The War Lover * (1962, Steve McQueen, Shirley Anne Field, Robert Wagner) – Classic Movie Review 6460

‘Some men love war the way others love women. This is the story of both kinds!’

Director Philip Leacock’s 1962 British black and white wartime adventure film and aviation epic The War Lover is charismatically cast with Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner and Shirley Anne Field but it is disappointing.

Steve McQueen stars as fatalist Captain Buzz Rickson and Robert Wagner also stars as First Lieutenant Bo Bolland, World War Two American bomber pilots based in East Anglia and both in love with English rose, Daphne Caldwell (Shirley Anne Field), who is supposed to be Bo’s woman.

This mix of war movie, romance and drama is let down by the unconvincing acting, the heavy-handed writing by Howard Koch, based on the 1959 novel by John Hersey, and the laboured direction by Leacock. Even though they were happy to advertise the film on the original release poster as ‘John Hersey’s Major Novel of World War II’, nevertheless Koch’s screenplay is only loosely based on the novel, altering the names of characters and many of its events, though keeping its framework.

Steve McQueen is very much the star of course. The 1943-set film puts centre stage his Captain Buzz, an arrogant pilot in command of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber nicknamed The Body, so determined to get what he wants he ends up alienating everyone.

The well-staged aerial battles (photographed by Ronnie Taylor) liven the movie up a little, but not enough. Three Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers, modified and flown in from the US, are the main aerial component. Short rare footage of actual air combat and the crash landing footage from the 1949 Twelve O’Clock High are also used. This turned out to be an own goal when reviews compared The War Lover unfavourably to the 1949 classic.

Tragically, Wagner’s stunt double Mike Reilly died in a parachuting accident during production.

Sony Pictures colourised the film in 2003.

Also in the cast are Gary Cockrell, Michael Crawford, Ed Bishop, Bernard Braden, Tom Busby, Charles De Temple, Louise Dunn, Robert Easton, Bill Edwards, Arthur Hewlett, Chuck Julian, Bob Kanter, Sean Kelly, Richard Leech, Justine Lord, Neil McCallum, George Sperdakos, Jerry Stovin and Al Waxman.

The War Lover runs 106 minutes, is made by Columbia British Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is shot in black and white by Robert Huke, is produced by Arthur Hornblow Jr, is scored by Richard Addinsell and Muir Mathieson, and is designed by William C Andrews.

It is filmed in Britain at RAF Bovingdon in Hertfordshire, RAF Manston in Kent, in Cambridgeshire (including King’s College, Cambridge, grounds), and at Shepperton Studios in Surrey.

It was released in September 1962 in the UK and on 25 October 1962 in the US.

Shirley Ann Field recalled: ‘I don’t think director Philip Leacock was strong enough. I just think it could have been better.’ She made the understandable mistake of turning down starring in A Kind of Loving to make the Hollywood-financed movie The War Lover. ‘I chose the Hollywood option, who wouldn’t?’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6460

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