Fool! Nobody wants to come and see YOU with YOUR clothes off!
Today on the Classic Movie Rev, we are taking on The Great Waldo Pepper (1975).
This movie was requested by David from Georgia. Keep on contacting me because I love to hear from yall.
I have to take care of a couple of terms before we get into this movie to make sure we are all starting from the same place. The first of these terms is “Barnstorming.” Traveling theater groups would travel from town to town performing their acts in rented or borrowed barns. Following World War I, 1914 — 1918, the US government sold off excess warplanes at a discounted price. Ex-military pilots or even people with no flying experience could buy these planes.
Combining the surplus of planes, lack of jobs, and men adjusting to peacetime, individuals, and groups of men would travel the country performing aerial shows. They would fly low over a town to attract attention and then land in a field where they could charge for flights or for doing stunts.
The second term is “Flying Circus.” At the beginning of World War I, Baron Manfred von Richthofen transferred from the cavalry to aviation. The attack squadrons he flew with were labeled Flying Circus for one of two reasons. The first is that they were moved from place to place on the battle line, depending on need. They were often moved by train like a regular circus. The other and more plausible reason is that von Richthofen painted his combat airplane solid red.[1] The brightly painted plane, along with the fact that he was heading towards 80 aerial victories, earned him the nickname “The Red Baron.” Other members of the units soon followed and painted their planes in various colors.
Richthofen was the leading ace in World War I even though he died before the war ended at the age of 25. The manner of his death will be discussed more in the Summary: America’s top ace, Eddie Rickenbacker, had 26 victories.
Jumping into the movie, iMDB.com rates this movie as a pretty low 6.7[2]. It is low on rottentomatoes.com, with 67 percent on the Tomatometer and only 57 percent audience approval[3]. This movie is better than that, even if you just took the dialogue out and showed the flying. Perhaps director George Roy Hill tried to showcase the entire era making the movie a little long.
Great film critic Roger Ebert gave the movie 3-stars in a January 1, 1975 review. He stated:
“The Great Waldo Pepper” is a film of charm and excitement, a sort of bittersweet farewell to a time when a man with an airplane could make a living taking the citizens of Nebraska on their first five-minute flights. It doesn’t have any big notions about the passing of that era, or of the barnstormers, who are seen as overgrown kids with wonderful toys that fly. But it has a good feeling for the period, and director George Roy Hill gives us poignancy and adventure.”[4]
New York Times film critic Vincent Canby said on March 14, 1975:
“The Great Waldo Pepper” is a most appealing movie. Its moods don’t quite mesh and its aerial sequences are so vivid—sometimes literally breathtaking—that they upstage the human drama, but the total effect is healthily romantic. It’s the kind of movie that enriches dreams even though its story seems sort of strung-out, like a first draft, and includes moments that slip into bathos.”[5]
Actors- The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
Returning
Handsome leading man Robert Redford played the title role of flyer Waldo Pepper. Redford was first covered in the con film The Sting (1973).
New
Bo Svenson played Axel Olsson, Waldo’s friend, and aerial partner. Svenson was 6’ 5 ½”, the U.S. Armed Forces Far East Judo Champion in 1961, and his middle name is Ragnar. Svenson was born in Sweden in 1941.
Svenson moved to America as a teenager and served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1959 to 1965. Svenson began taking television roles in 1965 following his discharge. Svenson worked on his Ph.D. in Meta-Physics at UCLA from 1970 — 1974. At some point, he earned a black belt in Judo and Karate.
He was still acting in plays and television while in school. Eventually, acting won out, and he was cast in shows like “Here Come the Brides” 1968-1969, “McCloud” 1971, and “Ironside” 1969-1972.
His first big films were Maurice (1973) and The Great Waldo Pepper (1975). Svenson replaced Joe Don Baker as Buford Pusser and made Walking Tall Part II (1975) and Final Chapter: Walking Tall (1977). Svenson obtained other film and television roles like The Inglorious Bastards (1978), North Dallas Forty (1979), the television show “Walking Tall” (1981), The Delta Force (1986), and Heartbreak Ridge (1986), where I believe he played Big Swed.
Svenson played Ivan on Season 3, Ep. 1 – “Did You See the Sun Rise?” on televisions “Magnum, P.I.” 1982. I have to say this could be the greatest Magnum ever. Svenson had a small role in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), and he was in Inglourious Basterds (2009) because Tarantino received inspiration from Svenson’s The Inglorious Bastards (1978)
Susan Sarandon had a fairly small role as Mary Beth. Sarandon was born in 1946 in New York City. Sarandon graduated from Edison High School in New Jersey. Sarandon attended Catholic University of America 1964 — 1968, where she met and married future actor Chris Sarandon. She worked as a model for the auto industry.
