Pearsey

"The Blue Max" is one of my favorite war movies. Filmed in Ireland, it is the story of a German private named Bruno Stachel, in World War I who dreams of getting out of the trenches and into the German air force. This he accomplishes. The central character is played by George Peppard, who in my opinion was at the height of his career at this time.

Bruno Stachel is very ambitious, with an overriding desire to earn the Blue Max, Germany's top air medal, given to a pilot with 20 "kills". During the film Bruno Stachel finds a rival("in or out of bed") in fellow pilot Willi von Klugermann (Jeremy Kemp). Their common love interest is Countess Klugermann (Ursula Andress), who is married to Willi's uncle General Count von Klugermann (James Mason).

"The Blue Max" is famous for its air combat scenes. Another memorable scene was the stunt duel between Peppard and Kemp's characters flying under an aqueduct. "The Blue Max" was based on a novel of the same name by Jack D. Hunter and one of a trilogy, the others being "The Blood Order" and "The Tin Cravat", following Bruno Stachel into the 1930's Nazi regime. I think those would be interesting to see on film. This film has a fantastic soundtrack composed by Jerry Goldsmith.

I watched this episode today for the first time in a long while and found it extremely touching and interesting. Richard Kiley as "Bohannan" always gives a good performance and guest starred a number of times on "Gunsmoke" but he gives one of his best here. He portrays a faith healer who is placed in the position of healing a terminally ill boy he befriends.

I found this episode engrossing because it keeps you guessing as to whether or not "Bohannan" is a fraud or an actual healer.

The end of this episode was gut wrenching. The writing and directing was excellent. Milburn Stone as Doc Adams was excellent as a skeptic who eventually changes his opinion of Bohannan's faith healing.