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The forgotten film makers (Read 445 times)
Nov 22nd, 2003 at 11:59am

Hagar   Offline
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The BoB thread got me to thinking about aviation films & the people who can either make or break them. These are the aviation consultants whose job is to find the aircraft & the pilots who fly them. Most are unknown & stay in the background. They rarely get a mention in the credits & if they do it's so far down the list you probably wouldn't notice.  

During a long career in the aviation industry I met a lot of interesting people. Most of the old stagers were real characters. One such character was Captain John Crewdson who ran Crewdson Aviation Services at Gatwick for some years after WWII. He was aviation advisor for most British films at the time & being a talented fixed-wing & helicopter pilot he did much of the flying in the films.

While I never met the man himself, one of his employees was a regular visitor to my own company. His name was Les Hillman & he became a good friend. I first met Les soon after his return from Tuscon, Arizona on a mission to find & bring back 3 B-17s for the film The War Lover starring Steve McQueen. Their adventures are published in the book Everything But The Flak by Martin Caidin. I found this after a quick search.
Quote:
The last known formation flight of B-17s from the US to Europe occurred in late 1961. The three Flying Fortresses departed from Tucson, Arizona in late September, arriving in early October in England for the making of the movie "The War Lover" starring Steve McQueen. My father and I remember the Queens arriving at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, causing quite a stir, which these lovely ladies did just about anywhere they landed on their trip.

The following individuals comprised the crews on that historic flight:


Greg Board, Martin Caidin, Bob Sopjes, Bud Rosenthal, Bill Mason - Blue One
John Crewdson, Frank Lamanuzzi, Les Hillman, Jim Grau - Blue Two
Don Hackett, Tim Clutterbuck - Blue Three
The trials and tribulations they encountered, as well as the spirit of the journey, were admirably captured in the book Everything But The Flak by Martin Caidin, who flew right seat in the Fortress designated as Blue One.

During filming, two of the Forts were intentionally crashed and then scavenged for parts to keep the remaining B-17 flying. . .

. . . And this Queen is still flying today. Designated as the Fuddy Duddy, she is based at the National Warplane Museum near Rochester, New York.


I've never read this book but Les told me a few things that might not be in there. For example, to choose the aircraft from the many stored in the boneyard they kicked the tyres. The ones with the most pressure still in them were the ones they picked. They fitted them with reserve tanks in the fuselage, filled them up with juice & set out for England. Les told me he spent most of the trip huddled in the fuselage pumping fuel from the reserve tank with a hand pump.

I found this composite photo of John Crewdson doing his legendary beat-up of the tower at RAF Bovingdon during filming. The photo is genuine & one of the only surviving records of this remarkable piece of flying. Unfortunately I never saw him do it.

...

Crewdson was aviation advisor for the film 633 Squadron. There is a scene in this film where a Mosquito hits a fuel bowser & explodes in a ball of fire. Les Hillman told me he was running behind it (with the engines on fast tickover) steering it with lengths of fishing line attached to the brakes. He only had one shot at it & had to get it right first time. I always thought this was a sad waste of a rare aircraft.

Les also modified several Tiger Moths to look like German fighters for the Blue Max. He did a remarkable job & I wouldn't have known what they started out as if he hadn't told me.

Sadly we lost touch & I heard my old mate Les Hillman died a few years ago. These guys were involved with many other films including several James Bond classics & others by Stanley Kubrick. John Crewdson flew the helicopter in The Spy Who Loved Me. Next time you watch an old British film look out for the name Crewdson in the credits & spare a thought for the guys behind the scenes. Some, like the unknown parachutist who was killed making The War Lover, who sacrifice their lives for our enjoyment.
« Last Edit: Nov 22nd, 2003 at 12:59pm by Hagar »  

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Reply #1 - Nov 22nd, 2003 at 1:10pm

KnightStryker   Offline
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Quote:
During filming, two of the Forts were intentionally crashed and then scavenged for parts to keep the remaining B-17 flying. . .


What kind of sorry SOB would intentionally crash a B-17? Cry

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Sadly we lost touch & I heard my old mate Les Hillman died a few years ago.

Sorry for the loss of your friend.

And I will keep any eye out for the names  John Crewdson and Les Hillman in the credits.

