User Reviews

A movie about how people just fall through life (both literally & figuratively). Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman & Scott Wilson show up in a small town to perform their barnstorming act. While rooming at Wilson's relative's home, Lancaster embarks on an affair with the lady of the house (Deborah Kerr). Kerr is trapped in a loveless marriage to academic William Windom & longs desperately to get out. Lancaster just wants to get out of life! A melancholy film from the great John Frankenheimer. There are many astounding daredevil feats and the acting is fine. However, the movie really is very lifeless and quite frankly more than a little boring. Sheree North provides a brief spark as a party girl picked up by Hackman. There's a great music score by Elmer Bernstein and cinematography by Philip H. Lathrop.

On a 4th of July weekend , three air stunt parachutists (Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman and Scott Wilson as Malcolm though John Phillip Law was first cast but had to be replaced because of an injury to his wrist) arrive to carry out their skills at a small Kansas town located in Midwest . The trio of barnstorming skydivers are hosted at house ownership a dysfunctional and unhappy marriage (Deborah Kerr , William Windom) . The inhabitants of the small town feel both attracted and threatened to the skydivers . Meanwhile , they go to a top-less club (according to director the dancers in the go-go club were local Kansas girls, not city girls, because they looked authentic) where meet a sexy woman (Sheree North) . At the end takes place a dangerous fall to death, as when jumping is not only a way to live, but a way to die, too .

This dramatic picture is packed with skydiving , romance , love story and the drama is maintained throughout. The picture relies heavily on the doomed romance that flares up between Elizabeth well played by Deborah Kerr and Rettig magnificently performed by Burt Lancaster until a surprising final when tension explodes with an impressive skydiving show . Interesting screenplay which manages to catch the growing ambivalent and disillusionment of travellers in search of money and the quiet desperation of a marriage ; it was written by Willian Hanley , based on the novel by James Drought . There aren't special effects but ¨stunts¨ who make it astounding . Experienced but amateur skydivers, most with several thousand jumps to their credit , were brought in from California to double for the actors . During the filming at the airfield in Benton, Kansas, the director , wanted to get a real, horrified reaction from the extras playing the audience, so he had a Mannequin dressed like a skydiver and tied it under a helicopter which ascended a couple of hundred feet, then released the dummy . The skydiving equipment the Gypsy Moths use in the film was sport parachuting state-of-the-art for the late 1960's . The picture collaborated to create the ¨ skydiving genre film ¨ , thus many years later were shot various movies about this sport : ¨Break Point¨ (Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves) , ¨Terminal velocity¨ (with Charlie Sheen and Natassja Kinski) and ¨Cutaway¨ (Tom Berenger and Stephen Baldwin) . Appropriate cinematography by Philip Lathrop with good aerial scenes though is necessary a perfect remastering . Adequate musical score fitting to tension by the master Elmer Bernstein .

The motion picture was compellingly directed by John Frankenheimer , though being slow-pace, and some moments boring . It is considered to be one of Frankenheimer's less satisfying works and failed at box office ; however being one of John Frankenheimer's two favorites of the films he has directed . In the beginning he worked for TV and turned to the cinema industry with The Young Stranger (1957) . Disappointed his with first feature film experience he came back to his successful television career directing a total of 152 live television shows in the 50s. He took another opportunity to change to the big screen , collaborating with Burt Lancaster in The Young Savages (1961) and Birdman of Alcatraz(62) ending up becoming a successful director well-known by his skills with actors and expressing on movies his views on important social deeds and philosophical events and film-making some classics as ¨The Manchurian candidate , Seven days of May and The Train¨. Rating : 6 , well worth seeing. The flick will appeal to Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr fans .

This movie about skydivers has some terrific aerial photography of their stunts and some masterful camera-work involving their activities on the ground. Unfortunately those earthbound activities don't add up to a convincing drama.

Under John Frankenheimer's direction, the drama that unfolds as the three skydivers encounter the people of a small Kansas town is visually very pleasing. There is a fine nighttime sequence, seemingly choreographed to look almost dance-like, in which we follow Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr from her house, through the neighboring streets, to a playground. In general Frankenheimer makes innovative use of the camera to make us feel part of the action.

Unfortunately, the story that unfolds while the skydivers are on the ground seems strangely unrelated to the scenes in the air. There is a vague sense that the skydivers have grown weary of their nomadic lives, but that's about it as far as motivation is concerned. For example, it doesn't explain why--SPOILER ALERT--Burt Lancaster's character commits suicide. In fact, both he and Deborah Kerr--obviously both fine actors--give inert performances in this movie. When Gene Hackman shares the screen with them, he blows them away.

