My wife just returned from a shopping trip to the local Wal Mart and she gave me one of those two packs of movie CDs. This one has the original Jimmy Stewart version and the new Dennis Quaid version of Flight of the Phoenix for $23. The new one is advertised as having 15 minutes of scenes deleted from the theater version. I doubt the Stewart one has much extra, because they probably don’t have any of the “leavings” from the original editing. Anyway, it should make for an interest bube tube session.
I loved the original. That’s the only movie you’ll ever see Earnest Bourgnine play a wussy!! I haven’t seen the new one. Sounds like your wife’s a keeper. My ex would never bring home an adventure movie… Only chick flicks like the Bridges of Madison County.
Funny I should read this here, having just read an article about both movies (a comparison actually) that absolutely bombed the new one. There are about 30 minutes of film still in existence from the first one. This includes the shots taken when the Phoenix crashed and killed Paul Mantz[:(]. The gentleman who wrote the article was with the filming crew (?) during the filming of it and he makes some really interesting comments, such as the Phoenix was built from parts of a Beech 18 with the engine of a T-6.
Haven’t seen the new one but I love old one. Has Jimmy Stewart made a bad film? The article is in GA News which should be available at your local airport.
What would you expect from a B-17 pilot with multiple missions under his belt. Not to mention a Brigarder General when he retired. As a matter of fact, he preformed several small roles with Frank Kappra during the war. After the war, among his preformerences, he starred in Stratigic Air Command where he was a major League Baseball player who was drafted back into the air force. First he was in B-36s and then transitioned to B-47s. This movie also starred June Allison who was his wife in many films.
I have that movie on VHS. It has some of the best flying shots of the B-36 and B-47 anywhere. I also liked Henry Morgan in the movie. Come to think of it, there isn’t any part of the movie I didn’t like.
Is that “tamamata” or should it be “tamamato?” [:D]
SAC = [tup]
Phoenix Old = [tup]
Phoenix New = Haven’t seen, but going to.
And wasn’t Mr. Jimmy in a movie where he was an aeronautical engineer who knew the tail of a airliner was going to fall off and he finally got them to land just before it did? Excellent movie, even if Jimmy wasn’t in it.
And to sidetrack, Jimmy’s best movie [2c] is “Rear Window.” No planes, but ya got Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, and murder, all directed by Alfred Hitchcock!
I guess any movie that has airplanes in it can’t be all bad, but Dennis Quaid (although a respectable actor) is no Jimmy Stewart. Ya just can’t find a bad Jimmy movie, be it comedy or drama. And I’ll stay up no matter how late to see “Strategic Air Command”…gotta be some of the best airborne footage ever filmed. An old co-worker of mine was in the USAF, crewed on B-36s at Carswell when they filmed the movie. Hung out at the club with Henry Morgan and others. He said his plane was shown in the movie. THOSE are memories…arent they?
Dennis Quaid and company vs. Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine, Dan Duryea and George Kennedy? Don’t think there’s a comparison (and I’ve liked most of Quaid’s pictures). Besides which very very few of the remakes I’ve seen over the past twenty years have been as good as the origional. let alone better.
And if you’re interested in what movies someone starred in or who was in a particular movie and what it’s plot is, check out http//www.imdb.com/
Got it from one of my kids and it’s kinda interesting
I know I’m a Brit but I have to say that Mr Stewart was a truly great American.
The kind of man you wish you had as your next door neighbor.
I watched him years ago on the British chat show ‘Parkinson’ reading a poem he wrote about his old Golden lab.He cried,Parkinson cried,damn the whole audience cried.
A great actor,great soldier and quite and humble as well.What you saw was what you got.
he did tell some great stories about him and Henry Fonda when they shared a flat together and their times on the town!!!
Dennis Quaid was great as Gordan “Gordo” Cooper in “The Right Stuff”. That movie ranks up there with “Strategic Air Command” and “Flight of the Phoenix” in my opinion.
Jimmy Stewart was first a B-17 instructor pilot at Gowen Field, Idaho. The brass wouldn 't let him fly combat missions. He finally wrangled a flying slot with a combat unit flying B-24’s in England. He was not a combat B-17 pilot.
That film you mentioned where the engineer knows the tail is going to fall off, sounds like the film of Neville Shute’s book “No Highway” ( or at least I think that was what it was called. Used to have a copy many years ago )
