The Blue Max

The Blue Max is a 1966 World War I film starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress and Jeremy Kemp. The screenplay was written by David Pursall, Jack Seddon and Gerald Hanley, based on the novel by Jack Hunter.

Plot

Leutenant Stachel (Peppard), an ambitious pilot who transferred to the German Air Service from the trenches, is trying to win the coveted military decoration, the Pour Le Mérite, better known as the Blue Max. He will stop at nothing in his quest. First he must shoot down twenty enemy aircraft and overcome the disdain of his fellow pilots. His commanding General (Mason), at first sees the propaganda value of this junior officer. But Stachel's methods risk disciplinary action which would bring shame on the officer corps. Then he is ordered to air-test a new prototype, which is thought to be too dangerous to fly....

Stunt flying

One of the stunt pilots used in the film was Derek Piggott. Several pilots helped recreate the live dog-fights scenes for the film, but Piggott was the only pilot to agree to fly the stunt at the climax of the film in which the two rivals challenge each other to fly beneath the arch of a bridge. Taking the role of both German pilots and with multiple takes from contrasting camera angles, Piggott ended up flying through the arch of a bridge in Ireland thirty times. The director had placed a flock of sheep next to the bridge so that they would scatter as the biplanes approached, in order to demonstrate that the stunt was real. However by the thirtieth take, the sheep had become accustomed to the planes and continued to graze, creating a continuity error which can be seen in the finished film. Piggott was able to fly through the arch reliably by aligning two posts that he had put in the field on the far side.