Von Richthofen and Brown (1971)

Director:

Roger Corman

Writers:

John William Corrington (written by) and
Joyce Hooper Corrington (written by)

Release Date:

10 September 1971 (Finland)

Genre:

War | Action | Drama

Tagline:

On April 21, 1918, the Red Baron of Germany and the Black Sheep of the R.A.F. met in the skies of France for the last time!

Plot:

The story of Manfred von Richtofen, the german air ace during the World War I and his truggle with the enemy aces and some jealous german officers.

Plot Keywords:

Triplane | Fighter Pilot | Biplane | Aerial Combat | Part Fiction

Cast

John Phillip Law	...	Baron Manfred von Richthofen
Don Stroud	...	Roy Brown
Barry Primus	...	Hermann Goering
Corin Redgrave	...	Major Lanoe Hawker VC
Karen Ericson	...	Ilse (as Karen Huston)
Hurd Hatfield	...	Anthony Fokker
Stephen McHattie	...	Werner Voss
Brian Foley	...	Lothar von Richthofen
Robert La Tourneaux	...	Ernest Udet
Peter Masterson	...	Major Oswald Boelke
Clint Kimbrough	...	Major von Höppner
Tom Adams	...	Owen
Ferdy Mayne	...	Father Richthofen
David Weston	...	Murphy
John Flanagan	...	Thompson

Also Known As:

The Red Baron

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for war action violence.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:12 | West Germany:16 (f) | Singapore:PG | Finland:K-12 | Sweden:15 | USA:GP (original rating) | USA:PG-13 (re-rating) (1994)

Filming Locations:

Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Company:

The Corman Company

Trivia:

While the dogfights were shot in Ireland over a two-week period using actual vintage planes, the crash sequences were filmed at Andrews Air Force base in a single day, using models assembled by a group of teenaged hobbyists Roger Corman happened across while scouting locations.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The German ace Oswald Boelcke was not killed when his plane collided with Von Richthofen's plane. Instead, Boelcke was killed when the undercarriage of Erwin Böhme's plane crashed into his plane, causing the upper wing to fall away. Böhme's plane survived the mid-air collision and Böhme later became an ace himself.

Quotes:

Reporter: You started the war as a cavalry officer, yeah?
Baron Manfred von Richthofen: Yeah.
Reporter: So, now, how does it feel to fly? To fight in the sky?
Baron Manfred von Richthofen: My ancestors were Teutonic knights; I've merely exchanged my horse for an airplane.
Reporter: [laughing] I see, so the flying is just a means to an end?
Baron Manfred von Richthofen: The flying is wonderful! But it's the hunt that I find most satisfying: the stalking, the chase, and finally the kill. The climax.
Reporter: Oh, so you enjoy it sir?
Baron Manfred von Richthofen: What should I say? War is the father of nations. It makes them slaves or it makes them free. Victory brings with it a climax, a sense of fulfillment.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Directors: The Films of Roger Corman (#1.5)" (1999)

Bless you Red Baron...

The flying sequences alone make this a film well worth seeing. They are much like those in The Battle Of Britain except, of course, the aircraft are of World War I vintage. It's also encouraging that Roy Brown was portrayed as a Canadian (which he was) rather than an American. The man had some very rough edges and these are portrayed in the film. (In one unrelated incident, he almost got court martialed for buzzing Picadilly Circus.) In other words Brown was not shown as some sort of handsome Hollywood knight of the sky but a very rough, arrogant, unsophisticated and even unpleasant individual. Good! Thats how it was. Better by half than most war films of its era.