The Spirit of St. Louis

Plot synopsis:
On the night before his epic solo flight across the Atlantic, Charles Lindbergh (James Stewart) lies awake in his hotel bed, worrying about his chances. Will he have enough fuel? Will he even be able to take off? Rain falls outside his window, dimming the chances for an early start. Time is short, and Lindbergh knows he must make his attempt soon, because there are others trying to make the same flight.Tossing and turning, he thinks back to the events that led him here. Once, flying airmail for the Army, his plane failed in a Midwest blizzard, and after bailing out, he had to find his way through the dark and take a train to his destination. Lindbergh was no stranger to the dangers of flight, but his faith in its capabilities was unshakable, and a dream formed in his mind: he wanted to do something remarkable, something that would show people what airplanes could really do.Back at his home base in St. Louis, he calls a New York aircraft builder to get a quote on a special plane. One that can make a very long distance flight: New York to Paris, non-stop. Lindbergh next sets out to raise the money needed to buy it, and manages to get several St. Louis businessmen interested. They like the idea, and they see its value, but aren't sure about Lindbergh's chances. Is he really sure he can do this? He convinces them that he can, and the name "The Spirit of St. Louis" is coined for the project.Lindbergh travels to New York to purchase the special plane, but the deal falls through and he returns home, discouraged. Another possible builder is found however, and Lindbergh is off to California to see the small Ryan Aircraft Co. He locates the sleepy little factory and finds the firm's president Frank Mahoney (Bartlett Robinson) frying fish with a torch. Amused, Lindbergh makes the deal, and they all get to work. In a few weeks, a little silver plane has taken shape, and Lindbergh takes it up for testing. Satisfied, he heads back to St. Louis, but learns that another team has taken off from Paris and is trying to make it to New York. It seems as if Lindbergh is too late.Landing in St. Louis, he finds that the Frenchmen never arrived. Their attempt has failed, and they're probably dead. Against further misgivings from his backers, Lindbergh pushes on to New York to make his attempt but finds the weather has turned bad, and he's delayed days waiting for the rain to clear. So now he waits, laying in a hotel bed, unable to sleep.Finally giving up, he rises and prepares to leave. The weather forecast is improving, and Lindbergh wants to get away at the earliest possible moment. Frank Mahoney has come to help him, and together they drive out to the muddy airfield in the predawn dark, prepare the plane, and get ready to leave. A crowd of spectators has gathered to see Lindbergh, and they all walk out to the runway to watch. A marker has been placed down the runway to mark the point where Lindbergh must become airborne if he is to clear the trees at the end of the runway. The engine is fired, Lindbergh climbs into the cockpit, nervously shakes hands with Mahoney, and says "Well, I might as well go."Gunning the engine, the ground crew struggle to push the fully loaded plane forward through the mud. Slowly picking up speed, Lindbergh fights to keep going straight, and the ground crew fall back; he's on his own now. Bouncing and sloshing through the mud, the plane struggles to get into the air, but can't get enough speed. The marker flashes past but he's still not airborne, and when it seems far too late Lindbergh manages to lift sluggishly into the air. Scraping the treetops, he avoids an almost certain crash and clears the field. Lindbergh is finally on his way.Soon he is able to relax and settle into his routine, monitoring fuel and checking the map. However, after only a few hours he's exhausted, realizing he'd wasted last night in that bed. Now he faces a 30-hour-plus flight, all of this day and night and probably most of tomorrow. Fighting off drowsiness he continues to reminisce about the past, recalling other adventures: barnstorming, flying with an aerial circus, giving hair-raising flying lessons to a priest who had absolutely no talent for flight at all. As the day passes he flies along the coast of Newfoundland, reaching St. Johns before dark, and setting out over the trackless expanse of the North Atlantic.Fighting off sleep, he forces himself to stay awake through the night, but fails to notice that ice is building up on his wings; a deadly situation.
