Von Richthofen and Brown, alternatively titled The Red Baron, is a 1971 war film directed by Roger Corman and starring John Phillip Law and Don Stroud as Manfred von Richthofen and Roy Brown. Although names of real people are used and embedded in basic historic facts, the story by Joyce Hooper Corrington and John William Corrington makes no claim to be historically accurate, and in fact is largely fictional.
Plot
Manfred von Richthofen is newly assigned to a German air squadron under the command of Oswald Boelcke. Across the lines, Roy Brown arrives at a British squadron under the command of Lanoe Hawker. The two pilots are very different; Richthofen is a gentleman who respects tradition and believes in a gentlemanly approach to war, while Brown is a cynical, cocky, ruthless rebel without a cause who doesn't believe in honor.
Boelcke is killed after a mid-air collision with fellow pilot Erwin Böhme and Hawker is killed by Richthofen. Richthofen assumes command of the squadron and becomes outwardly energized by the war. Outraged by an order to camouflage his squadron's aircraft, he paints them in bright conspicuous colors, claiming that gentlemen should not hide from their enemies. Later, Richthofen meets Ilse, a beautiful German singer who takes Baron Von Richthofen's mind off airplanes. He dances with Ilse and even kisses her. Brown bullies his way to leadership and has his squadron hunt in packs with a plane as bait.
Richthofen suffers a skull wound during an aerial battle, and begins showing troubling signs of memory loss and confusion. After Brown and his squadron attack Richthofen's airfield, destroying their aircraft on the ground, Richthofen, with the help of a batch of new fighter aircraft from Anthony Fokker, launches a counterattack on the British airfield. Back at their aerodrome, Richthofen berates fellow pilot Hermann Göring for strafing medical personnel.
Richthofen's passion for the war fades, becoming dismayed and depressed that his squadron is losing so many pilots. He refuses a job offer from the government deciding to help fight alongside his men, knowing it will probably lead to his death in combat. Caught between his disgust for the war, and the responsibility for his fighter wing, Richthofen sets out to fly again. Brown becomes very uncooperative, developing a rather defeatist attitude.
In a final battle many members of the two squadrons kill each other; Richthofen and Brown engage in a showdown aerial duel, at the end of which Richthofen is killed by Brown. The Allied pilots congratulate Brown, while the German squadron mourns Richthofen's death. Richthofen is buried with full military honors by the Allies, and Göring assumes command of the squadron.
Cast
John Phillip Law as Manfred von Richthofen
Don Stroud as Roy Brown
Barry Primus as Hermann Göring
Corin Redgrave as Lanoe Hawker
Karen Huston as Ilse
Hurd Hatfield as Anthony Fokker
Stephen McHattie as Werner Voss
Brian Foley as Lothar von Richthofen
Robert La Tourneaux as Ernst Udet
Peter Masterson as Oswald Boelcke
David Weston as Murphy
Tom Adams as Owen
Seamus Forde as Kaiser Wilhelm II
Maureen Cusack as Richthofen's mother
Ferdy Mayne as Richthofen's father
Lorraine Rainer as French girl in the woods
Production
Development
Roger Corman had been interested in making a film about Manfred von Richthofen for a number of years. He felt that the Baron was the last true knight, an aristocratic warrior with a code of honor, and wanted to show how the Baron's way of thinking was archaic compared to the wholesale slaughter of World War I. Another thing he wanted to do was to contrast the Baron with the man who had been credited with shooting him down, Canadian RAF pilot Roy Brown, although it is now considered all but certain by historians, doctors, and ballistics experts that Richthofen was actually killed by an AA machine gunner firing from the ground.
In 1965 it was announced he had commissioned a script called The Red Baron from Robert Towne. He pitched the project to 20th Century Fox along with the St Valentine's Day Massacre; Fox decided to make the latter, as they already had The Blue Max.
Years later Corman signed a deal with United Artists who liked the idea of a film about the Red Baron but did not want the film to be too German, so Corman agreed to make it about Roy Brown and other characters from both areas of the battle front that could be added to the script.