It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

The sea shall not have them

Anybody remember this one?

It involved a Hudson ditching and the crew getting rescued by an Air Sea Rescue launch directly under the Jerry shore batteries.

It was a long time ago and I cant quite remember if it was a genuine machine or a mock-up. However, it looked pretty authentic to me as it slipped beneath the waves.

A friend of my fathers was a diver on the film but he ain’t around to ask now….

HP

I think you might be right there actually Daz. It was a hashed about something-or-rather now that I think about it. I think it was mentioned in a Flypast article about the film several years ago.

What was the result of the aircraft in the hangar that was blown up for Tora, Tora, Tora? They ‘flew’ a Zero replica into the genuine hangar and blew the lot up. Wasn’t there a Privateer or something similar inside?

Other movie abuses – former RNZAF WWII veteran C47 Dakota NZ3518 being sunk into a lake for the film “Race For The Yankee Zephyr”. Once the film was complete they then beached it and broke up the airframe. What a waste!

I recall an ex-RNZAF Hudson had a similar role in a 1970’s NZ television series (I think it was called The Sea Urchins and was Kiwi actress Rebecca Gibney’s first role). The hulk of the Hudson was submerged in the sea. I think that this was the one that later went to the RNZAF Museum for a second airframe to help restore NZ2013. So it had a happier ending.

Something tells me there was a b*stardised B-25 that was blown up in that hangar crash sequence. I say this because the Mitch was modified to have a single fin, for some inexplicable reason!

I’ll have to look out the article that was sent to me – it’s in there.

There were a couple of Catalina’s dragged out of a boneyard and ‘dressed up’ for the movie – these are seen biting the dust in one sequence.

It was funny-ish but not that good(unless you’re American,they are the only people who laugh at American comedy.) Sorry if I offended anyone there but I find American humour either childish, boring or both.

Of course you can’t compare Mark Twain, the Marx Brothers or MASH with that paragon of “sophisticated” English humour of Benny Hill. :dev2:

What was the result of the aircraft in the hangar that was blown up for Tora, Tora, Tora? They ‘flew’ a Zero replica into the genuine hangar and blew the lot up. Wasn’t there a Privateer or something similar inside?

Other movie abuses – former RNZAF WWII veteran C47 Dakota NZ3518 being sunk into a lake for the film “Race For The Yankee Zephyr”. Once the film was complete they then beached it and broke up the airframe. What a waste!

I recall an ex-RNZAF Hudson had a similar role in a 1970’s NZ television series (I think it was called The Sea Urchins and was Kiwi actress Rebecca Gibney’s first role). The hulk of the Hudson was submerged in the sea. I think that this was the one that later went to the RNZAF Museum for a second airframe to help restore NZ2013. So it had a happier ending.

I understood that the Beech lost an engine (it stopped, it didn’t fall off..) too when it flew through the billboard.

I thought it was a hoot of a film! Wheres your sense of humour?!

Wasn’t the aerobatic monoplane in WP (the one that crashed and got ‘torched’ by a smoking ghoul) a heavily disguised Chipmunk??

HP

It was funny-ish but not that good(unless you’re American,they are the only people who laugh at American comedy.) Sorry if I offended anyone there but I find American humour either childish, boring or both.

Wasn’t the aerobatic monoplane in WP (the one that crashed and got ‘torched’ by a smoking ghoul) a heavily disguised Chipmunk??

HP

Yep – the “Styles Skystreak”. I did a thread on it a while back, too.

Beech Restorations are proud to announce that this aerial act of daring do will hopefully not be recreated in G-BKRN in 2005….:D

Planes on film

I understood that the Beech lost an engine (it stopped, it didn’t fall off..) too when it flew through the billboard.

I thought it was a hoot of a film! Wheres your sense of humour?!

Wasn’t the aerobatic monoplane in WP (the one that crashed and got ‘torched’ by a smoking ghoul) a heavily disguised Chipmunk??

HP

What about that Howard Hughes film Hells Angels? That and other films about flying in WWI from that period used the genuine aircraft, almost literally being flown to bits.

Flood

Mad Beech 18

Frank Tallman who did the actual stunt,used two Beeches for the filming. One was a nice executive Beech he did the flying work in, the other, a stripped out older model, was used to fly through the Coke billboard. The Coke sign was made out of balsa wood (some say styrofoam) still they said it hit hard enough to deform the leading edges of the wings and break the windows.
In his book “Broken Wings Hollywoo’d Air Crashes” author James H. Farmer reports he saw the abandoned airframe at Ontario Airport for years before it was finally scrapped.

In addition to using a Tiger Moth as a stand in for a Jenny in “Waldo Pepper”, (They use a real Jenny for the take-off scene where it looses its wheels) but a Tiger Moth for the lake landing sequence, they did it again, wrecking a Tiger Moth, again subbing for a Jenny, in the little known Cliff Robertson film “Ace Eli and Roger of the Skies”. Tallman hits a building with it. Remember, back then Tiger moths were cheap….and still are, compared to the cost of a real Jenny.

I believe they did the crash scenes in 633 by simply retracting the undercarriage on a fast taxi run. sounds dangerous for the pilots-they wrote off about 3 mossies doing that! am i right?

BofB destroying a duxford hanger. but i guess the moviemakers believed it was due for demolition anyway, as were alll the hangers at the time

Jay

Con-Air – that C-123 Provider takes quite some battering – but what a way to arrive in Vegas…….

Martin

Sounds like 1941!!

Wasn’t the movie ‘633 Squadron’ and it’s way of using its mosquito’s such an example. I thought some mossies didn’t survive the movie. 🙁

J.V.

No, not the forum – the film!!

From the brief bit I saw of it, I’m sure I saw a poor old Beech C45 first being barrel-rolled, and then flown through a billboard! 😮 (I kid you not!) Thankfully, the old bird made it out in one piece!

What other aircraft have suffered ignominously at the hands of film-makers?

Yes you did see a poor old Beech 18/C45 being abused. The only good thing in a mediocre film as I recall

Certainly the one that crashed into the pond near the beginning was a Tiger Moth (which I only noticed after a recent viewing!)

Maybe those in The Great Waldo Pepper? Been a long time since I saw it, though – Nermal