The plane shudders and begins to lose altitude, shaking Lindbergh awake. Unable to keep the plane flying, he prepares to ditch, but as he skims the waves, the warmer air near the surface melts the ice, shearing it off. Given a second chance, Lindbergh struggles on.As dawn comes, a bleary-eyed Lindbergh searches out over the waves for any signs of land. Having gone off course during the fight against the ice, he had no real idea of where he is. Hours pass. Deliriously tired, he sees white specks in the distance, and flying closer finds that they are seagulls. It's an encouraging sign. Next he spots a fishing boat and flies circles around it, cutting his engine and yelling at the astonished fisherman, "Which way to Ireland?" Getting no reply, Lindbergh flies on.Finally, he spots green shapes rising out of the sea, and these form into rocks and hills as he draws closer. Where is he? Iceland? North Africa? Checking the map, he is overjoyed to find that it is indeed the coast of Ireland, and he's very nearly on course after all. Waving happily to people as he finally passes over green land again, he turns southeast toward France.Passing over the French coast as night falls again, he follows the Seine River toward Paris, reaching the City of Light well after dark. Having pushed himself beyond all endurance, he is desperate to land, to get back on the ground again. The lights are confusing, and he's got to find the airport; he can't feel anything, and can't control the airplane any longer. Coming in at what he can only hope is the right direction, his wheels finally touch the ground of France. Coasting to a stop at the dark end of the airfield, he manages to reach up and cut the engine off, ending his flight. Lindbergh has done it.He is amazed to find a massive crowd rushing towards him. He's pulled from the plane by ecstatic Parisians, who give him a hero's welcome and carry him off on their shoulders. Charles A. Lindbergh has become the biggest hero of his time.

Tags: flashback

Review:
I know that Lindbergh was only 25 years old at the time of his historic solo flight to Paris and that James Stewart was almost 50 when making this movie but I can overlook that fact because Stewart has always been one of my all-time favorite actors and does one of his usual outstanding performances as the "lone eagle".There is a good mixture of comedy and drama throughout the film and a good use of flashbacks.
Such then is the heart of this movie called "The Spirit of St. Louis." The actor chosen for this historic film is none other than America's own James Stewart who convincingly plays Charles Lindbergh.
One can admire Wilder's skill in sustaining audience interest throughout what is essentially a one character and a one scene film but he achieves it through interspersing the present from the night before the takeoff, with flashbacks that retell the background to the mission, each a little story in itself, some quite tense such as Lindbergh's adventurous flight during a blizzard when he was a flying mail courier and others rather droll such as giving a flying lesson to a priest who is the most incompetent would-be aviator ever.
It deals Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh (excellently performed by James Stewart , he always wanted to portray him , when he ultimately got his chance is very old for a young role ; he was given this character after John Kerr had turned it down, owing to his disapproval of Lindbergh's pro-Nazi sympathies and his racist and anti-Semitic views) struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing .
As a 25-year-old U.S. Air Mail pilot, Lindbergh (Charles wanted Anthony Perkins to play him in the movie) emerged suddenly from virtual obscurity to instantaneous world fame as the result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo nonstop flight on May 20–21, 1927, made from the Roosevelt Field in Garden City on New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles or 5,800 km , in the single-seat, single-engine purpose-built Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis .
As a result of this flight, Lindbergh was the first person in history to be in New York one day and Paris the next.Interesting picture with plenty of thrills , emotion , biographic elements and brief touches of humor .
Burdened by its heavy load of 450 U.S. gallons of gasoline weighing about 1,230 kg, and hampered by a muddy, rain-soaked runway, Lindbergh's Wright Whirlwind-powered monoplane gained speed very slowly as it made its 7:52 am takeoff run, but its J-5C radial engine still proved powerful enough to allow the Spirit to clear the telephone lines at the far end of the field "by about twenty feet or six meters with a fair reserve of flying speed".
Jimmy Stewart is Charles Lindbergh in "The Spirit of St. Louis," a 1957 film directed by Billy Wilder and based on Lindbergh's book about his transatlantic flight.The film deals with little else but Lindbergh's career up to and including his monumental flight from Roosevelt Field to Le Bourget in France in 33 hours back in 1927.
