Von Richthofen and Brown

John Philipp Law and Don Stroud respectively play the two men named in this film's original title, Von Richtofen And Brown, and presents a fairly balanced and interesting set of parallels and divergences between the two men. As World War One rages to its conclusion, Von Richtofen and Brown head on a collision course towards their fateful encounter in the air.

Corman's production is a bit dated, and purists will point out many technical and historical errors in the film. Flight and combat sequences, however, are exciting, extremely well-conceived and filmed, and surpass most efforts before or since to show film-goers aerial combat of the First World War.

I saw this film at a drive-in when it was first released, and it still fascinates me to this day. While other more-expensive productions, with their sumptuous sets and A-list actors, continue to command the attention of film viewers and film collectors alike, I find the simple, sparing lines of this production far more effective as the vehicle for one of history's most famous duels. True, by now most historians have abandoned the notion that the fatal bullets came from Brown; however, this is the tale of popular culture as it was told for generations, not as nuclear scientists have most lately emended it.

Given the very negative comments by others on IMDB about this film, I wasn't really expecting much, especially given that it was directed by Roger Corman, who, whilst he certainly has his talents, would not really be expected to helm a period piece with high production values. Actually I found this film not at all bad. Certainly its narrative plays fast and loose with historical details. But it is quite authentic in many respects - the planes themselves, and the nature of air combat depicted, are reasonably accurate (better, for example, than the planes in The Blue Max, which often look like very thinly disguised Tiger Moths). And fair chunks of the dialogue seem to be taken almost directly from the writings of actual WW1 flyers. Even the rather melodramatic plot does have roots in historical truths, and functions well enough to engage the viewer's attention throughout. I'd say it's definitely worth a look, and compares surprisingly well with the generally much better regarded The Blue Max.

Roger Corman is usually immediately associated with exploitive movies made for B studios, but there were a few times when he worked for major Hollywood studios, "Von Richthofen and Brown" being one example. Additional interest is that this movie is one of the few times Corman made a serious movie - there's no exploitive tone to be found here. So how are the end results? Well, with a major studio bankrolling the production, the look of the movie is pretty well done. There's no signs of cost-cutting or missing details. Also, the aerial sequences are excellent, exciting and breath-taking. However, Corman was working with an inadequate script. Though the various actors in the cast do a professional job, the screenplay simply doesn't get into the heads of Von Richthofen or Brown (or anyone else for that matter.) We don't really learn what's driving them or what they are really thinking. While I wouldn't say that this is a terrible movie despite that fatal flaw, I would only recommend the movie to Roger Corman fans who are intrigued about the idea of him making a serious movie on an A-level budget.

Well, only slightly worse in that although this film misses the earlier film's scope and spectacle, it slims down the narrative substantially so that it goes down a little easier. Similarly to George Peppard, John Philip Law gives us an aloof performance of a German fighter ace rising up through the ranks, hitting most of the same notes including getting a medal from The Kaiser and bedding some classy rich woman as reward for his deeds.

Don Stroud gives us another of his mopey forlorn performances so characteristic of leading men of this era. We don't really ever come to like him unfortunately but that goes for Law too. Although I'd call this one of Roger Corman's more "respectable" films in that it doesn't exude any obvious incompetence, it does feel a little light and small considering there's supposed to be a whole World War going on. For those expecting any real insight into the true story of The Red Baron, look elsewhere as this film doesn't feel particularly accurate or well-researched. Surprisingly, it does contain dozens of vintage planes and a couple cool base attack scenes. That's probably where all the money went.

The flying sequences in this film are authentic, which is the best thing going here, we see real men in the aircraft in the AIR and not on a blue screen set, as in THE BLUE MAX from which this film has it's roots and where most of the aircraft came from. Since the aircraft were available from the latter, the complaints about vintage aircraft being out of time-sync are valid, but given the budget ... you make do with what you have. Case closed here.

THE BLUE MAX had decent dogfights, but blue screen as above so here the combat sequences are better. THE GREAT WALDO PEPPER also had real IN THE AIR footage of both pilots and aircraft, certain a fine pseudo-dogfight at the end of it.

DARLING LILI I have never seen much of so I will refrain, though more BLUE MAX aircraft once again.

Now we have the CGI films such as THE RED BARON and FLYBOYS, both of which show great action, totally faked and also totally way too fast. Watch the speed and action of these earlier films and you sense that these old planes did not move THAT FAST as these two films show them. Great stuff, but totally fake.

Give me real any day of the week. For this film and THE BLUE MAX, Enjoy the dogfights, tolerate the acting and have good time.