In 1959, novelist John Hersey’s The War Lover was published, creating the story of a volatile B-17 combat pilot who enjoyed his job just a bit too much. The setting was a fictional B-17 bomb group operating from England with the Eighth Air Force. Sensing resurgence in interest in war films, and probably spurred by 20th Century Fox’s filming of The Longest Day, Columbia (British) Studios decided to produce a widescreen version of Hersey’s book. After rights were secured, it was sent to writer Howard Koch who created a loose screenplay adaptation of the novel. Columbia assigned Philip Leacock as the director and filming was scheduled to commence in October 1961.
Planning for Filming “The War Lover”
The film was to be shot in England, and arrangements were made to utilize the Bovingdon airfield, located in Hertfordshire near Hemel Hempstead, as the fictional bomb group’s base. Only a short sixteen years after the war ended, Bovingdon had changed little since its use as an active AAF station. The airfield was originally constructed for the RAF in 1941 but, in May 1942, was reallocated to the Eighth Air Force. The 92nd Bomb Group called Bovingdon home between August 1942 and January 1943, and it later served as the base for the 11th Combat Crew Replacement Center until the end of the war. In 1946 the RAF resumed control until it was handed back to the USAF in 1951. Joint use between the USAF and RAF continued into the early 1960s, and a number of British war films including 633 Squadron (1964) and Mosquito Squadron (1969), besides The War Lover, were filmed there. Flying ceased 1969 and the site was sold in 1976. Part of the old base is now used as a prison. The remainder of airfield is used for agriculture while the runways are used for a Saturday market.
Two American film stars were signed for The War Lover, with Steve McQueen taking the title role as Capt. Buzz Rickson and Robert Wagner playing his stable copilot Lt. Ed Bolland. McQueen was perfect for the role, providing that dangerous rebel spark just beneath Rickson’s surface, while Wagner gave the copilot the even-handed, stable, but nonetheless heroic characteristics of the role.
Finding the B-17s
Columbia Studios and film producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. turned to John Crewdson and his company, Film Aviation Services, to locate and operate the aircraft to be used in the film. They decided that three B-17s were needed to provide enough airfield and airborne activity to recreate the feel of bomb group operations. Crewdson was a colorful character, having cut his teeth flying gliders for the British Army, and then flew for a variety of operators around the world, including duty with the RAF in Britain. Crewdson had already made something of a name for himself amongst British filmmakers as he had provided helicopter services in a number of late 1950s film productions. He arranged for the Mosquitos used in 633 Squadron filmed in 1963 and also handled most of the aerial filming for the 1960s series of James Bond movies. But that was later. In the summer of 1961, he was out looking for three B-17s.
Actually, B-17s were not all that rare in 1961. The USAF had released more than a dozen as surplus in the U.S. in 1959 and 1960, with other airworthy B-17s were already doing survey, transport, or bug spraying work. There were also a number of derelict or unused B-17s still parked on U.S. airfields. However, Crewdson’s limited budget only allowed modest acquisition costs, so he was looking for cheap airframes whose only other requirement was that they be reliable enough for the demands of a filming schedule.
Crewdson did know that the Israeli Air Force had recently retired three B-17s and thought they might be available. However, he arrived in Israel about a year too late, as the airplanes had already been scrapped. He did, however, obtain the fuselage of one the Israeli airplanes for use as a studio prop. That airframe was B-17G s/n 44-83811, obtained illicitly in the U.S. by Israel in the summer of 1948 along with two other surplus B-17Gs.
So, not finding what he wanted in Israel, he came to the U.S. confident he could locate his B-17s there. And, nosing around, he ended up at Ryan Field, located on the Arizona desert twenty miles west of Tucson. There, he found ex VB-17G s/n 44-83563 carrying the civil registration of N9563Z and owned by Aero American Corp. Aero American was a subsidiary of the American Compressed Steel Corp. of Cincinnati, Ohio, one of whose businesses was purchasing surplus airplanes from the U.S. military at nearby Davis-Monthan AFB. Aero American’s manager at Ryan Field was one Gregory Board, another colorful character who had flown Australian Buffalos in the early, dark days of World War II. Surviving that, he plowed through the post war years mostly on the murkier edge of aviation.
The Derelict PB-1Ws at Dallas-Love Field
B-17s were no stranger to American Compressed Steel, the company having bought up thirteen surplus Navy PB-1Ws in 1956. Many of these were still parked in derelict condition at Dallas-Love Field in Texas. In 1959, it had purchased three more surplus USAF B-17s at Davis-Monthan, two of which were quickly sold to an individual who put them to work in the Caribbean hauling vegetables. John Crewdson then came along in August 1961 and immediately purchased the third B-17G, N9563Z, on behalf of Columbia. Board, seeing a huge business opportunity, quickly flew Crewdson to Dallas to look over the rotting PB-1Ws parked there. Crewdson examined the sad airplanes and selected two airframes, N5229V (ex 44-83883) and N5232V (ex 44-83877) for purchase with the understanding that Board would quickly get them airworthy. The two PB-1Ws required much attention by the skilled hands of an Aero American crew to put them back into flying condition, but they were ready for flight by early September. Board and Crewdson delivered them to Ryan Field where they joined N9563Z.
