The Spirit of St. Louis (1957)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Billy Wilder

Writers:

Charles A. Lindbergh (book)
Billy Wilder (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

20 April 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | History

Tagline:

The Story Behind the Story of Lindbergh's Incredible Flight to Paris!

Plot:

Charles 'Slim' Lindbergh struggles to finance and design an airplane that will make his New York to Paris flight the first solo transatlantic crossing.

Plot Keywords:

Transatlantic | New York | Aviation | Pilot | Ireland

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

James Stewart	...	Charles Augustus 'Slim' Lindbergh
Murray Hamilton	...	Bud Gurney
Patricia Smith	...	Mirror Girl
Bartlett Robinson	...	Benjamin Frank Mahoney, President Ryan Airlines Co.
Marc Connelly	...	Father Hussman
Arthur Space	...	Donald Hall, Chief Engineer Ryan Airlines
Charles Watts	...	O.W. Schultz, Salesman Atlas Suspender Co.

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording) | 4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:L | UK:U | Finland:S | West Germany:6 | USA:Approved (certificate #17794)

Filming Locations:

Guyancourt, Yvelines, France

Company:

Billy Wilder Productions

Trivia:

James Stewart was unusually difficult to work with throughout filming. Some wondered if he had realized how miscast he was in the movie.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: On his approach to St. John's, Newfoundland in the fog, Lindbergh is depicted as being concerned about colliding with a mountain peak. However, there is no even remotely mountainous terrain anywhere in the vicinity of St. John's.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Reporter: [checking his copy] Here at the Garden City Hotel, less than a mile from Roosevelt Field... less than three-quarters of a mile from Roosevelt Field... everyone is waiting, as they have been now for seven days and nights, waiting for the rain to stop...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Projectionist (1971)

Soundtrack:

Baby Face

One of Jimmy Stewart's finest roles. A true classic

Others have harped here about James Stewart's age when playing Lindburg (he was 47 Linburg was twenty five.) But Stewart does not look his age and the film, for him was a dream come true. 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. This story and film are a testament to the soul of determination and perseverance to realize a dream. 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. No student of film history should miss seeing this one. There have been over 500,000 films since the beginning of motion pictures, and this one belongs among the top 500.