Sarandon went to a cattle call and was cast in Joe (1970). This movie was followed by mostly television work until 1975. In 1975, The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) and the role she is very often associated with, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) were released.
She kept busy with films like The Other Side of Midnight (1977), Atlantic City (1980), Tempest (1982), and The Hunger (1983). Other great movies include The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Bull Durham (1988), Thelma & Louise (1991), Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), White Palace (1990), The Client (1994), Dead Man Walking (1995) for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress, and Stepmom (1998). She is still very active in acting and politics.
Edward Herrmann played plane designer and friend of Waldo, Ezra Stiles. This guy was 6’ 5” too. Herrmann was born in DC in 1943. He grew up near Detroit and studied acting in London. Herrmann worked extensively on stage before his first film, the law school movie, The Paper Chase (1973). Herrmann was in Robert Redford’s two GREAT movies, The Great Gatsby (1974) and The Great Waldo Pepper (1975).
Herrmann was in many great movies including Reds (1981), Annie (1982), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Overboard (1987), and The Lost Boys (1987), which is an excellent modern vampire movie. In the next decades, his films include Richie Rich (1994), Nixon (1995), Intolerable Cruelty (2003), and The Aviator (2004). Herrmann died in 2014.
Geoffrey Lewis played the role of aviation inspector Newt. Lewis was born in New Jersey in 1935. He moved to California at the age of 10 and was interested in acting while in high school. After high school, Lewis toured with the Plymouth Theater in Massachusetts. He also acted in the New York theater. He also studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse.
Lewis had an uncredited film role in 1963. Following this, he worked extensively on television. Lewis’ first larger film role was in The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972). Lewis was in Dillinger (1973). He became associated with Clint Eastwood and was in High Plains Drifter (1973). His friendship led to his casting in those ape films and others like Every Which Way but Loose (1978), Any Which Way You Can (1980), Bronco Billy (1980), and Pink Cadillac (1989).
Lewis wasn’t limited as he had many significant film roles. These roles include Macon County Line (1974), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Great Waldo Pepper (1975), The Wind and the Lion (1975), where he played a warlike diplomat, The Return of a Man Called Horse (1976), the inferior sequel to A Man Called Horse (1970), Heaven’s Gate (1980), Night of the Comet (1984) where he was an excellent evil scientist, Fletch Lives (1989), The Lawnmower Man (1992), Double Impact (1991) a Jean-Claude Van Damme karate flick, Only the Strong (1993) where the capoeira style of karate was highlighted, and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997).
Lewis was the father of natural-born killer Juliette Lewis. Geoffrey Lewis died in 2015.
Bo Brundin played the German act Ernst Kessler who is based loosely on Ernst Udet. Brundin was born in 1937 in Sweden. That’s the second person from this film that was born in Sweden. Brundin is known for a couple of good movies, such as The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) and Meteor (1979). However, he had roles on many of the great television shows of the 70s and 80s, including “Wonder Woman” 1975, the one with Lynda Carter, although Gal Gadot is pretty good, “The Bionic Woman” 1976, “Tales of the Gold Monkey” 1982, “The A-Team” 1986 and “Dallas” 1989. His performance in this movie was subtle and understated and was about a perfect as could be.
Story- The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
The movie begins with a montage of pilots, barnstorming, movie stunts, and dog fights—many of the events turning out badly.
An airplane engine is heard, and the screen shows that it was Nebraska in 1926. 1926 was a time when people looked up at the sound of an airplane. A small boy and his dog run to the field where the plane is landing.
A yellow Standard J-1 2-seat trainer lands. There were around 1,600 of the planes produced from 1916 — 1918. The Great Waldo Pepper is painted on the side of the aircraft. Waldo Pepper (Robert Redford) gives the ever-growing crowd a spiel on the joys of flying for only $5 each. He asks who wants a free ride, and the small boy comes forward. The boy will bring him gas all day long in exchange for a ride at the end of the day.
Waldo gives rides as the small boy hauls gas. Era music provides the scene with a sense of nostalgia. At the end of the day, Waldo pays the boy and balks on giving him a free ride. But at last, he takes the small boy and his dog up for a joyous ride.
The credits roll.
