The War Lover
The War Lover is a 1962 British war film directed by Philip Leacock and written by Howard Koch, loosely based on the 1959 novel by John Hersey, altering the names of characters and events but retaining its basic framework. It stars Steve McQueen, Robert Wagner and Shirley Anne Field.
The War Lover
The War Lover
1959 novel
by John Hersey
Robert Huke
Gordon Hales
Black and white
106 minutes
United Kingdom
English
$1.2 million (US/Canada)[3]
The war itself is not the most important element of the film. Instead, it focuses on the character of Captain Buzz Rickson and his determination to serve himself and get what he wants – in the process antagonising everyone.
Production[edit]
The War Lover was filmed in Britain at RAF Bovingdon in Hertfordshire, RAF Manston in Kent, around Cambridgeshire (including in the grounds of King's College, Cambridge), and at Shepperton Studios in Surrey.[7]
Shirley Ann Field says she turned down the lead in A Kind of Loving to make the movie. "I chose the option to go to Hollywood, who wouldn't?... Although I have to say I don't think director Philip Leacock was strong enough... I just think it could have been better."[8] Field's casting was announced in July 1961.[9]
Three Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers formed the main aerial component in the film, and were composed of one B-17G and two postwar PB-1W Coast Guard rescue aircraft located in the United States. After extensive modifications, the three warbirds flew the arduous transatlantic crossing to Britain.[10] Martin Caidin, who would later write the novels on which the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man and the film Marooned were based, was one of the pilots who flew the B-17s for the film. Caidin chronicled the adventures of the crossing in the book Everything But The Flak.
The War Lover was shot in 1961 and released in the United States on 25 October 1962.[11] The film opened in London in June 1963.[12] Some short but rare footage of actual air combat is included – especially the attacking Messerschmitt Bf 109G armed with 20 mm cannon firing at the B-17s. The film also makes use of the crash landing footage from the 1949 film Twelve O'Clock High.
Mike Reilly, a stuntman doubling for Robert Wagner, was killed during the production of The War Lover when he fell to his death in a parachuting accident.[13]
In 2003, Sony Pictures colourised the film, but the colour version has yet to be released on home video.
Reception[edit]
The War Lover was unfavourably compared to other wartime aviation epics like Twelve O'Clock High (1949). Bosley Crowther of The New York Times focused on the lack of interesting characters in the film. "But the fellows who sit in the cockpit of the one plane on which the actions center are a dull pair and are rendered even duller by poor acting and weak direction. Steve McQueen is the emotionally-mixed-up pilot who tries to steal his co-pilot's girl. Robert Wagner is the co-pilot and Shirley Anne Fields is the girl. Altogether they make what at best is an average drama of love and jealousy into a small and tepid expose of one man's absurd cantankerousness."[14]
In a similar vein, the review of The War Lover in Variety noted, "...the central character emerges more of an unappealing symbol than a sympathetic flesh-and-blood portrait.... The scenario seems reluctant to come to grips with the issue of this character's unique personality – a 'war lover' whose exaggerated shell of heroic masculinity covers up a psychopathic inability to love or enjoy normal relationships with women."[15]