Details

Release year: 1975

Storyline

After WW1, an ex-pilot takes up barn-storming and chance-meets a former German ace fighter pilot with whom he co-stars in Hollywood war movies depicting aerial dog-fights.

Top credits

Directors

George Roy Hill

Writers

Cast

Robert Redford — Waldo Pepper
Bo Svenson — Axel Olsson
Bo Brundin — Ernst Kessler
Susan Sarandon — Mary Beth

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Did you know

• One of the stunts the movie recounts is the first outside loop. It's the stunt that kills Ezra Stiles. The first person in the U.S. to successfully perform an outside loop was Jimmy Doolittle, who went on to become a hero of WWII.

• When Waldo is recounting his fight with Kessler at the start of the movie, he mentions that his guns jammed and Kessler, seeing that he was helpless, saluted then flew away. This actually happened to Ernst Udet (on whom Kessler is based) when flying against the French ace Georges Guynemer in 1917, only it was Udet (at that time inexperienced) who had the jam and Guynemer (a high scoring ace) who let him go.

• In keeping with the aviation theme, the film opened with black-and-white Universal Pictures logo presentation in use from 1927 to 1936 which features an old early 20th Century plane flying around Earth.