The Blue Max

The Blue Max is a 1966 World War I film, directed by John Guillermin, filmed in Ireland, 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

Leutnant 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 spans of a bridge. Taking the role of both German pilots and with multiple takes from contrasting camera angles, he ended up flying through the wide span of this bridge in Ireland 15 times and 17 times through the narrower span. The two Fokker Dr.I triplane replicas had about four feet of clearance on each side when passing through the narrower span. The director had placed a flock of sheep next to the bridge so that they would scatter as the plane approached in order to demonstrate that the stunt was real and had not used models. However, by later takes, the sheep had become accustomed to the planes and continued to graze, creating a continuity error which can be seen in the finished film. The sheep had to be scared by the shepherd instead. He was able to fly through the arch reliably by aligning two scaffolding poles, one in the river and one on the far bank.

Blue Max Badges

Each of the principal people on the movie, the producers, the director, the writers and actors etc, were given a replica copy of the Blue Max badge, made in silver and a good deal smaller than the original badge.

The French Village

The scenes where the Germans come into the French village were filmed on Calary Bog in County Wicklow in Ireland. For many weeks the building of the village attracted the locals to watch it coming up. Then is was bombed and made to look destroyed. It was a local tourist attraction for a long time after the film had wrapped.