The Flight of the Phoenix is a 1964 novel by Elleston Trevor and a 1965 film adaptation. The plot involves the crash of a transport aircraft in the middle of a desert and the survivors' desperate attempt to save themselves.The film was directed by Robert Aldrich, and stars James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Hardy Krüger, George Kennedy, Dan Duryea, Ronald Fraser and Ian Bannen.
Plot
Pilot Frank Towns (James Stewart) and navigator Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) are ferrying a mixed bag of passengers out of the Sahara, 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 it, killing two of the men, and severely injuring a third.
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 (Peter Finch) marches towards a distant oasis together with another passenger. His aide Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser) feigns a leg injury and does not join Harris. Days later, Harris barely manages to return to the crash site.
As the water begins to run out, Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Krüger), a precise, arrogant German aeronautical engineer, proposes a radical solution. He claims they can rebuild a new aircraft from the wreckage, using the only working engine and adding skids to take off. They set to work.
At one point they spot a party of nomadic Arabs. Captain Harris decides to ask them for help, but Sergeant Watson refuses to accompany him. Instead, the doctor (Christian Marquand) - a person familiar with the local Arab dialect - goes with him. The next day, Towns finds their looted bodies, throats cut, and the nomads gone.
Later, Towns finds out that Dorfmann'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 Dorfmann's plan is doomed. However, they turn out to be wrong. The aircraft is reborn, like the mythical Phoenix. It flies the passengers, lying on the wings, to an oasis and civilization.
Locations
Aircraft used
Fairchild C-82A Packet, N6887C - flying shots.
Fairchild C-82A Packet, N4833V - outdoor location wreck.
Fairchild C-82A Packet, N53228 - indoor studio wreck.
Fairchild R4Q-1 Flying Boxcar (the USMC C-119C variant), BuNo. 126580 - non-flying Phoenix prop.
Tallmantz Phoenix P-1, N93082 - flying Phoenix aircraft.
North American O-47A, N4725V - second flying Phoenix.
The C-82As were from Steward-Davies Inc. at Long Beach, CA, while the O-47A came from the Air Museum – Planes of Fame in California. The R4Q-1 was purchased from Allied Aircraft of Phoenix, AZ. The aerial camera platform was a B-25J Mitchell, N1042B, which was also used in the 1970 film Catch-22. The flying sequences were flown by Paul Mantz and Frank Tallman, co-owners of the Tallmantz Aviation.
A famous racing/stunt/movie pilot and collector of warplanes, Paul Mantz was flying the Tallmantz Phoenix P-1, the machine that was "made of the wreckage", in a low level pass in front of the cameras when he caught a skid on a hillock. The movie model crashed and broke apart, killing Mantz and seriously injuring stuntman Bobby Rose onboard.[1]
Although principal photography "wrapped" on 13 August 1965, in order to complete filming, a North American O-47A N4725V from the Planes of Fame Air Museum (Claremont, California) was modified and used as a flying Phoenix stand-in. With the canopy removed, a set of skids attached to the main landing gear as well as ventral fin added to the tail, made it a visual look-a-like. Filming using the O-47A was completed in October/November 1965. It appears in the last flying scenes, painted to look like the earlier Phoenix P-1.
The final production utilized a mix of footage that included the O-47A, the "cobbled-together" Phoenix and Phoenix P-1.
Reception
Critically acclaimed as a tense, character-driven study of men in adversity, The Flight of the Phoenix was nominated for two Academy Awards: Ian Bannen for Supporting Actor and Michael Luciano for Film Editing.
See also
Coffman engine starter, the starter system which uses an explosive cartridge to supply gas pressure. In the film, Towns and Dorfmann have a big argument on how to use their few remaining cartridges to try to start the engine of the rebuilt aircraft.
References
Notes
Bibliography
Eliot, Mark. Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. New York: Random House, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-5221-1.
Hardwick, Jack and Schnepf, Ed. "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., McClure, Arthur F. and Twomey, Alfred E. 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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