Tribute to The Blue Max Directed by John Guillermin 1966

Tribute to The Blue Max Directed by John Guillermin 1966

The Blue Max is a 1966 war film directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Karl Michael Vogler, and Jeremy Kemp. The film was made in DeLuxe Color and filmed in CinemaScope. The plot is about a German fighter pilot on the Western Front during World War I. The screenplay was written by David Pursall, Jack Seddon, and Gerald Hanley, based on the novel of the same name by Jack D. Hunter as adapted by Ben Barzman and Basilio Franchina.

In contrast to films that romanticize the flying aces of the Great War, The Blue Max depicts the protagonist as a man who appears to have no regard for anyone but himself. Set against the realities of modern warfare, the film also explores the decline of chivalry and the advent of total war.

Toward the end of World War I, a newly-trained German fighter pilot, Bruno Stachel, becomes unpopular with his fellow pilots because of his determination to win the Blue Max, an award given to German pilots who shoot down 20 enemy planes. When he captures a British observation plane and coldbloodedly shoots it down in order to score a "kill," his action wins the approval of high-ranking Count von Klugermann, who openly applauds the will to win at any cost. Competing with Bruno for top flying honors is the count's nephew, Willi, who is having an affair with his uncle's wife, Kaeti.

The calculating Bruno not only takes Kaeti for himself but also maneuvers his rival into a fatal crash and then claims two of Willi's kills as his own. Now eligible for the Blue Max, Bruno refuses to leave the country with Kaeti though he is certain of Germany's eventual defeat. In revenge, Kaeti exposes his false claims at the same moment a court-martial is ordered to investigate Willi's death and other instances of Bruno's disregard for human life. The count, unwilling to permit the hero to be disgraced, deliberately permits Bruno to test a new plane he knows to be faulty. Consequently, Bruno takes flight before a huge crowd and does a spectacular series of air maneuvers before the plane breaks apart in mid-air.

After several minutes the stress of Stachel's aerobatics causes the aircraft to break up and plunge to the ground. Just before it hits the ground and explodes von Klugemann rubber-stamps and signs Stachel's personnel file and says to his aide, Holbach (Anton Diffring), "Give this to the Field Marshal. It is the personal file of a German officer ... and a hero."

Outside, Captain Heidemann salutes von Klugemann who walks off with his wife. The General and the Countess are driven away in a staff car while the smoke from Stachel's burning aircraft rises in the background.

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