Waldo goes home for dinner with Scooter, the boy that hauled gas all day. Waldo says that barnstorming is going out of style and that he is saving his money for a new plane he is having built. When Scooter asks Waldo if he is the best pilot in the world, he replies no, he is the second-best pilot.
Waldo says that in first place is the German ace Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin), credited with shooting down 70 planes and lived to tell the story. Kessler is fictional. Kessler is based on Ernst Udet, who had 62 confirmed aerial victories. He was recruited into the Flying Circus by the Red Baron, AKA Manfred von Richthofen. Udet survived the war and went on to become a Damn Nazi.
When prompted about World War I, Waldo says he was in the war at the end. He tells the story of when he and four other pilots fought Kessler. Kessler shot down the four other planes and began dogfighting with Waldo. The fourth pilot’s plane caught fire, and he jumped to his death because parachutes were not worn at that time. He says Kessler was a fantastic pilot, and when Waldo’s guns jammed, Kessler saluted him and flew away. Waldo also says people didn’t want to die by burning.
In the morning, Waldo flies to another town. On the ground, Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson) has rounded up a crowd to fly in his airplane. Waldo buzzes the crowd and flies a loop before landing in the same field. Axel is upset and wants Waldo to leave.
Waldo does something to Axel’s plane before spinning the propeller for him. When Axel leaves the ground, both his wheels fall off. Axel’s plane is a Curtiss JN-4 known as the Jenny[6]. Axel has to crash land into a pond, while Waldo acts like it is a planned stunt. He collects money from the crowd before sending them to the pond. A de Havilland DH 82A Tiger Moth[7] is used for the crash because more of this type of biplane were available. Waldo flies away with the money before Axel can get out of the water.
In another town, Waldo goes to see a Rudolph Valentino type movie. In front of him sits Mary Beth (Susan Sarandon). Waldo begins a conversation about the film. He climbs into the seat next to her. She is amazed that he knows the plot.
Later Waldo and Mary Beth go to a diner, and he regales her with the Kessler story. Axel comes in with a broken leg. Mary Beth is a good friend of Axel’s. Mary Beth wants Waldo to continue the Kessler story. Mary Beth finishes the story. Axel was in the same unit as the five planes that faced Kessler. He calls Waldo out for stealing a story that never happened to him. Mary Beth leaves with her friend Axel. Waldo remarks to himself that it should have faced Kessler.
Dillhoefer (Philip Bruns) has put together a group of flyers into a show called “Dillhoefer Flying Circus,” playing on the World War I German air group’s name. Ernst Kessler is flying for Dillhoefer and using a modified Bücker Bü 133 Jungmeister or Young Master[8].
Ezra Stiles (Edward Herrmann) finds Waldo in the crowd watching the show. Ezra tells Waldo that the plane he is building for Waldo will be a monoplane. As they watch Kessler fly, Waldo gives all of the reasons the single winged aircraft will not work. They watch Kessler do nine wingovers from 3,000 feet. He pulls out feet from the ground. Ezra tells Waldo he can beat Kessler with the new plane.
Waldo asks Dillhoefer for a job. Dillhoefer says he will have to put together a death-defying stunt if he wants to work for him. Dillhoefer recommends wing walking.
Waldo is going broke teaching flying lessons. Mary Beth and Axel come to see him. Axel is still on crutches. Axel wants to use Waldo’s plane because Dillhoefer has made him the same offer. As they spit word back and forth, Waldo says he got to combat late because he was made a flying instructor.
Mary Beth says they should work together. The three practice an act where Waldo climbs from a speeding car, up a rope ladder, into the airplane. They have trouble getting the stunt correct. Waldo catches the ladder and is flown through the roof of a barn.
Waldo has a broken foot and arm. He goes with Ezra to stay on the farm. His on- and off-again girlfriend Maude (Margot Kidder) is mad that Waldo only comes around when he is hurt. But she warms up to him later.
Ezra shows Waldo the new plane. Waldo thinks he could fly an outside loop in the plane. No one has ever done the stunt, which is a loop where the pilot’s head is to the outside during the entire loop.
When Waldo heals, he and Axel practice a wing-walking act. Both men take a turn walking on the lower and upper wings. They begin working for Dillhoefer doing the wing walking. The crowds are becoming bored by the stunts as they are becoming too common. Waldo has to dress as a woman to do the stunts as the crowds get smaller. Dillhoefer wants Mary Beth to walk on the wings. The new plane will be ready in several weeks, and Waldo plans on flying the outside loop.