Kevin
 
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Reply #2 - Nov 22nd, 2003 at 1:11pm

ozzy72   Offline
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Interesting stuff Hagar, oddly enough I know RAF Bovingdon well, as I used to practice driving my dads car there when I was preparing for my driving test.
They now hold a market there every Saturday (good for dodgy leather jackets that have appeared on Police 5), and on Sundays they've converted some of the taxi-ways into a race track for Demolition Derbys and Class 4 saloon car racing.
Alas nowadays most of the effects are computer generated. It somehow lacks the passion Cry, although if you do get the chance to see a BBC film called Over Here (its not available on video Sad) then you do get to see the incredibly talented Ray Hanna, and also features a B-17 (I'm not sure which one though), but the aerial photography is simply awesome.

Ozzy

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Reply #3 - Nov 22nd, 2003 at 1:24pm

Hagar   Offline
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What kind of sorry SOB would intentionally crash a B-17? Cry

Unfortunately this is what film makers do. The decision is made by the director, not the aviation consultants. It makes me weep to see rare aircraft like that Mossie in 633 Squadron or classic cars like the Aston Martin in The Italian Job wantonly destroyed (apparently this was impossible to fake) for the sake of a cheap effect. Although the film company owns them & they can treat them as they wish, to me this is senseless vandalism.
 

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Reply #4 - Nov 22nd, 2003 at 2:39pm

Woodlouse2002   Offline
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I think sadly in the days of those films it was a case of "there's plenty more fish in the sea" with those old aircraft. When those films were made there were far more WWII aircraft avaliable to film directors and so they thought they could afford to destroy them. In the making of Memphis Belle, a B17 was destoryed during filming, fair enough, it was an accident, but another one was dismantled after filming because the owner didn't want to pay for it to be taken back to the states.

Also if you think about it, those two B17's were sacrificed for the remaining one. If two wern't scavenged then the 3rd B17 might well have either crashed its self of been broken up after filming.
 

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Reply #5 - Nov 22nd, 2003 at 2:56pm

ozzy72   Offline
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Hagar, good news!!! I was watching Top Gear (this is a few years back), and the Aston Martin and two of the three Minis from the Italian Job had been completely restored to health. Nobody seems to know the location of the third one though Cry

Ozzy (And remember in this country they drive on the wrong side of the road) Grin
 

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Reply #6 - Nov 22nd, 2003 at 2:59pm

Hagar   Offline
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Quote:
Also if you think about it, those two B17's were sacrificed for the remaining one. If two wern't scavenged then the 3rd B17 might well have either crashed its self of been broken up after filming.

This is quite true Woody. Thanks for pointing that out. Those B-17s would probably have been scrapped in Arizona anyway. As someone mentioned in the BoB thread, the aircraft used in the Battle of Britain film were the basis for the now healthy warbird restoration business in this country.

Quote:
The producers contracted Group Captain Hamish Mahaddie to track down the aircraft. Mahaddie, who was a highly decorated bomber pilot from the Second World War, now specialised in buying aircraft for film work. Despite the fact that a total of 20,351 Spitfires had been built by the time production ceased in the late 1940s, by the early 1960s just a handful remained that were capable of flying. The making of the Battle of Britain was probably the greatest single factor in turning the tide on the almost total extinction of airworthy Spitfires. Mahaddie scoured the world for all potential Spitfires and those that were capable of looking like operational aircraft were either bought or hired. By the end of 1967, Mahaddie had rounded up 27 (about two squadrons-worth) of Spitfires that could be used for active filming, and a number of others that would provide spares for those capable of flying and which could be used for static shots. Some of the Spitfires had been gradually deteriorating and were given attention: some were made capable of taxiing, while a number were brought back to airworthy condition. Mahaddie tracked down four Hurricanes of which two could fly. There were only six Hurricanes left in the world and one of them was bought as a job lot off a scrap heap in Edmonton by an ex-Canadian Air Force pilot who rebuilt it and flew it across the Atlantic to appear in the film.
 

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Reply #7 - Nov 22nd, 2003 at 3:58pm

KnightStryker   Offline
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Quote:
Also if you think about it, those two B17's were sacrificed for the remaining one. If two wern't scavenged then the 3rd B17 might well have either crashed its self of been broken up after filming.

Ah once again I am reminded of why I like it here at SimV so much, someone will always point out the good part of a bad situation. Although I don't think that the two were "sacrificed" for the other to survive as much as it just turned out as a bonus that the two that were intentionally crashed were not completely destroyed therefore leaving some useable spare parts.  Grin

Kevin
 
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Reply #8 - Nov 23rd, 2003 at 2:59pm

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This is a fascinating subject.  As fro wasting planes, my dad said when he was in the Air Force he would watch them line up old fighters and bombers then go down the line knocking the tails off with a bulldozer.  Makes me sick to think about it.
 

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