Jack D. Hunter wrote the first of his Bruno Stachel trilogy in 1964 and it was soon snapped up by Twentieth Century Fox.
Film is all about 'compromise' of course so there is no need to linger on the differences between novel and screenplay which are, let's just say, considerable.
This is John Guillerman's first big budget film and he does a pretty good job with the material at his disposal. The airborne sequences, stunningly filmed by Skeets Williams, together with the fabulous score by Jerry Goldsmith, have been acclaimed whilst most of the adverse criticism has been reserved for the earthbound scenes.
Ruthless pilot Bruno Stachel and luscious Countess Kaeti von Klugerman are cut from the same cloth and fully deserve each other. The screenplay alas has rendered them rather one-dimensional but Guillerman has extracted from George Peppard and Ursula Andress what are arguably their best performances, although Miss Undress is, as usual, 'dubbed'. One has to look elsewhere for the most interesting characters and the best performances. As idealistic Heidemann we have the excellent Karl Michael Vogler whilst the pragmatic General von Klugerman who is also Kaeti's husband, is played by James Mason who is pitch perfect in a role that could be tedious in the hands of a lesser actor. The performance that lingers longest in the memory is that of Jeremy Kemp as Willi, the general's nephew. Kemp captures brilliantly the in-born, in-bred self-assurance of the true aristocrat.
Although drubbed by the critics it is one of the films made under the aegis of Daryl F. Zanuck that did well enough at the box office to help refill the coffers of Twentieth Century Fox that had been emptied by the 'Cleopatra' catastrophe.
It is one of the last films shot in Zanuck's beloved Cinemascope and the muted grey-greens of veteran Douglas Slocombe's cinematography of the earth below are in perfect contrast to the bright blue of the sky above.
There is a great deal to recommend this film, in which the positives outweigh the negatives.
This is John Guillerman's first big budget film and he does a pretty good job with the material at his disposal. The airborne sequences, stunningly filmed by Skeets Williams, together with the fabulous score by Jerry Goldsmith, have been acclaimed whilst most of the adverse criticism has been reserved for the earthbound scenes.
Ruthless pilot Bruno Stachel and luscious Countess Kaeti von Klugerman are cut from the same cloth and fully deserve each other. The screenplay alas has rendered them rather one-dimensional but Guillerman has extracted from George Peppard and Ursula Andress what are arguably their best performances, although Miss Undress is, as usual, 'dubbed'. One has to look elsewhere for the most interesting characters and the best performances. As idealistic Heidemann we have the excellent Karl Michael Vogler whilst the pragmatic General von Klugerman who is also Kaeti's husband, is played by James Mason who is pitch perfect in a role that could be tedious in the hands of a lesser actor. The performance that lingers longest in the memory is that of Jeremy Kemp as Willi, the general's nephew. Kemp captures brilliantly the in-born, in-bred self-assurance of the true aristocrat.
Although drubbed by the critics it is one of the films made under the aegis of Daryl F. Zanuck that did well enough at the box office to help refill the coffers of Twentieth Century Fox that had been emptied by the 'Cleopatra' catastrophe.
It is one of the last films shot in Zanuck's beloved Cinemascope and the muted grey-greens of veteran Douglas Slocombe's cinematography of the earth below are in perfect contrast to the bright blue of the sky above.
There is a great deal to recommend this film, in which the positives outweigh the negatives.