Warbird Information Exchange

Gang, Everyone's favorite scene from the movie. Check it Out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewi-bPXF ... ed&search=

Who was the Pilot(s)?? ... Digger

John Crewdson.
Fantastic Pilot who flew in a lot of 1960's films.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

I love the top turret gunner looking around and champing on his gum as they fly through the building complex ... classic!

Wade

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Website: http://www.wademeyersart.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Wade.Meyers.Studios

The scene that really blew me away as a kid and still sticks in my head is where Steve Mcqueen (Buzz?Rickson?) flying the shot to pieces B-17 into the Cliffs of Dover.His face bloody and the gauges and wiring shot up and dangling everywhere

"Come on baby, Get me up!" "We can do it, Just get me up"!

"WE CAN DO IT"! " COME ON BABY, GET ME UP"!--- KA_BOOM!


(cut to seagulls flying off of cliffs and screeching) wow!

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"WHAT ME WORRY?"

So, was that Fuddy Duddy doing the low scenes?

I like to crank the volume WAY WAY up to really hear those engines!!
Actually, One of the stuntmen was killed bailing out at the end. His chute didn't open or something...
I read somewhere that even though this film was made in the early 60's, they trashed all the B-17's after filming.
Is this true?? ... Digger

I think it was one of the ex-Navy PB-1Ws doing the buzz job. If you look closely at the nose window arrangements and antennas, they are of a PB-1W. The two Navy airplanes were indeed scrapped after the filming, leaving only 44-83563 to soldier on, now as Fuddy Duddy based at KSNA.

Love it!!!

John

That was Mike Reilly who was one of the UK's top parachutists at the time; I believe he became entangled in the shrouds and drowned after they filmed a jump into the English Channel for the movie. A great bloke by all accounts, and his book "Alone in the Sky" is good read even for someone as averse to skydiving as me.

John Crewdson was killed in a helicopter accident in the early 80s.

Thanks for the excellent clip, have never seen the film (yet - I feel an Amazon attack coming on!).

I wanted to cry watching them belly that one B-17 in.

Yes, You can get both the Book & DVD for under $20 at Amazon. The DVD itself is awesome!! Razor Sharp Video & Sound.
You even have the option of Full Screen or Letterbox on the same DVD... Digger

That scene, along with a couple of other mass B-17 formation shots, were re-used from the film, "12 O'clock High".
So don't fret, it wasn't destroyed in "The War Lover", it was wreaked about 11 years earlier in Alabama!
Notice in the film teh actors are wearing the wrong Mae West's. They've got late to post-war B-5's on.
Blue skies,
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

"John Crewdson was killed in a helicopter accident in the early 80s."

After reading "Everything But the Flak" a couple times, I've always wondered what happened to John Crewdson and Greg Board. Sounded like quite the characters.

Dave

Crewdson was killed in 1982; he was flying Alouette II G-AWAP and crashed in The Wash (big marshy sea inlet on the UK East Coast). I have a vague idea that he had a film crew on board and they were filming wildlife. An unhappy coincidence, one of our best aerobatic pilots, Dave Perrin, was killed in an Alouette around the same time while filming in Yugoslavia.

Wonderful thing the Internet, have just ordered "Everything but the Flak" (thanks for the idea Zeamerb!) and The War Lover".

Cheers

Treadders

I believe Fuddy Duddy is the B-17 marked as the "Body". It is a great movie. I have seen where ofr the belly landing shots that were close up that they dug a trench, and lowered the b-17 in to it. I think that was in the Final Cut.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager