile,The Blue Max, The Bridge at Remagen died on 28 September 2015, aged 89. He was best known for big-budget action films, also including El Condor, Shaft in Africa, Sheena and the sequel King Kong Lives.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2938

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