Mary Beth is ready to be a star. Here clothes are rigged so that it seems the air is stripping her. Axel takes her up for the show, and she is cool. Mary Beth walks to the end of the lower wing as her clothes flip in the wind. Axel flies over the town and down the main street while Mary Beth screams for help.
Mary Beth is overcome with fear and can’t come in from the wing. Waldo takes another flyer with him and goes up after the distressed Mary Beth. The two biplanes meet, and Waldo climbs from his plane onto the opposite wing from where Mary Beth is frozen. Waldo crosses over and makes it to Mary Beth. Waldo asks Mary Beth to take his hand. She lets go and flies off the wing. Many people recount this scene as being very shocking during their youthful viewing of the film.
Dillhoefer and the two pilots have to go to the police. They are met by Newt (Geoffrey Lewis). Newt was Waldo’s commander during the war, and he had 11 victories. Newt is now the Regional Air Inspector for the Department of Commerce. Newt shuts the circus down under the Air Commerce Act. Newt tells them that flying is big business and stunt flying makes people think it is unsafe. The pilots and planes will have to be licensed, and where stunt flying is practiced will be regulated. Newt grounds Axel and Waldo, and they can’t be reinstated for at least six weeks. The outside loop stunt was scheduled for the Muncie Fair in two weeks.
Newt tells Waldo that he was the most incredible natural flyer he had ever seen, but things are changing, and he will have to live with it. Axel says he is done flying stunts because it is kid stuff.
At the Muncie Fair, Ezra has the new plane ready. The new aircraft is a modified de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk[9]. Newt checks the new plane out, but he says that Waldo can’t fly. Ezra will fly the outside loop. Waldo reluctantly allows Ezra to try the stunt.
Ezra tries to loop and can’t make it over the top to complete the loop. He does a nose over and pulls up short of the ground. He tries a second time and has the same results. On the third try, Ezra noses over and crashes.
Ezra is stuck in the burning plane as Waldo tries to pull him out. The crowd runs out, and a careless cigarette starts the spilled fuel on fire. No one will help get Ezra out. Ezra screams for Waldo to not let him burn. Waldo kills his trapped friend with a club.
Waldo is enraged at the crowd for not helping. He steals a plane and drives the crows away by lowing flying toward them. The plane conks out, and Waldo crashes into the carnival area.
Newt comes to see the bandaged Waldo at Ezra and Maude’s farm. Newt tells Waldo he is permanently grounded, and he will go to jail if he ever flies again. Newt offers Waldo a job but is turned down. Newt then tells Waldo that Kessler was the first to fly the outside loop. Historically, this is not accurate, and I will discuss it more in the Summary.
Waldo goes to see Dillhoefer, who is not happy to see him. Waldo asks for a job, and Dillhoefer is indignant. He says that the stunt business is going away. Dillhoefer says that Axel is working in Hollywood.
Waldo goes to Hollywood and gets a job with Axel as a stuntman and flyer. Axel’s girlfriend says that they are looking for pilots because of a mid-air crash during the filming of a war movie. Axel says no because he is becoming an airline pilot. Waldo is all in for the flying. Waldo convinces Axel to try the job.
On the set, Waldo looks at the Fokker Dr.I[10], like Kessler flew during the war. Waldo starts giving the director grief about the inaccuracies of the planes and set. Kessler says it is poetic license. Waldo introduces himself to Kessler as Mr. Brown. A younger good-looking actor is playing the part of Kessler in the movie. Finally, Waldo reveals his true identity to Kessler. Kessler knows him and says maybe they can fly together.
Waldo and Axel will be flying Sopwith F.1 Camel[11]. Axel says that Kessler asked the director if he could fly the famous dogfight against Waldo. Kessler comes in and asks Axel why he is doing such a dangerous stunt. Axel says he is in debt and is getting married. Kessler is in debt $40,000 and only finds happiness in the air.
On the day of the stunt, Waldo talks to Kessler about the dogfight, life, and women. Kessler laments about how young the men he killed were. Kessler tells the story that Waldo first told, but this time from the opposite point of view.
Axel does the stunt for the fourth pilot whose plane caught fire resulting in him jumping to his death. Axel pulls the parachute late and lands hard. Waldo lands, and Axel only has a broken foot.
When they arrive that night after a drinking bender, Newt is waiting on the porch. Newt says he will be on set for the final dogfight scene.
In the morning, Axel keeps a lookout for Newt while Waldo gets to the plane. The director gives them instructions for the flight. He provides each man with a parachute to wear. Both men drop the chutes before they get in their planes. Newt arrives on the scene as the planes are taking off.