Three B-17s Ferried to England for “The War Lover”
Once the three B-17s were gathered, preparations were made ferry the airplanes across the North Atlantic to Bovingdon, delivery required by October 10 to meet the film schedule. Turrets and other wartime equipment was located at surplus yards around the U.S. and reinstalled to bring the aircraft back to the appearance of wartime Fortresses. Turrets were then removed and loaded as cargo for the ferry flight. Preparations completed, one silver and two Navy blue B-17s departed Tucson on September 17, with one B-17 commanded by Board, another by Crewdson, and the third by veteran pilot Don Hackett. Joining the crew for the transatlantic flight was author Martin Caidin flying as copilot on Board’s B-17. Caidin later produced the 1964 book Everything But the Flak about the ferry flight, an epic tale that certainly provides every detail of the saga, much of which was probably based on fact.
The flight crews endured frustrating mechanical problems and terrible weather over the Atlantic, flying from Gander, Newfoundland, with a required diversion from Iceland into the Azores and then, eventually, Portugal. Nonetheless, the three B-17s processed through Gatwick on October 8, 1961, and then proceeded to Bovingdon in time to meet the film schedule. Board, Caidin, Hackett, and crew parted ways with Crewdson after the arrival at Bovingdon, their part of the job completed. Upon delivery to Bovingdon, bill of sales for all three aircraft were officially executed in the name of Columbia Pictures.
Filming “The War Lover” at Bovingdon and Manston
Crewdson and his crew went through the airplanes, reinstalling all the combat gear and repainting the aircraft in an AAF camouflage scheme with markings of the 324th Bomb Squadron of the 91st Bomb Group. A curious feature of the paint scheme of the bombers, though, was that the aircraft undersurfaces appeared to be painted either black or a very dark shade of grey. Perhaps it was just a chemical characteristic of the film used, but the dark shade of the aircraft lower surfaces is distracting to those versed in AAF paint, and when so much attention was paid to other details it is difficult to envision why the specified neutral grey paint of the standard AAF scheme was not ensured. The War Lover was shot in black and white, artistically evoking the wartime period and gloominess of the English winter. It also, conveniently, allowed the footage from two earlier films, the wartime documentary Memphis Belle and 1949’s Twelve O’Clock High, to be matched into the film.
The attempt to blend footage from the two films drove the selection of the squadron and group codes applied to the movie airplanes. Since a fair amount of formation and combat footage was inserted from Memphis Belle, the squadron codes were from the 324th Bomb Squadron, 91st Bomb Group, home of the real B-17F Memphis Belle. These codes consisted of the fuselage letters “DF” applied. The distinctive ‘triangle A’ markings of the 91st Group was also added to the three movie B-17s to match the footage borrowed from Twelve O’Clock High, particularly the famous Paul Mantz belly landing. The B-17Fs of Memphis Belle, though, did not have the ‘triangle A’ markings applied, as those types of group markings were not introduced until the summer of 1943. For The War Lover then, it was not going to be possible to completely match the markings from the two earlier films so it was decided to just apply the “DF” codes and add the ‘triangle A’ on the tails. It was a minor concession that only the most diligent nitpicker could notice.
The B-17 star of the film was The Body, but a wide variety of nose art, fuselage codes, and serial numbers were applied to all three B-17s to replicate a much larger number of aircraft. Careful editing and tight shots suggest a squadron of B-17s taxiing around Bovingdon in the operational scenes, but the wide shots indeed show only three aircraft. A close viewing of the taxiing aircraft, however, reveals the obviously patched paint and changed markings, but instead of being distracting it actually adds to the authentic nature of the film with the faded, worn, and patched finish of the airplanes. As a side note, none of the applied serials were applicable to B-17 production, another nit for the nitpickers but certainly not atypical of the times.
Filming Details
Throughout the operational scenes it is easy to pick out N9563Z from the line up, because neither the left front nor right middle cheek windows were installed in the nose section. Additional small windows in the aft fuselage can be seen, characteristic of VB-17Gs in USAF service. Also, the lower part of the nose glass and part of the tail gun windows were crudely marred with paint overspray during the painting process. The two ex PB-1Ws are virtually identical, though, and efforts to identify one aircraft over the other seem impossible. The markings and serial numbers changed repeatedly during the filming, so that is of no assistance in looking at the aircraft, not that identification is of particular importance except to the nit picker inclined.
