Andres Salama An entertaining movie about the World War I exploits of the ace German pilot Manfred Von Richthofen's (aka, the Red Baron) and his main opponent, Canada's Arthur Brown.The aristocratic Von Richthofen is so honor bound that he refuses to use camouflage paint on his planes, because "a gentleman should never hide from his enemies" and instead paints them with the brightest colors. The pragmatic, no-nonsense Brown, instead, does not believe in honor or chivalry: he just wants to win.I can't vouch for the complete historical authenticity of this movie – to mention just one instance, the actor portraying Hermann Goering looks nothing at all like the future Reichsmarshall, and his role in the flying circus was not as prominent as the movie implies. But as an entertainment (by the well known horror low budget film director Roger Corman) this movie is certainly well done. Sure, there is some corny dialogue here and there, and having Von Richthofen speak English in the movie with a heavy German accent was probably not the best idea, but the magnificent shots of period planes fighting in the air over the patchwork fields below separated by hedgerows (shot in 1971 with fearless stunt men, well before digital imagery started appearing in films) more than makes up for this movie's shortcomings. The great color photography is another plus.

rps-2 The flying sequences alone make this a film well worth seeing. They are much like those in The Battle Of Britain except, of course, the aircraft are of World War I vintage. It's also encouraging that Roy Brown was portrayed as a Canadian (which he was) rather than an American. The man had some very rough edges and these are portrayed in the film. (In one unrelated incident, he almost got court martialed for buzzing Picadilly Circus.) In other words Brown was not shown as some sort of handsome Hollywood knight of the sky but a very rough, arrogant, unsophisticated and even unpleasant individual. Good! Thats how it was. Better by half than most war films of its era.

tiomingo I have just written a comment to "ACES HIGH" (1976) and that remind me of this film which I watched as kid when it was released; since then I have watched it only once and that was more than enough. As Kevin well says "it is a complete waste of time". Apart from the dog-fights which are nicely done the rest is a sequence of badly patched scenes with actors struggling with a lousy script and equally lousy direction. I do not remember the silly German accents mentioned by Kevin in his comment, but that is another pathetic mistake; if Corman tried to make more convincing the characterization of the German pilots why didn't he use German actors or have those parts dubbed? On the other hand is good example of the appalling Hollywood-style of film-making with their "villains" so clearly identifiable, not only by their cruel actions but also by their grotesque accents.Talking about "cruel actions" the ridiculous scene were Lieutenant Hermann Goering murders English nurses during an attack on an airbase is an absolutely disgusting piece of propaganda done with "historical hindsight". If you want to a see a factual, moving, very well acted and directed film about the air war during WWI watch "ACES HIGH" (1976) or that wonderful classic "THE DAWN PATROL" (1938) you shall not be disappointed.

Krusty-17 In a rare (and unfortunate) deviation from his horror genre, Roger Corman takes an unhistorical look at the life and death of Manfred von Richtofen. Little about this film is accurate, and I could go on at length about all the inaccuracies, but why bother. Corman tries to give us a glimps of things-to come in the next war when Hitler's chief henchman-in-training Herman Goring (who, by the way, was not a member of the Flying Circus until after the Red Baron was killed), played to the hilt by Barry Primus, turns his twin spandaus on some poor British Nuns serving as nurses while attacking a British airbase. Probably one of the worst movies about World War One aviation ever made. I would rather watch Darling ‘Lil, and that says a lot.