The 1000 Plane Raid on DVD, War, Christopher George, Laraine Stephens

thousand plane raid, excellent snapshot of the war in the air(WWII)

The 1000 Plane Raid I especially like these period films about the war in the air. I thought this war film was in the same class as the Mathew Modine B-17 pic,’MEMPHIS BELLE’. Particularly, memorable was the segment, where the British & American pilots are resting in a debriefing room when the music on the radio is interrupted by a German propaganda speech. This is a historical fact, that, like the ‘TOkyo Rose’ radio chats that were meant to demoralize the U.S.soldiers(also U.S.naval forces) in the Pacific,’Lord HAW-HAW’ was a concerted effort by German intelligence to broadcast propaganda to hurt the American/allied air campaign of WWII. (Unbeknownst to the allies, the Germans had broken the allies ‘ultra’ code, allowing them priceless intelligence regarding B-17 bombing runs in Europe) . ALthough, I may be mistaken(‘ultra’ intercepts provided the Nazis only valuable intelligence information about 8th army tactical moves in the North African Campaign(1040-1943?)

Christopher George is not up to Steve McQueen but nevertheless an acceptable second.

The 1000 Plane Raid This is very much like “The War Lover” with Steve McQueen 10 years earlier in black-and-white, it is basically the same story, but that film was humanly so much more interesting. This is in colour, and although Christopher George is very much like Steve McQueen, almost like a twin character, he is grimmer, harder and more superficial – the McQueen character has an abyss of depth in its psychopathic possibilities, while Christopher George is only doing his job. Both died too young, by the way, Steve McQueen at 50 and Christopher George at 54.

What saves the film are the other characters, first of all Gary Marshal, who adds a very needful sense of humour and detachment to the grim show, while colonel Brandon (George) has no humour at all and never smiles. The case of the grounded pilot Palmer (J.D.Cannon) also adds some interest to the epic, while on the whole, like as if it was made for television, this is clearly less realistic than the McQueen feature, which offers so much more human insight into the lives of the bomber pilots in this dreadful war. Here it more amounts to aerobatics and showing off. McQueen makes that showing off pathological, while here it is superficial.

Nevertheless, it’s an interesting film, better than its reputation, awfully exciting and with splendid scenery of war pilot flights in the air and in action. The only disturbing thing was Laraine Stephens’ hair style, a cold blonde with too much make-up for that war and a coiffure belonging entirely to the 60s.

Danger UXB