During the flight sequence, there are flashbacks to earlier points in Lindbergh's life.The Spirit of St. Louis is replicated, and once seen, it's very hard to believe it got out of Roosevelt Field.
A great picture that tells the story of the flight, certain events in Lindbergh's life, how he came to make the flight, the design and building of the plane, his association with the people who helped make it happen and even some of the trademark Billy Wilder humor.
This is as close to a one-man show as you're ever going to see on film as Jimmy Stewart dominates the picture while all others just have bit roles.I found it interesting because I find Charles Lindberg's feat amazing and worth watching.
This is a film that practically deifies Charles Lindburgh because of his amazing solo flight across the Atlantic (from New York to Paris).
Unlike others (Ronald Regan & John Wayne to name but two) he wasn't afraid to fight for his country either & his experience as a USAF pilot during WW2 served him well for this epic.The central problem for the film makers is the 30 hour flight, there simply wasn't enough material to depict this, the most famous episode of the whole story & the whole reason behind the legend.
Yet this achievement is side stepped by Hollywood & simply ignored, yet if it was Lindbergh who'd crawled out to chip ice off the wings of his aircraft time after time we'd never have heard the end of it (a daring feat necessary because the Vimy kept accumulating too much ice to keep flying during a storm).Useful, this film is an incomplete picture, as carefully framed  in it's story line as the the impressive camera work.
But during the years leading up to World War II Lindbergh threw away all the goodwill he had built up in his life as he toured America giving Nazi-like speeches, extolling the superiority of the "Nordic" (Aryan) white race and the need for better 'breeding' of humans (eugenics) and making excuses for Hitler's broken promises and early conquests in Europe.
Sticking with the truth, that is, the whole truth, they could have made a great movie portraying a man of wonderful daring and accomplishment yet with profound moral flaws, a public hero with a streak of sinister, racist, totalitarian evil.Good-hearted, homespun, unambiguously good-guy James Stewart is exactly the wrong actor to portray Charles Lindbergh..
Boosted by a considerably strong lead performance from James Stewart {himself a pilot} as Lindberg, and containing an intelligent screenplay from Wilder and Wendell Mayes, Spirit Of St. Louis is a sincerely well told story.In what at times threatens to become a monotonous film, Wilder keeps it ticking over by using flashbacks to Lindbergh's life.
Can you imagine what John Ford might have made of the Lindbergh story?James Stewart had a life long love affair with aviation and I've always thought he approached the films he did on that subject with too much reverence.
His best film on aviation was The Flight of the Phoenix which is a wildly improbable tale, made plausible by the fine collection of players, led of course by Stewart.The Spirit of St. Louis is hampered by a reverential approach by the star and a director on unfamiliar ground..
Once you know he got to his goal, you don't care about these "apparent" threats.It is also static for nearly twenty minutes of the film - representing the three day flight by having Jimmy Stewart as Lindbergh making comments to himself while flying or looking out of the window.
For the sake of Billy Wilder, James Stewart, and even Charles Lindbergh, this film gets a "5" for being a nice try..
Coming across this on a tour through the works of Billy Wilder, I was prepared to be underwhelmed- possibly self-serving autobiography, possibly boring Jimmy Stewart, but I came out quite impressed.Most surprising of all was the way that Wilder kept things moving- from the framework of the flight of the Spirit of St. Louis we cut away to various bits of back story.
An actual pilot and a retired Air Force Reserve General at the end of his life, Stewart had the feel for the character and understanding of his passion, which other actors could not bring to the role.
Added to the cast was co-star Murray Hamilton, who was also to be featured in "The F.B.I. story with Stewart) and such other well known character actors as Richard Deacon, of the later "Dick Van Dike Show" and Robert Cornthwaite of "The Thing from Another World" the 1951 Sci-Fi classic.Billy Wilder captures the flavor of the Lindburg Autobiography and the telling of what was to become a major event in the history of aviation.
A box office failure at the time of it's release, it has since become one of the great classics of American Film and another in a long line of outstanding performances by an actor that has been called America's Everyman.