The critics have pointed out that this movie contains a lot of what could be called Americana in its views of small-town mid-American life, but I saw nothing of special interest in the way the town is presented. As for the scenes with the school orchestra, they have nothing to do with the ongoing story, except that, on the day of the big Forth of July parade, the orchestra finds the streets empty since everyone has gone to see the final skydive.

Like other reviewers, I was taken aback to see glimpses of Deborah Kerr in the nude. Very out of character given her previous roles. But this was 1969, when it seems that every one in the arts--movie makers, novelists--had to bare it all, figuratively or otherwise.

I've always enjoyed the films of Lancaster, Wilson, Hackman and Kerr. I saw that this movie was going to air on TCM so I recorded it and watched it today...

First thing I noticed was the blurred out magazine on the guys lap at the root beer stand 2 minutes into the movie, what the hell was that all about ??? Why blur it out ?

The movie takes place in a small Kansas town where these three barnstorming skydivers pull into to put on a 'thrilling' show over the 4th of July holiday. The scenes show the cast members sweating it out in the hot Kansas sun, yet throughout the film we see folks dressed in suits and long sleeved shirts, wearing jackets and other things that just don't seem to fit.

One of the jumpers (Wilson) has relatives (William Windom and Deborah Kerr) in this town so they are invited to stay there with a girl tenant who goes to school there (portrayed by Bonnie Bedilia). This is summer, so there is no schooling session and the town looks too small to have a college so it made me wonder what the girl was there for. So after only being there for a few minutes things are heating up between Kerr and Lancaster, for no apparent reason really... Lancaster gives a speech at the local ladies club which Kerr attends and she is there, at the end, alone with Burt, to ask why he has contempt for them and everyone else. Wow, what dialogue, it just floats in from thin air and makes little sense either. The skydivers have a dinner with the couple later and explain the extreme danger and thrills of jumping. And Lancaster leers across the table at Kerr while the husband does nothing...

Then it is time to take in the local strip club with the twirling tassels and the horny waitress... Really tasteless stuff actually, does nothing for the film and seems to have been added for the sole reason to have nudity in the film. Makes no sense again...

Later Lancaster and Kerr take a long walk in the evening while Windom watches his wife from an upstairs window walk off with a complete stranger. Kerr seems to walk, talk and act in a slow motion effect in this film, she never smiles and stands in rooms in the house looking totally depressed. It takes her a full minute to shut some doors in the parlor so her and Burt can screw on the couch... and now we get a nude scene with Kerr, a very bad nude scene with Kerr, a scene that again was added for the sole reason to have a nude scene... And where in the hell was Windom while this is going on ???

I kept waiting for Wilson to drive off looking for the Clutter's place.

Next a fight scene between Wilson and Hackman that is altogether pointless, and then on to the big Sunday skydiving extravaganza at the local airfield... Finally after an hour of crap we get to see some more skydiving, which of course means the lead actors in front of a movie of the sky while they are hung by cables to fool us into thinking they are really jumping out of airplanes... The stuntmen take over at this point and do some 'stunts' that I wouldn't pay a dollar to see. They jump, land on the ground, go back up, jump etc etc... Now who would sit around for the half hour between jumps in a hot Kansas sun to see this ???

The whole point of the movie is whether Lancaster will do the 'cape' stunt in the act on Sunday... The 'cape' stunt is just like it sounds, you wear a cape and jump and spread it out to resemble flying, I guess, it is never really explained and looks as ridiculous as it sounds. But the actors drum it up as something that takes great skill and is absolutely the most dangerous part of their show... So Burt puts on the suit, jumps from the plane and rather than open his parachute he plows into the ground at a thousand miles an hour... I mean it was filmed so badly with the crowd reactions I had to laugh at the stupidity... Why didn't he open his chute ??? Suicide ? That is never represented... Accident ? After the jump they test the chute and it opens fine... So I guess it just follows the rest of the film and makes no sense...

One other distraction in the film is the high school band practicing for a parade that never happens. We are treated to at least three scenes with the band director looking like a complete lunatic trying to get the band ready for the big day, just utter and complete nonsense...

In the end we watch as the remaining crew of Hackman and Wilson decide to perform the idiotic 'cape' routine the very next day as a tribute or remembrance of Lancaster buying the farm the previous day... The whole town shows up again and pays to see one jump with the stupid cape and Wilson pulls it off and the crowd goes wild and gathers around him.

Another unexplained part of the movie is every time a chute opens, you hear a 'pop', like a gunshot going off, and just as loud as a gunshot would be... At the end of this horrible movie before Wilson jumps off the plane, he pulls a wire on a device on his shoes which triggers a smoke trail and produces the same noise... Yet when we hear it earlier we never see any smoke trails at all...