Newt knows it is Waldo when he is told that a new guy named Brown is flying against Kessler. In the air, Waldo hand signals Kessler to fly away from the movie plane. Both planes are unarmed, but they start dogfighting. The aerial shots are superb as the two planes jockey for position.
Newt knows they are really fighting, and he cheers for Waldo. The dogfight changes to a low flying hedge hopping battle where the two planes fly the Earth’s contours. I have a comment about this in the Summary.
Eventually, Kessler cuts Waldo’s tail fin with his propellor. They fly chicken, and both planes are damaged. Waldo’s wheels are knocked loose. They continue until Kessler’s plane is too damaged to continue.
Waldo and Kessler salute each other and fly their separate ways. Waldo goes into a cloud bank and feels the true joy of flying.
A photograph showing Waldo Pepper says 1895-1931. So, he died in that year, but did he die due to the dog fight. The film never tells.
Summary – The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
While researching this movie, I ran across impdb.org, which is a database of planes in film. A lot of the plane information was obtained from this site. You should check it out. [12]
The gun jamming part of Waldo’s story actually happened to Ernst Udet, on whom Kessler is based when his gun jammed. French Ace Georges Guynemer let Udet, a novice pilot, live, and he saluted him. This battle occurred in 1917[13], which was relatively late for this type of chivalrous act. Early in the war, pilots would wave as they passed on a reconnaissance mission. Later they took to throwing bricks and shooting with pistols. Eventually, fighters were made with machine guns, while bombers and reconnaissance planes were armed as well.
This movie shares some similarities with a couple of other films. The first of these is The Lost Squadron (1932). Following World War I, three pilots and a mechanic make their way to Hollywood to fly for the movies. It eventually turns into a murder mystery as the director tries to kill his lover’s ex.
The second movie is High Road to China (1983). Tom Selleck plays a drunken World War I pilot that gives flying lessons for booze money. He has to make a trip to China to find meaning and love.
Charles Lindbergh, who would later be the first person to fly a solo flight across the Atlantic, began training to fly. He left this school to earn working as a wing walker and parachutist for a traveling circus.
Near Andersonville National Historic Site at Jimmy Carter Regional Airport is located Souther Field. A statue that looks oddly like Harry Potter commemorates Charles Lindbergh’s first solo flight in 1923.
Lindbergh bought a surplus Curtis JN-4 Jenny for $500. He took five more hours of training before soloing. He because a barnstormer using the name Daredevil Lindbergh[14]. At 25, he made his famous cross-ocean flight.
In this movie, Waldo wanted to be the first to complete the outside loop. Ezra was killed attempting the stunt. They later said that Kessler completed the outside loop. In reality, this aerial stunt was completed on May 25, 1927, at Wright Field in Ohio. The pilot was First Lieutenant James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle, who was in the United States Army Air Corps[15].
This pilot is the same Jimmy Doolittle that planned and executed the Doolittle Raid on Toyoko. Following the December 2, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese propaganda said the enemy would never reach their homeland.
On April 18, 1942, Doolittle led 16 land-based bombers off the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. The targets in Japan were bombed, creating a psychological blow to the Japanese and boosting US morale.
Doolittle Raid has spurred several movies, some being more accurate than others. They are Destination Tokyo (1943), Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), The Purple Heart (1944), Pearl Harbor (2001), and Midway (2019). There may be others.
I can’t leave this review without hitting one point. I loved seeing the final biplane duel as the planes flew along riverbeds and popped up from behind tree lines. However, this low flying was not common during World War I as it made the pilot and plane vulnerable to ground fire.
The Red Baron was killed by ground fire, although he always taught his fliers to avoid this. It is currently thought that he made this mistake as a result of an early brain injury.
The American top World War I ace, Eddie Rickenbacker, said in his book, Fighting the Flying Circus, that they would never fly low like this. What makes good movies doesn’t always make good truth.
World-Famous Short Summary – I have always heard this as job advice, but the first rule of wing walking is to grab one wing before you let go of the other.
Beware the moors
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manfred_von_Richthofen
[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073075/
[3] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/great_waldo_pepper
[4] https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-great-waldo-pepper-1975
[5] https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/14/archives/redford-is-waldo-pepper-jaunty-pilot.html
[6] https://www.impdb.org/index.php?title=The_Great_Waldo_Pepper
[7] ibid
[8] ibid
[9] ibid
[10] ibid
[11] ibid
[12] ibid
[13] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073075/trivia
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh
[15] https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/tag/outside-loop/
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