| The Flight of the Phoenix | |
|---|---|
 Latest edition |
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| Author | Elleston Trevor |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publication date | 1964 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
The Flight of the Phoenix is a 1964 novel by Elleston Trevor. The plot involves the crash of a transport aircraft in the middle of a desert and the survivors' desperate attempt to save themselves. It was the basis for a 1965 and later 2004 film adaptation with the same name.
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Background
Elleston Trevor (born Trevor-Dudley Smith) (1920-1995) published more than 100 books during his prolific career of more than 50 years. His resume included thrillers, mysteries, plays, short stories and juvenile novels. The Flight of the Phoenix came at the mid-point of his career and led to a bidding war over its film rights. [1]
Plot summary
Pilot Frank Towns and navigator Lew Moran are ferrying a mixed bag of passengers out of the Jebel oil town of the Libyan desert, among them oil workers, a couple of British soldiers, and a German who was visiting his brother. An unexpected sandstorm forces the aircraft down, damaging the plane, killing two of the men, and severely injuring the German. In the book, the action takes place in the Libyan part of the Sahara.[2]
The survivors wait for rescue but begin to worry, as the storm has blown them far off course, away from where searchers would look for them. After several days, Captain Harris marches toward a distant oasis together with another passenger. His aide Sergeant Watson feigns a sprained ankle and does not join Harris. A third man follows after them. Days later, Harris barely manages to return to the crash site. The others are lost.
As the water begins to run out Stringer, a precise, arrogant German aeronautical engineer, proposes a radical solution. He claims they can rebuild a new aircraft from the wreckage of the old twin-boom aircraft, using the undamaged boom and adding skids to take off. They set to work.
At one point they spot a party of nomadic tribesmen, possibly Arabs. Captain Harris decides to ask them for help, but Sergeant Watson refuses to accompany him. Instead another survivor, a Texan named Loomis, goes with him. The next day, Towns finds their looted bodies, throats cut, and the nomads gone.
Later, Towns finds out that Stringer's job is designing model aircraft, not real, full-scale ones. Afraid of the effect on morale, he and Moran keep their discovery secret, though they now believe Stringer's plan is doomed. However, they turn out to be wrong. The aircraft is reborn, like the mythical Phoenix. It flies the passengers, strapped to the outside of the fuselage, to an oasis and civilization.
Film adaptations
The book was the basis of a well-received 1965 film starring James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, and Hardy Kruger. The 2004 remake featuring Dennis Quaid was less successful.
Differences between the book and the films
There are several differences between the book and the first film, and greater differences compared to the second film which takes place in Asia instead of Africa.
In the 1965 film, the aeronautical engineer is a German named Heinrich Dorfmann instead of an Englishman named Stringer. Another difference is when Captain Harris goes to talk to the nomads in the film he takes Dr. Renaud, instead of the Texan named Loomis.
In the 2004 film, they are flying a C-119 Flying Boxcar instead of a C-82A Packet, both of which are twin boom aircraft built by the Fairchild aircraft company. They crash in the Gobi desert of Asia instead of the Sahara desert in Africa. The cast of characters are all renamed and re-imagined except the pilot, Frank Towns, and the aeronautical engineer, Elliot, who is revealed to be a designer of model airplanes. A key plot element from the book is thus retained in the film.
See also
References
- Notes
- ^ Gascoigne, Bamber. "Elleston Trevor". Books and Writers, 2004. Retrieved: August 13, 2008.
- ^ "Flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor (Mass Market Paperback - Reissue) Book review." barnesandnoble.com. Retrieved on May 29, 2009.
- Bibliography
- Cox, Stephen. It's a Wonderful Life: A Memory Book. Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House, 2003. ISBN 1-58182-337-1.
- Eliot, Mark. Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. New York: Random House, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-5221-1.
- Hardwick, Jack and Ed Schnepf. "A Viewer's Guide to Aviation Movies." The Making of the Great Aviation Films. General Aviation Series, Volume 2, 1989.
- The Jimmy Stewart Museum Home Page. The Jimmy Stewart Museum Home Page. Retrieved: 18 February 2007.
- Jones, Ken D., Arthur F. McClure and Alfred E. Twomey. The Films of James Stewart. New York: Castle Books, 1970.
- Munn, Michael. Jimmy Stewart: The Truth Behind The Legend. Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade Books Inc., 2006. ISBN 1-56980-310-2.
- Pickard, Roy. Jimmy Stewart: A Life in Film. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. ISBN 0-312-08828-0.
- Robbins, Jhan. Everybody's Man: A Biography of Jimmy Stewart. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1985. ISBN 0-399-12973-1.
- Thomas, Tony. A Wonderful Life: The Films and Career of James Stewart. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1988. ISBN 0-8065-1081-1.
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