Watch this movie for a lesson on how not to make a movie....

A few other movies have been made since this one that have skydiving as a small to major component of the film. But, "The Gypsy Moths" is the only one with the substance of the plot built around skydiving. It's jump scenes take up a good portion of the film and are superbly filmed and entertaining. No other film since has provided as good a show of the stunts, aerial acrobatics and routines that the sport can provide. And, in spite of a stellar cast of the day, the skydiving is the best and only reason to see this film.

That's not a reflection on Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr for their acting, because the plot is weak and weird to begin with, and the screenplay is shaky. The film is based on a 1955 novel of the same title by James Drought. If anything, the subplot of this film plays like a soap opera. The premise of the unhappily married woman who lusts for another man has been done many times, and judging from the promotion of this film and some reviewers, that's how many people saw it. But I think Kerr's Elizabeth Brandon is a little more than that. At one point, Lancaster's Mike Rettig asks her if this has happened before - her having sex with another man. She replies, not often, but occasionally. So, she's a woman who every now and then commits adultery when the right man comes along. And her husband, who says very few words in the entire film, just sits by knowingly condoning her occasional "discrepancies."

It's a picture of a considerably dysfunctional relationship. And, one of the further ridiculous aspects is that Mike Rettig assumes or thinks that Mrs. Bandon has fallen for him and will go away with him. As she and her husband say at the end, she was terrified at the thought of leaving her secure situation. And husband John (played by William Windom) acknowledged that the thought terrified him as well.

The acting overall seems stinted, and that may be because of the script. The best performance of the whole thing and what gives this film one extra star in my book, is Gene Hackman's Joe Browdy.

Again, the best part of and reason to see this film is the skydiving. All of this was handled by a young skydiver, Carl Boenish, a freefall cinematographer and his team of skydivers. Boenish would become known as the founder of BASE jumping - skydiving from fixed grounded structures and heights. Indeed, he coined the phrase which reflects jumping from buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs). Boenish and his wife, Jean, made thousands of jumps before he met his death on a jump from a mountain in Norway in 1984 - at age 43.

Oh, and one last point to be clarified - Deborah Kerr did not do the nude scene in this film. It was made by her double. Although there are some Internet sites and occasional movie reviewers who think and say otherwise, I know of no credible news source that makes such a claim. Following Kerr's death, The Associated Press article of Oct. 18, 2007 by Jill Lawless, stated that "She refused to play a nude scene in 'The Gypsy Moths,' released in 1968." In a Washington Post article the next day, Adam Bernstein wrote that Kerr "voiced disdain for the public appetite for gratuitous on-screen nudity. A stand-in did her nude scene with Lancaster in John Frankenheimer's skydiving drama 'The Gypsy Moths'". And, in "Deborah Kerr: A Biography," by Michelangelo Capua (Sept. 9, 2010), the author wrote about the skydiving movie. "It was not an easy assignment for Deborah due to a controversy which immediately reached the media as to a nude scene, performed by her double. However, the idea made her feel very uncomfortable."

And, neither Kerr nor Lancaster thought this movie was very good - due mostly to the characters and their development in the plot. The movie bombed at the box office - not even covering its budget. As Kerr's biographer, Capua, wrote, "Most reviewers were lukewarm, only praising the fantastic aerial stunts."

Here are the best lines in this film.

Elizabeth Brandon, "Do you always offer more than you're asked for?" Mike Rettig, "Only to those who ask so much less than they want." Mrs. Brandon, "But if it was what I want, do you think I could accept it?" Rettig, "There's always another choice. Don't you see that?" Mrs. Brandon, "Not for everyone." Rettig, "For everyone."

Elizabeth Brandon, "How do you come to have this wonderful freedom of choice?" Mike Rettig, "You take it." Mrs. Brandon, "From whom?" Rettig, "From anyone who says it isn't yours to take it." Mrs. Brandon, "Oh, I envy you." Rettig, "Don't envy me - join me."

Joe Browdy, "You just describe what you see and add a little color. Use your imagination." Dick Donford, from the local radio station, "All right. I've done a lot of sports events, you know, basketball games - that sort of stuff." Browdy, "That's right, just call it like a basketball game."

Joe Browdy, over the public address system, "Oh, uh, incidentally, there's a reward for that, uh, jump suit. Anybody finding that jump suit gets a free parachute jump." (Groans and chuckles from the crowd.)

Elizabeth Brandon, "He wanted me to go with him." John Brandon, "Did he, now?" Mrs. Brandon, "The thought terrified me." John Brandon, "And me."