There isn't really a whole lot of background built into this story but that's OK because Wilder makes the event really remarkable as it comes directly from Lindbergh's perspective since he used his book as the basis of the movie.
Billy Wilder continues his strong run of films during the 1950s with a biopic of Charles Lindbergh, the young American pilot who became the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1927.
Jimmy Stewart plays Lindbergh, and while he might be a bit too old for the part, he still brings the sincere warmth and confidence needed as well as his trademark down-to-earth goodness that makes him an iconic film star.
LOUIS is a tour de force for JAMES STEWART, although I can't say it wouldn't have been a better film with a director other than Billy Wilder.
Wisely, the fragmented flashbacks make it possible to expand the viewing experience and give background information on events leading up to the famous solo flight which ended in Paris.The name Lindbergh is also associated with one of the most famous kidnappings in American history--his baby son taken directly from his bedroom and found murdered before ransom could be paid, an event which had newspaper headlines all over the world buzzing about the event and led to "the trial of the Century" when Bruno Hauptman was found guilty.
Released in 1957 - "The Spirit of St. Louis" was a fairly entertaining bio-picture that closely covered the events that surrounded aviator, Charles Lindbergh's historical, trans-Atlantic flight (from New York to Paris) back in 1927.As I understand it - (director) Billy Wilder made a deliberate point of creating a film of simple, straightforward realism that stuck to the facts about Lindbergh and his world-celebrated flight.Here Lindbergh was presented as being a very real person who was repeatedly faced with many daunting challenges and doubts about his overall ability as a flyer.It was actor, James Stewart who played the Lindbergh character.And, even though Stewart was 50 years old at the time (playing a man half his age) - His sincere and believable portrayal was enough for me, as a viewer, to be quite satisfied watching him go through his paces in this dramatic production..
Yes, James Stewart is too old to play the iconic Lindbergh; Billy Wilder directs.
Directed by the great Billy Wilder (surprisingly), and based on the book by Charles Lindbergh which was adapted by Charles Lederer (the director wrote the screenplay with Wendell Mayes), this slightly above average if overlong biographical drama tells the story of the man who would one day become the first to fly non-stop from New York to Paris in 1927.
This historic first transatlantic flight helped to create the airline industry.James Stewart (again, surprisingly; he was nearly 40, but portraying a man 25 years old) plays this man, Charles Augustus 'Slim' Lindbergh, whose plane (designed and built by Ryan Aircraft in San Diego, California) was dubbed "The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)", for the businessmen from that city that helped to fund the effort.
The story tells about Lindbergh's early life as a brave mail carrying pilot in the early days of aviation (though there's no real drama about whether he survived in the fog).But much of the film's 'action' involves the history making flight itself, with actor Stewart's voice providing narration for his character's thoughts, while he tries to stay awake during the 30+ hour journey.This movie received an Academy Award nomination for its Special Effects, representing the only Oscar nomination for Louis Lichtenfield.
I felt, however, that this casting rather detracted from the film because the screenplay stresses Lindbergh's youth and comparative inexperience and paints his flight as a daring, almost reckless, adventure.There is some attempt to create a sense of tension- Lindbergh battles to stay awake and has one nasty moment when ice starts forming on his wings- but this is ultimately unsuccessful because even today most people know- and in 1957, only thirty years after the event, everyone would have known- that Lindbergh's venture ended in success.
Biopic of Charles Lindbergh, directed by Billy Wilder and starring James Stewart as the famed aviator.
We also see, though flashbacks, his earlier life - how he learnt to fly and his first few jobs in aviation.Despite being directed by master-director Billy Wilder and starring the great James Stewart, I did not have high hopes for this movie.
Billy Wilder's biopic "The Spirit of St. Louis" (1957) about the historic transatlantic flight by Charles Lindbergh from New York to Paris in 1927 is not among the director's most well-known or highly evaluated films.
To this I would reply that it might be boring if it was any man, but not if it is James Stewart who plays Lindbergh in the film.
