Other stars of the Memphis Belle

Beat

Doesnt show the beat up at Mildenhall – just shows the 5 B17’s arriving at Binbrook . The Narration by the extras was unremarkable but of course their conribution helped make the movie – it must have been an amazing deal to be involved in that movie – how many hours did you get on B17 ‘s

some pretty amazing shots and comments on the previous Filming MB thread

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=34240&highlight=MEMPHIS+BELLE

quite a lot on the local population who were recruited as extras, and their fairly unremarkable observations on the unremarkable roles they played.

Oi! I was one of those dull buggers! LOL! My *unremarkable role* was waist gunner on one of the French ‘birds. Never saw the making of the movie, er, movie tho, I left the UK in ’91.
Does it show the beat up at Mildenhall with all 5 B17’s? There may be footage, the camera ship was also there, that was the same day one of em lost the cylinder & engine cowl I believe…

vid

I have a copy and I agree with Propstrike that the extras narrating on the video is unremarkable and ? needed to be included . It has an amateurish feel to it but there are some good shots of the 17’s flying over some pretty local scenery doing circuits which I presume was for the Opening Control Tower scene .No Air to Air but it does show a 17 Firing 50 CAL blanks from the Left Waist whilst makin a low pass …cool !!

Shows the arrival of 5 17’s from Duxford – Sally B included trailing intermitent smoke -that also is a good scene . I will be getting the remastered original Wyler Doc on DVD – Already seen that and it is very cool .

Thanks for the info. Its good to get peoples views on it as I havent seen the video

If you want ‘behind the scenes’ get hold of the ‘After the Battle’ magazine on the making of the later film. Excellent insight, stills, making-of shots and analysis.

http://www.afterthebattle.com/ab-con1.html

“ISSUE No. 69 (Code A069)
OPERATION ‘SEALION’ – THE INVASION THAT NEVER WAS – Dr Peter Schenk tells the story of the planning and preparations for the invasion of Britain. Veterans Return – Typhoon Memorial at Noyers-Bocage – The memorial unveiled in June 1990 to the 150 Typhoon pilots lost from the 20 Squadron’s in the battle for Normandy described by one of the pilots, Denis Sweeting. It Happened Here – Cricket the American Way – The wartime use of Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia described by David Green. Preservation – Return to Mementos of the Mighty – Larry S. Tabor’s collection of military memorabilia from notable wartime servicemen. War Film – The Remaking of Memphis Belle – Roger Freeman ferrets out the remaking of the classic wartime film featuring the Eighth Air Force in Britain.”

The Memphis Belle new 60th DVD release !

There is a new historical release of the 1943 William Wyler documentary, the original film has been digitally restored and all the unused outtakes from the documentary have been included in the new 2 Disc version. Plus all the footage from the Memphis Belle bond tour after Capt Morgan and his crew came home and did a nation wide tour. It runs about four hours , found my copy on amazon. Here is a link from Col Rober k Morgan’s website !

http://www.memphis-belle.com/memorabilia_video.htm

Thanks !
BlueNoser352!

There was also the professionally made programme at the time called “Belle and the Glory Boys” which was the official behind the scenes promotion. It was pretty good, but mainly concentrated on the main actors. However they were very clever in pairing up the actoes with the real crewmen they were supposedly playing from the real Memphis Belle. I was unfortunate in missing about the first half as it was on one Saturday afternnon and I hadn’t seen it advertised, but I taped the end. It too has footage of the Binbrook crash. I was bitterly disappointed that this programme was not included as an extra on the DVD I bought. It was made by the same company so I can’t see why not.

I have a copy, and it is OK , but I think really was a wasted opportunity. The producer looked at all his footage (he told me) and decided that the real story was concentrating on the human interest (it wasn’t) , so there is quite a lot on the local population who were recruited as extras, and their fairly unremarkable observations on the unremarkable roles they played.

The editing of the production begins to test the patience of even the most avid B.17 fan with, for instance a head-on shot of a ‘Fort’ taxiing the length of a huge runway, which takes about 20 mins (slight exageration)

The most ‘sensational’ sequence is the French Fortress which departed the runway, crashed, and burnt out, but this is caught at very long distance, and shows not much, even when enlarged to a highly pixilated view.

The whole feel of the production is amateurish, and unsatisfactory, but if you are really into the movie, there is some interesting content here, if you have the patience to wait for it.

This Video was produced by:

“The Video Man” for AAA-V Productions, Thorpe Lane, Talby, Lincolnshire – I bought it from AVI back then.

Of course it is not top-ranking stuff, but IMHO it gives a good insight on certain behind-the-scenes activities for the movie.

HTH
Martin

Slybird, there was indeed a video released about the making of the film Memphis Belle, I purchased this at the time of its original release.

Its a very poorly produced film, and I personally would not bother trying to obtain a copy of it. Hopefully in the future a special edition DVD of the film will be released that features some behind the scenes action.

Septic.

How about this dvd from Amazon ?

Will check my copy tonight for details.

Martin