The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) - Turner Classic Movies

Brief Synopsis

The survivors of a desert plane crash fight to get back in the air.

Cast & Crew

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Robert Aldrich

James Stewart

Richard Attenborough

Peter Finch

Ernest Borgnine

Ian Bannen

Photos & Videos

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Flight of the Phoenix, The - (Original Trailer)

Flight Of The Phoenix, The (1965) -- (Movie Clip) Eat The Monkey

Flight Of The Phoenix, The (1965) -- (Movie Clip) Send Up Some Smoke

Film Details

Genre

Adventure

Adaptation

Release Date

Jan 1965

Premiere Information

Los Angeles opening: 15 Dec 1965

Production Company

Associates & Aldrich Co., Inc.

Distribution Company

Twentieth Century--Fox Film Corp.

Country

United States

Location

Yuma, Arizona, USA

Screenplay Information

Based on the novel The Flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor (New York, 1964).

Technical Specs

Duration

2h 29m

Sound

Mono

Color

Color (DeLuxe)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.85 : 1

Synopsis

Frank Towns, pilot of an oil field cargo-passenger plane, crashes in the North African desert. The crash is the fault of the alcoholic navigator, Lew Moran, who neglected to check the radio, which is now broken. Two of the men on the plane have died in the crash, and the rest are faced with death in the desert as the result of a diminishing water supply and a scarcity of food. The survivors are organized by Towns and are led by two British soldiers, Captain Harris and Sergeant Watson. Harris decides to try to get some water and leads Carlos on an expedition. They are followed by Trucker Cobb, who has suffered a mental breakdown. Only Harris returns. Heinrich Dorfmann, a German model-plane designer, comes up with a plan to remodel the double-engine plane into a salvaged single-engine model. Towns is opposed to the idea at first, but to keep their sanity all the men work on the plane. (In hallucination, they see a mirage of Farida, a dancer.) A party of Arabs meets them on the desert; but when Harris and Dr. Renaud beg them for water, the Arabs slit the two men's throats. Finally the plane is finished, and the surviving men strap themselves to its wings as it rises out of the desert.

Director

Robert Aldrich

Cast

James Stewart

Richard Attenborough

Peter Finch

Ernest Borgnine

Ian Bannen

Ronald Fraser

Sergeant Watson

Christian Marquand

Dan Duryea

George Kennedy

Gabriele Tinti

Alex Montoya

Peter Bravos

William Aldrich

Barrie Chase

Crew

L. B. Abbott

Special Photography Effects

Robert Aldrich

Michael Audley

Dial Supervisor

Jack R. Berne

Production Manager

Joseph Biroc

Director of Photography

Walter Blake

Associate Producer

Ed Butterworth

Alan Callow

Assistant Director

Cliff Coleman

Assistant Director

De Vol

Robert Gary

Script Supervisor

William Glasgow

Lucien Hafley

Lukas Heller

Norma Koch

John Lasalandra

Constr coordinator

Michael Luciano

Howard Lydecker

Special Photography Effects

Paul Mantz

Terry Miles

National Screen Service

Don Niehaus

Ben Nye

Makeup Supervisor

John Orlando

Gino Paoli

Oscar Rudolph

2nd unit Director

William F. Sheehan

Assistant Director

Robert Sherman

Dial Supervisor

Jack Solomon

Jack Stone

William Turner

Frank Westmore

Alec Wilder

Al Woodbury

Videos

Flight Of The Phoenix, The (1965) -- (Movie Clip) Eat The Monkey Brit officer Harris (Peter Finch) organizes, pilot Towns (James Stewart) his ally, accountant Dan Duryea frets, Ernest Borgnine surrenders his radio, Hardy Kruger interferes, Richard Attenborough, Christian Marquand, George Kennedy, Ian Bannen in the mix, in The Flight Of The Phoenix, 1965.

Flight Of The Phoenix, The (1965) -- (Movie Clip) Send Up Some Smoke Stranded in the Libyan desert, survivors George Kennedy and Ian Bannen try to dissuade Alex Montoya from joining Harris (Peter Finch) to seek water, pilot Towns (James Stewart) and Moran (Richard Attenborough) seeing them off, in Robert Aldrich's The Flight Of The Phoenix, 1965.

Flight of the Phoenix, The - (Original Trailer) The survivors of a desert plane crash fight to get back in the air in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965).

Film Details

Genre

Adventure

Adaptation

Release Date

Jan 1965

Premiere Information

Los Angeles opening: 15 Dec 1965

Production Company

Associates & Aldrich Co., Inc.

