Von Richthofen and Brown (1971)

Just what I expected

Great Film overall

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN was one of those movies I'd been dying to see for years and I must admit that I wasn't as disappointed as I was afraid I was going to be: it's a thoroughly enjoyable (if often historically wonky) action movie, and boasts perhaps the finest dogfights ever committed to film (certainly far superior to the aerial combat sequences in movies like THE BLUE MAX and THE RED BARON). The greatest fault with VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN is, of course, the script: it comes to us from the same husband and wife team who botched both Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND (retitled THE OMEGA MAN, though Neville in the movie was clearly NOT the last man on Earth) and the dreadful BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES; that VON RICHTHOFEN AND BROWN turned out as well as it did is something of a miracle and no doubt attributable to Roger Corman's direction. Though (justifiably) famous for his low budget forays into Fantasy and Exploitation films, Corman pulls off quite a coup here. Kudos.

Baron Manfred Von Richthofen (John Phillip Law) was the most feared and celebrated pilot of the German air force in World War I . Manfred Von Richthofen arrives from the Cavalry, at a squadron in the German Airforce under the command of honorable Oswald Boelcke (Peter Masterson). He quickly becomes an aerial ace with several victories . To him and his companions , air combats are events of sporty nature , technical challenge and upright acting, ignoring the terrible extent of war . Manfred must decide if he is a soldier first or part of the ruling class whose father is a notorious Baron (Ferdy Mayne) . But after Manfred realizes he is only used for propaganda means , as the tactics of both sides break more rules and become more destructive . This is an exciting story based on facts about Manfred Von Richthofen, the German air ace during the World War I and his struggle with the enemy aces and some jealous German officers as the ruthless Herrmann Goering (Barry Primus) who subsequently will have a long career as Nazi leader during WWI . The allied squad has similar class divisions : its Major , an aristocrat , laments that men he considers peasants are now fliers , including a tough and Canadian named Roy Brown (Don Stroud) , the squad's main ace . Von Richthofen is wounded during an aerial battle and Brown and his squadron decide to attack Allied airfield , destroying their planes on the ground and killing his brother Lothar (Brian Foley). Then the baron seeks vengeance and attacks on the opposite British airfield . Red Baron and Brown have some strong aerial battles , trivial in the larger scheme yet fateful . Caught between his disgust for the war , and the responsibility for his fighter wing , Von Richthofen sets out to fly again . With the help of a batch of new fighters from Anthony Fokker (Hurd Hatfield), the 'Richthofen Flying Circus' launches a counter attack against English aircrafts . 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.Spectacular dogfighting , impressive scenario , fine star cast and memorable acting . Acceptable budget extended adventures produced by Jimmi T Murakami and Gene Corman about a maverick pilot and his partners undergoing risked feats on air and bombing on earth . Very good aerial actioner plenty action , tragic drama , fantastic cloudy scenes and breathtaking dogfighting . John Philip Law and Don Stroud show professionalism as crack fighter pilots , two ambitious young men assigned to dangerous missions . Top-notch support cast gives excellent performance as Stephen McHattie , Barry Primus , Ferdy Mayne and Hurd Hartfield as Fokker . Colorful cinematography by Michael Reed and rousing musical score by Hugo Friedhofer .The motion picture is professionally directed by Roger Corman . After his period realizing poverty-budget horror movies as ¨Swamp woman¨, ¨The beast with a million of eyes¨, ¨Attack of the crab monsters¨, ¨Undead¨, then came the cycle of tales of terror based on Poe as ¨ House of Usher¨, ¨Pit and pendulum¨, ¨The raven¨ , ¨Tales of terror¨, ¨The masque of the red death ¨ , and Corman made his undisputed masterpiece , ¨X¨ , that won the Golden Asteroid in the Trieste Festival of Science Fiction Films in 1963 . Later on , he directed films as ¨Angels of hell¨, ¨The St. Valentine's day massacre¨, ¨The trip¨, ¨Bloody mummy¨, ¨Gas or It became necessary to destroy the world in order to save it¨ and of course ¨Von Richthofen and Brown¨, and finally (1990) ¨Frankestein unbounded¨ . ¨Red Baron¨ rating : 6 , acceptable and passable , definitively wholesome watching , Corman's achievement to have bent the wartime genre with nice results. Good and entertaining fare , it's a fairly watchable and spectacular film and results to be a good treatment of WWI flying aces .

Talk about your films you wish you had seen on the big screen! I honestly thought Nikolai Mullerschon's upcoming 'Der Rote Baron' was the first movie about Manfred von Richtofen. Then I happened upon 'Von Richtofen and Brown,' thinking it was a documentary when I ordered it.To my surprise, it was a full-fledged movie and quite a good one. I just wish I had seen it on the big screen instead of a small box on my 17-inch computer screen (because this DVD wouldn't play on my TV/DVD player)! Filmed in 1971, 'Von Richtofen and Brown' has some of the best World War I combat sequences I've seen. (OK, MAYBE Howard Hughes' scenes from 'Hell's Angels' would have been more breathtaking, had they been in color!) To see the fabled Flying Circus taking off in living color is worth the price of the DVD itself. This film is exquisitely done! The bulk of the flying sequences were done with vintage WWI planes and the crashes convincingly done with models.Overall, it seems historically accurate, too. Only the ending is a bit disappointing (though not surprising) in this regard. It came out in 1971, two years after P.J. Carisella and James W. Ryan's book, 'Who Killed the Red Baron?' had blown the lid off the myth of Capt. Arthur 'Roy' Brown shooting down the baron. As Carisell and Ryan surmised, and as Dale Titler confirmed in his 'The Day the Red Baron Died' in 1971, Australian anti-aircraft gunners almost without question fired the fatal slug that killed von Richtofen as he chased Lt. Wilfred May and was chased by Brown.Other than this and Herman Goering's erroneous presence during the bulk of the film, I found it accurate and quite entertaining – even on a 14 x 7 inch screen! B-horror/gangster director Roger Corman turned in nice work. My only complaint is that, since they were letting myth ease into the picture, why didn't they go ahead and include the baron's 'wife of six weeks?' This myth of him secretly marrying the nurse that nursed him back to health after the first of his two crashes could have made an interesting subplot. Maybe Mullerschon will tackle this myth – or maybe he'll stick 100 percent to the facts! In either case, the baron makes for a fascinating film subject. This one is definitely worth watching.

What a wasted opportunity this film is. The flying sequences are pretty good and the aeroplanes look authentic but everything else is dreadful. Lousy acting by all concerned coupled with a script that should make the writer embarrassed. These are real people that the film is about but the story is virtually complete fiction. And what was with all those awful cod-German accents (Zis time ve vill show ze Britisch, etc.). Accents like that belong in a comedy rather than a drama. Had Corman learned nothing from The Blue Max? Finally the soulless music score tries its best to kill off any sense of excitement whatsoever. That final piece sounded like the backing to a vampire being staked rather than an airman's death. I'll give it 6 out of 10 purely because of the flying sequences, otherwise it would have scored a 4.