Von Richthofen and Brown

Von Richthofen and Brown
Directed by	Roger Corman
Produced by	Gene Corman
Written by	John William Corrington Joyce Hooper Corrington
Starring	John Phillip Law Don Stroud Barry Primus
Music by	Hugo Friedhofer
Cinematography	Michael Reed
Editing by	Alan Collins
Release date(s)	July 28, 1971 September 10
Running time	97 min.
Country	USA
Language	English

Von Richthofen and Brown, also known as The Red Baron is a 1971 film directed by Roger Corman. It starred John Phillip Law and Don Stroud as the titular characters.

Plot Summary

Manfred von Richthofen (John Phillip Law) is a German cavalry officer newly assigned to an air squadron under the command of Oswald Boelcke who quickly becomes an ace. His career is presented on screen intercut with scenes of another pilot across the lines, a Canadian pilot named Roy Brown who arrives at a British squadron, where the top scoring pilot is a Victoria Cross holder named Lanoe Hawker.

The two pilots are very different; Brown ruffles the feathers of his squadron mates by refusing to drink a toast to von Richthofen, while von Richthofen awards himself silver trophies in honour of his kills and clashes with fellow pilot, Hermann Göring, when Boelcke is killed after a mid air collision and Richthofen assumes command of the squadron. While Brown becomes moody and depressed by his war service, Richtofen becomes outwardly energized by the war. Outraged by an order to camouflage his squadron's aircraft, he paints them in bright conspicuous colours, claiming that gentlemen should not hide from their enemies.

The toll on both squadrons is highlighted when Richthofen is wounded during an aerial battle and Lanoe Hawker is killed. The war becomes personal for both when Brown and his squadron attack von Richthofen's airfield, destroying their aircraft on the ground. Revenge comes when von Richthofen, with the help of a batch of new fighters from Anthony Fokker launches a counter attack on the British airfield.

The climax of the film pits Brown and von Richtofen in an aerial combat with each other from which only one survives.

Production

Ex-RCAF pilot Lynn Garrison supplied the aircraft, crews and facilities for von Richthofen and Brown and personally coordinated the flying sequences for Corman’s film. Garrison had purchased the collection of hangars, aircraft, vehicles and support equipment accumulated for filming 20th Century’s top grossing film, The Blue Max, in 1965. The collection included replica Pfalz D.III's, S.E.5s, Fokker D.VII's, Fokker Dr.I's, plus Tiger Moths, and Stampe SV4C's.

Corman used an Alouette helicopter, along with a Helio Courier, for aerial photography, supported by a number of specialized camera mounts Garrison developed for use on individual aircraft. This allowed footage of actors, such as John Philip Law and Don Stroud “flying” the aircraft. In actual fact, Lynn Garrison trained Law and Stroud to the point where they could take off, land the Stampe, and fly basic sequences themselves, from the rear seat, filmed with a rear-facing camera. Stunt pilots were still used for the more complicated sequences, one such pilot being famed New Age author Richard Bach. Bach wrote about his experiences with the film production in a short story entitled "I Shot Down the Red Baron, and So What", which is reproduced in his short story collection, "A Gift of Wings".

Corman used a filming schedule that included so-called Blue Days, Grey Days and Don’t Give a Damn Days so that the aircraft were used no matter what the weather presented.

On September 15, 1970, Charles Boddington, veteran of The Blue Max and Darling Lili shoots, was killed when his SE-5 spun in during a low-level maneuver over the airfield. The next day, during the last scheduled flight on the shooting schedule, Garrison and Stroud were involved in a low-level sequence across Lake Weston, in the Stampe, when a jackdaw struck Garrison in the face, knocking him unconscious. The aircraft then ran through five powerlines, snap rolled and plunged into the lake inverted. Garrison and Stroud were rescued from the waters. Stroud was uninjured while Garrison required 60 stitches to close a head wound.

Some of the interior shots were filmed at Powerscourt House, a famous stately home in County Wicklow Ireland. Powerscourt had been designed by a German architect (Richard Cassels) and the entrance hall had a Germanic feel to it, making it a suitable location. It was also used for scenes in Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon" a few years later. The house was destoyed in an accidental fire in 1974, so these films serve a record for the lost interiors.

Factual Errors

The film contains many factual errors:

• Von Richthofen is shown flying a Fokker D.VII before flying the Fokker Dr.I, when in fact the Dr.1 came out earlier than the D.VII. Von Richthofen died before the D.VII entered service.
• Hermann Göring was not in the 'Flying Circus', until he took over command of the squadron several months after von Richthofen's death.
• Lanoe Hawker and Roy Brown were never in the same squadron. Furthermore Hawker died in November 1916 and Brown did not begin flying combat missions until March 1917.
• Roy Brown and his squadron were flying Sopwith Camels, and not S.E.5s on the day of Manfred von Richthofen's death
• It is heavily debated whether or not Brown really fired the fatal shot to kill von Richthofen.

Cast

• John Phillip Law - Manfred von Richthofen
• Don Stroud - Roy Brown
• Barry Primus - Hermann Göring
• Corin Redgrave - Lanoe Hawker
• Karen Huston - Ilse
• Hurd Hatfield - Anthony Fokker
• Stephen McHattie - Werner Voss
• Brian Foley - Lothar von Richthofen
• Robert La Tourneaux - Ernst Udet
• Peter Masterson - Oswald Boelcke

References

External links

• Von Richthofen and Brown at the Internet Movie Database
• Von Richthofen and Brown at Allmovie