It is of paramount importance that the film doesn't show Lindbergh as an older man, retelling his legendary experience; instead a sense of time is created by a flashback structure, but the present doesn't exceed the main event itself, and thus the viewer is held in suspense in the diegetic world despite knowing the facts of history in the other world.
This film recreates Lindbergh's historic flight across the Atlantic while touching on episodes in his aviation career through flashbacks.
"The Spirit of St. Louis" is an entertaining gripping film of Charles Lindbergh and the first transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in May 1927.
The film directed by the talented Billy Wilder is quite good, from impressive aerial cinematography to James Stewart in one of his best acting performances.
The way this film is shot, along with Jimmy Stewart's natural reactions and incredible performance as he narrates Lindbergh's thoughts, makes this journey a flight not to be missed!.
Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing."The Spirit of St. Louis" is a James Stewart one-man show.
Stewart, who was nominated for five best actor Oscars -- his one win was for "The Philadelphia Story" (1940) -- I would say his role of pilot hero Charles Lindbergh turns in perhaps his most impressive feat.
But I think in retrospect (fifty years later), it played out well, as James Stewart is iconic and brings something to the film other actors (such as Anthony Perkins) probably would not for modern audiences.And the real beauty is that today people know that Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic (if they know him at all), but they know little else about the man or the journey.
"The Spirit of St. Louis" is Billy Wilder's film tribute to one of the best figures in aeronautical history, remembered for the first nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in May 1927 with James Stewart (a little too old for the part) playing Charles Lindbergh...As a tribute it is eloquent enough and, although a few nice liberties may have been taken with historical fact, the motion picture describing the detailed odyssey before and after the Paris flight on May 20-21 in the monoplane "Spirit of St. Louis."Although the lengthy internal monologue employed during the journey may be disappointing to an audience, the truth is that it helps keep the picture focused tightly on its essential point...
But it is James Stewart's performance (controlled to the last detail) that gives life and strong, heroic stature to the principal figure in the film...From it there, emerges an awareness of a clever, firm but truly humble man who tackles a task with resolution, plans as much about it as he can, makes his decisions with courageous finality and then awaits with only one thought in mind, to get to Paris...
Still, he managed to stay conscious enough to keep the monoplane from crashing and landed at Le Bourget Aerodrome, near Paris, 33 hours and 30 minutes after leaving New York...Stewart gives an able portrait of a brave pilot who attains legendary status, emphasizing the intention and dominant resolution to fly nonstop 5,810 kilometers (3,610 miles) across the Atlantic...Photographed in CinemaScope and WarnerColor and backed by Franz Waxman's beautiful music, the film effectively captures the pioneering spirit of the era and the hero's ultimate achievement since he takes off, that day, from Roosevelt wet field, and clears telephone wires at the end of the runway....
It is so good you can actually believe he is Lindbergh for over 2 Hours.A very fitting Birthday film indeed for Stewart, his candles are all lit on the cake for this movie..
This is the biographical story of Charles Augustus 'Slim' Lindbergh (James Stewart), who in 1927 wanted to be the first man to cross travel solo flight from New York, crossing the Atlantic ocean, to reach Paris, in a small cockpit.
There are better ways to learn about Charles Lindbergh than this dull, factually questionable biopic, and better films to see by both Stewart or director Billy Wilder..
Biographical tale of the life of Charles Lindbergh, the first man to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic in 1927, aboard his plane the Spirit of St Louis.While not amongst Director Billy Wilder's best films it does boast some very impressive production values especially for a film made 50 years ago.
It has the stalwart and handsome young hero -- well, not so young anymore on screen; superb, if unlikely, direction by Billy Wilder; a stirring fully orchestrated musical score of uplifting scales and, when required, heavenly strings by Franz Waxman; strong supporting players; a gripping story; stunning photography by Hitchcock favorite Robert Burks; and a narrative about a singular historical event.The film begins with Jimmy Stewart as Charles Lindbergh trying to get some sleep in a Long Island hotel before his epic solo flight across the Atlantic, from New York to Paris.
Jimmy Stewart brings the story of Charles Lindbergh to life as he almost narrates the entire film while he crosses the Atlantic.