The Flight of the Phoenix is a 1965 American drama film starring James Stewart, produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, and based on the 1964 novel The Flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor. The story describes several men struggling to survive their aircraft's emergency landing in the Sahara Desert, and stars Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger and Ernest Borgnine. The ensemble cast includes Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser, Christian Marquand, Dan Duryea and George Kennedy as other passengers on the aircraft.
Though the film was a failure at the box office, it has since gained a cult following.
Plot
Frank Towns (James Stewart) is the pilot of a twin-engine Fairchild C-82 Packet cargo plane flying from Jaghbub to Benghazi in Libya; Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) is the navigator. The passengers include Capt. Harris (Peter Finch) and Sgt. Watson (Ronald Fraser) of the British Army; Dr. Renaud (Christian Marquand), a physician; Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Krüger), a German aeronautical engineer; and an oil company accountant named Standish (Dan Duryea). There are also several oil workers, including Trucker Cobb (Ernest Borgnine), a mentally-disturbed foreman; Ratbags Crow (Ian Bannen), a mean-spirited, sardonic Scot; Carlos (Alex Montoya) and his pet monkey; and Gabriel (Gabriele Tinti).
A sudden sandstorm disables the engines, forcing Towns to crash-land in the desert. As the aircraft careens to a stop, several oil drums and oil drilling tools break loose and severely injure Gabriel's leg. Two other workers are killed.
The radio is unusable, but the survivors are too far off-course to be found and rescued. They have a large quantity of dates for food, but their water will last for only ten to fifteen days even if they avoid physical exertion. Harris and Carlos attempt to walk to an oasis. Carlos leaves his monkey behind with the men. Harris and Towns refuse to let Cobb go along, but Cobb defiantly follows and dies. Days later, Harris returns to the crash site alone and barely alive.
Meanwhile, Dorfmann has been working on a radical idea: He believes they can build a new aircraft from the wreckage. The C-82 has twin booms extending rearwards from each engine and connected by the horizontal stabilizer. Dorfmann's plan is to attach the outer sections of the both wings to the left engine and left boom, discarding the center fuselage and both inner wing sections of the aircraft. The passengers will ride on top of the wings. Harris and Moran believe he is either joking or delusional. The argument is complicated by a personality clash between Towns, a proud old traditionalist aviator, and Dorfmann, an equally proud young technician. Moran struggles to keep the peace.
Although Towns is resistant, Renaud points out that activity and any hope will keep the men's morale up, and so Towns agrees with the plan. Dorfmann supervises the reconstruction, while Towns remains doubtful. During the work, Gabriel commits suicide by slitting his wrist, making the men so depressed that they contemplate giving up the new plane's construction. Dorfmann is caught exceeding his water ration, but explains that he alone has been working continuously, and promises to not do it again while demanding they all work equally hard. Moran talks Towns into resuming work on the aircraft.
When the new aircraft is almost complete, Standish labels it "The Phoenix" after the mythical bird that is reborn from its ashes. Any good mood, however, is quashed after a band of natives comes nearby. While the others (and the aircraft) remain hidden, Harris and Renaud go to ask them for help â€" and are murdered. Additionally, Towns and Moran learn that Dorfmann designs model airplanes rather than full-sized ones. Dorfmann claims that the principles are exactly the same, and that in many aspects models require much more exacting designs and can be less forgiving than full-size aircraft, but Towns and Moran are horrified at the idea of flying a plane made by a man who works with "toys". Without any other choice, however, they decide to forge ahead with the plan.
Just as the water supplies are exhausted, the Phoenix is completed. Only seven starter cartridges are available for the engine, and the first four startup attempts are unsuccessful. Towns decides to fire the fifth cartridge with the ignition off, to clear the engine's cylinders, which he does over Dorfmann's strenuous objection. The next startup is successful. The men pull the Phoenix to a nearby hilltop and climb onto the wings. When Towns guns the engine, the Phoenix slides down the hill and along a lake bed before taking off. After landing at an oasis with a manned oil rig, the men celebrate and Towns and Dorfmann are reconciled.
Cast
Production
Locations
Principal photography started April 26, 1965, at the 20th Century-Fox Studios and 20th Century-Fox Ranch, California. Other filming locations, simulating the desert, were Buttercup Valley, Arizona and Pilot Knob Mesa, California. The flying sequences were all filmed at Pilot Knob Mesa near Winterhaven, located in California's Imperial Valley, on the western fringes of Yuma, Arizona.
Aircraft used
In 2005, Hollywood aviation historian Simon Beck identified the aircraft used in the film:
- Fairchild C-82A Packet, N6887C â€" flying shots.
- Fairchild C-82A Packet, N4833V â€" outdoor location wreck.
- Fairchild C-82A Packet, N53228 â€" indoor studio wreck.
- Fairchild R4Q-1 Flying Boxcar (the USMC C-119C variant), BuNo. 126580 â€" non-flying Phoenix prop.
- Tallmantz Phoenix P-1, N93082 â€" flying Phoenix aircraft.
- North American O-47A, N4725V â€" second flying Phoenix.
The C-82As were from Steward-Davies Inc. at Long Beach, California, while the O-47A came from the Planes of Fame air museum in California. The R4Q-1 was purchased from Allied Aircraft of Phoenix, Arizona. 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, co-owner of the Tallmantz Aviation, filling in for his partner Frank Tallman, who had injured his leg.
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 front of the cameras on the morning of July 8, 1965. He was performing touch-and-go landings, and on one touchdown the fuselage buckled. The movie model broke apart and cartwheeled, killing Mantz and seriously injuring stuntman Bobby Rose on board.
Although principal photography was completed on August 13, 1965, in order to complete filming, a North American O-47A (N4725V) from the Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, 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, it sufficed as more-or-less a visual lookalike. 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.
The final credit on the screen was, "It should be remembered... that Paul Mantz, a fine man and a brilliant flyer gave his life in the making of this film..."
Reception
The film opened in selected theaters on December 15, 1965, with a full release in 1966. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times dismissed it as "grim and implausible", while Variety praised the film as an "often-fascinating and superlative piece of filmmaking highlighted by standout performances and touches that show producer-director at his best."
Awards
The Flight of the Phoenix was nominated for two Academy Awards: Ian Bannen for Supporting Actor and Michael Luciano for Film Editing.
See also
- Flight of the Phoenix (2004 film), a re-make of this film
- Lady Be Good (aircraft)
- List of American films of 1965
- List of film accidents
- Survival film, about the film genre, with a list of related films
- Tragedy at Kufra
References
Further reading
- Cox, Stephen. It's a Wonderful Life: A Memory Book. Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House, 2003. ISBNÂ 1-58182-337-1.
- Eliot, Mark. Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. New York: Random House, 2006. ISBNÂ 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.
- 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. ISBNÂ 1-56980-310-2.
- Pickard, Roy. Jimmy Stewart: A Life in Film. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992. ISBNÂ 0-312-08828-0.
- Robbins, Jhan. Everybody's Man: A Biography of Jimmy Stewart. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1985. ISBNÂ 0-399-12973-1.
- Thomas, Tony. A Wonderful Life: The Films and Career of James Stewart. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1988. ISBNÂ 0-8065-1081-1.
External links
- The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) on IMDb
- The Flight of the Phoenix at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Flight of the Phoenix at AllMovie
- The Jimmy Stewart Museum Home Page
- The Flight of the Phoenix at the TCM Movie Database
- The Flight of the Phoenix at the American Film Institute Catalog