Operational scenes showing aircraft taxiing, taking off, and landing, plus scenes on the hardstands involving the principal actors were all filmed at Bovingdon. The distinctive control tower and other buildings are quite evident through those scenes. The Mantz crash landing was inserted for one crucial scene and edited to blend with footage shot using the fuselage of the ex-Israeli B-17G. Tight camera shots don’t show that the bellied B-17 in the scene does not actually have any wings. The action depicts distraught copilot Ed Bolland seeing the remains of his friend, the navigator of the bellied Fortress, dead in the nose section.
From viewing the completed film, it is apparent that only a limited amount of air-to-air was actually produced for the movie, with much of the formation shots used inserted from either Memphis Belle or Twelve O’Clock High. There are only a few scenes where all three B-17s are visible in a flying formation, suggesting that much of the air-to-air film was shot from one B-17 to another. A photograph showing two B-17s in a tight formation when the bailout sequence was filmed over the English Channel can confirm this. In the completed movie, the story line has the B-17 flying solo as it struggles to return to England, so the photograph would indicate that one B-17 was indeed filming the other.
From an aviation perspective, the highlight of the film is the low level beat up of Bovingdon by Crewdson, flying solo, in a B-17. Beginning out of go-around maneuver from an aborted landing approach, low level in this case means the props ticking away a scant foot or two above the ground as the B-17 bears down on the airfield tower, and then banking between some hangars as it comes back around for another pass. As the low level bomber thunders across the field, a camera mounted in the bombardier position picks up a number of RAF aircraft parked near the tower, and a large RAF transport on a nearby taxiway, an indication that Bovingdon was, indeed, still active when the filming was underway.
Principal filming at Bovingdon was completed in November, and then the aircraft were moved to Manston to film the over-channel scenes that brought the film to its conclusion. Manston, located on the east coast of England in Kent, had served as an RAF field during the war. Now the B-17s staged out of the field for the over water filming, and at least one B-17 was made to appear badly damaged with jammed bomb bay doors, one landing gear extended, and various holes shot through the fuselage and wings. Once airborne, at least one engine was shut down and feathered, and smoke rigged to emanate from the engine. While filming from another B-17, a crew of parachutists jumped from the damaged B-17 to simulate a crew bailout, a process that resulted in the fatality of one of the jumpers when he later drowned in the Channel.
Completing the Film
All the location filming was concluded by December 1961, and the production moved to film studios at Shepperton, near London. There, interior shots utilizing the Israeli B-17 were filmed, including process shots of McQueen and Wagner in the cockpit. The other less interesting non-aviation scenes were also completed at the studio and on location at Cambridge.
“The War Lover” Released on October 25, 1962
After the editing and production was completed, the film was released in October 1962. It had a mixed reception from critics and audiences alike. Positive comments included the efforts toward realism made by Crewdson and the other technical artists with respect to the hardware and operational scenes. The slightly annoying romance between Wagner and Fields, and the interference by McQueen’s character, were less well received but that’s drama for you. Today, when viewing the film, it does stagger along a bit between the excitement of the bomb group activities and the predictability of the romantic interludes. Both McQueen and Wagner provided capable performances, with McQueen getting the nod for being enough of a credible psychopath to wonder how much acting was actually going on.
Post Script for the “War Lover” B-17s
As for the airplanes, the two ex PB-1Ws were left at Manston after the filming was completed. Evidently, N5229V suffered a tail wheel collapse at the completion of the filming, and both airplanes ended up being scrapped on site. Facing airframe repairs and the imposition of import duties, Columbia had Crewdson pull the best parts off those airplanes to make N9563Z into a reliable performer for a U.S. tour to promote the film. N5229V and N5232V were then sold to a Middlesex scrap dealer and broken up. The Israeli B-17 fuselage suffered the same fate, being stored at the Croydon Airport for a number of years before finally succumbing to the scrap man.
N9563Z did make its U.S. tour in 1962, flying in combat paint with The War Lover marked across its lower wing in large letters. In an effort to spur interest in the movie, it dropped leaflets over large U.S. towns, something that is probably illegal nowadays, what with littering laws and all. After the tour, N9563Z was sold in April 1963 to Aircraft Specialties at Phoenix, Arizona, where it was converted for use as an air tanker. Aside from its 1969 appearance in Tora Tora Tora (along with four other Aircraft Specialties B-17 tankers), it plied along obscurely for the following two decades on the fire lines in the western U.S. In 1985, it was sold to the National Warplane Museum, then at Geneseo, New York. The airplane is now owned by Martin Aviation and is displayed at the Lyons Air Museum at Orange County Airport near Santa Ana, California. Though the B-17 is in near airworthy condition, it is not currently flown but is on static display. It carries the name Fuddy Duddy and 447th Bomb Group markings.
More information on the aircraft used to film The War Lover can be found in Final Cut, available right here on this site.
Details of the actual film can be found in The War Lover listing at the Internet Movie Database site.
The movie itself can be ordered from Amazon.
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