Distribution Company

Twentieth Century--Fox Film Corp.

Country

United States

Location

Yuma, Arizona, USA

Screenplay Information

Based on the novel The Flight of the Phoenix by Elleston Trevor (New York, 1964).

Technical Specs

Duration

2h 29m

Sound

Mono

Color

Color (DeLuxe)

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.85 : 1

Award Nominations

Best Editing

1965

Michael Luciano

Best Supporting Actor

1965

Ian Bannen

Articles

The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

July 16, 2012

The survivors of a desert plane crash fight to get back in the air.

Producer: Robert Aldrich
Director: Robert Aldrich
Screenplay: Lukas Heller (screenplay); Elleston Trevor (novel)
Cinematography: Joseph Biroc
Art Direction: William Glasgow
Music: DeVol
Film Editing: Michael Luciano
Cast: James Stewart (Frank Towns), Richard Attenborough (Lew Moran), Peter Finch (Captain Harris), Hardy Kruger (Heinrich Dorfmann), Ernest Borgnine (Trucker Cobb), Ian Bannen (Crow), Ronald Fraser (Sergeant Watson), Christian Marquand (Dr. Renaud), Dan Duryea (Standish), George Kennedy (Bellamy).
C-149m.

The Flight Of The Phoenix (1965)

The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

The survivors of a desert plane crash fight to get back in the air. Producer: Robert Aldrich Director: Robert Aldrich Screenplay: Lukas Heller (screenplay); Elleston Trevor (novel) Cinematography: Joseph Biroc Art Direction: William Glasgow Music: DeVol Film Editing: Michael Luciano Cast: James Stewart (Frank Towns), Richard Attenborough (Lew Moran), Peter Finch (Captain Harris), Hardy Kruger (Heinrich Dorfmann), Ernest Borgnine (Trucker Cobb), Ian Bannen (Crow), Ronald Fraser (Sergeant Watson), Christian Marquand (Dr. Renaud), Dan Duryea (Standish), George Kennedy (Bellamy). C-149m.

Quotes

Gentlemen, I have been examining this aeroplane.
- Heinrich Dorfmann

Yeah?
- Frank Towns

Yes. We've everything we need here to build a new one and fly it out. Now, if you'd like to have a look at my calculations, I don't know whether you can read my handwriting.
- Heinrich Dorfmann

Are you trying to be funny?
- Frank Towns

What did you say?
- Heinrich Dorfmann

Your theory's fine, but you get this mister... that engine's rated at two thousand horsepower and if I was ever fool enough to let it get started up it'd shake your patched-up pile of junk into a thousand pieces, and cut us up into mincemeat with the propeller.
- Frank Towns

I've lost five men, Lew. Gabriel in there, he's on the way, that'll be six. Are you asking me to try to kill the rest of them trying to get a deathtrap off the ground. I don't know... I don't know, Lew. It won't work... it just can't work.
- Frank Towns

All right, then, it can't. Maybe it can't and we'll all be killed. But if there's just one chance in a thousand that he's got something, boy, I'd rather take it than just sit around here waiting to die.
- Lew Moran

Maybe Frank Towns, who's flown every crate they've ever built and could fly in and out of a tennis court if he had to, maybe that great hell-for-leather trailblazer's nothing more than a back number now. And maybe men like Dorfmann can build machines that can do Frank Towns's job for him, and do it better
- Lew Moran

If you hadn't made a career out of being a drunk you might not have been a second-rate navigator in a firth-rate outfit. And if you'd not stayed in your bunk to kill that last bottle, maybe you might have checked that engineer's report on the radio and we might not be here now. All right!
- Frank Towns

Trivia

The plane that they leave on at the end of the film was originally a C-82 Boom aircraft. The stunt of taking off was too dangerous, and thus pilot Paul Mantz was asked to merely come in low, run his landing gear along the ground, and then take off again, simulating a take-off. On the second take, Mantz was killed and the plane destroyed. As all main footage had already been shot, a North American O-47A observation plane from the Air Museum was substituted for the remaining closeups.

Notes

Copyright length: 145 min. Location scenes filmed near Yuma, Colorado.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States 1965

Released in United States 1994

Released in United States on Video May 1988

Film was dedicated to stunt pilot Paul Mantz who was killed during shooting.

Released in United States 1965

Released in United States 1994 (Shown in New York City (Walter Reade) as part of program "Apocalypse Anytime! The Films of Robert Aldrich" March 11 - April 8, 1994.)

Released in United States on Video May 1988

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