The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) on Netflix
Waldo Pepper trained pilots in World War I and never flew in combat. He barnstorms for a living and wants a place in Dillhoefer's flying circus, which demands a death-defying stunt.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.8/107,723 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
Waldo Pepper, a World War I flight instructor, missed the combat he trained others for, and he considers the German ace Ernst Kessler the best pilot of the war. He now barnstorms for a living, selling brief flights to fans, while his old flight commander Newt Potts believes more flight time would have proved him the best. Waldo wants a place in Dillhoefer's flying circus, which admits a pilot only if he can perform a death-defying stunt, and he joins forces with his sometime rival Axel Olsson to devise one. Another route comes from Maude, his girlfriend, and her brother Ezra Stiles, a plane designer: a monoplane built for the first outside loop.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Waldo Pepper was inspired by a combination of real barnstormers, Ormer Locklear, Speed Holman and Earl Daugherty, whose photos appear in the opening credits, and like the character, all three pilots died in flying accidents.
- Ormer Locklear, reputed to be the main inspiration for Waldo Pepper, was a Hollywood stunt pilot who in 1920 received the first aviation law violation for "reckless aerial driving" over Los Angeles. He died on August 2, 1920, when his aircraft crashed during a nighttime shoot for Fox's The Skywayman.
- Robert Redford and Bo Svenson performed every flying sequence with no parachutes or safety harnesses, because director George Roy Hill, a former U.S. Marine Corps cargo pilot, wanted them to feel what flying vintage aircraft was like. No one was hurt during the air scenes.
- The disillusioned, heavy-drinking German ace Ernst Kessler is based on the real German fighter pilot Ernst Udet, the second-highest scoring German pilot of World War I, who flew as a film and air show stunt pilot between the wars.
- Frank Tallman flew the aerial sequences using real aircraft rather than models: Waldo flew a Standard J-1, most other planes were Curtiss JN-4s, and de Havilland Tiger Moths were modified to look like JN-4s for the crash scenes.
- The film was a "passion project" for director George Roy Hill, a pilot himself, but he and screenwriter William Goldman had what Goldman called "a huge falling out" while Goldman was writing the screenplay; they still finished the project.
- Waldo's fascination with Kessler's most famous World War I dogfight was loosely patterned by Hill and Goldman after a real dogfight between German ace Werner Voss and a flight of aircraft led by British ace James McCudden.
