The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing.

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Charles A. Lindbergh (based on the book by), Billy Wilder (screen play by)

Stars:

James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
James Stewart	...	Charles Augustus 'Slim' Lindbergh
Murray Hamilton	...	Bud Gurney
Patricia Smith	...	Mirror Girl
Bartlett Robinson	...	Benjamin Frank Mahoney - President, Ryan Airlines Co.
Marc Connelly	...	Father Hussman
Arthur Space	...	Donald Hall - Chief Engineer, Ryan Airlines
Charles Watts	...	O.W. Schultz - Salesman, Atlas Suspender Co.

Storyline

Biography of Charles Lindburgh from his days of precarious mail runs in aviation's infancy to his design of a small transatlantic plane and the vicissitudes of its takeoff and epochal flight from New York to Paris in 1927.

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Plot Keywords:

aviation | atlantic ocean | year 1927 | transatlantic flight | paris france | 

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Taglines:

One of the Great Adventures of Our Time !

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Genres:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | History

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 April 1957 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lindbergh - Mein Flug über den Ozean

Filming Locations:

Skellig Michael, County Kerry, Ireland

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Leland Hayward Productions, Billy Wilder Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording) 4-Track Stereo

Color:

Color (WarnerColor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The alpha-numerical ID for the Spirit was NX-211. In aviation nomenclature this indicates that the plane is American, and is an experimental model.

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Goofs

In the movie, Father Hussman was depicted as a comically inept student. However, in Lindbergh's book, Hussman was presented as quite an accomplished aviation pupil and often soloed as Lindbergh daydreamed in the instructor's seat.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Reporter: [checking his copy] Here at the Garden City Hotel, less than a mile from Roosevelt Field... less than three-quarters of a mile from Roosevelt Field... everyone is waiting, as they have been now for seven days and nights, waiting for the rain to stop...

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Connections

Referenced in At the Movies: Men in Black/Wild America/Out to Sea (1997)

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Soundtracks

Baby Face
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Akst
Played when Lindbergh makes a phone call from Louie's Shack

User Reviews

The Good and Bad Of This "Spirit"

This is as close to a one-man show as you're ever going to see on film as Jimmy Stewart dominates the picture while all others just have bit roles.

I found it interesting because I find Charles Lindberg's feat amazing and worth watching. I also enjoyed the widescreen picture. I'm surprised it's not available on DVD. The most amazing part of Lindberg's feat, from what I discovered watching the movie, was that he went 30 hours without sleep before he even took off! To stay awake for the entire trip to Paris after that was incredible.

To keep the viewers' interest, the film flashes back a number of times to Lindberg's earlier days and most of that is pretty interesting. Yes, there are some lulls in here and the movie could have been shortened from its 138 minutes but Stewart does a nice job of entertaining us, as he usually did.

I do have one question, one complaint and one suggestion. My question is, "Why is there no mention of his wife, Anne Morrow?" Odd, they totally left her out of this. She was famous in her own right.

My complaint is the emphasis - it's brought up twice in case you missed it the first time - on Lindberg not believing in prayer, only the things he could see. Pagan Hollywood just has to get their agenda in, and much of it began in the 1950s when moral restrictions began to slowly ease. This is just one more example.

They also left out what happened right after the flight, thus making the film more of a story about the voyage than of Lindberg's aviation career. Too bad, because, as many of you might know, his son's kidnapping is one of the biggest stories of that era. My suggestion then is that a full biography, with the emphasis on this flight across the Atlantic, might have been a better way to go. I think you would see that with a re-make, along with a faster- moving film.