- Actors: James Stewart, Mel Blanc, Murray Hamilton, Patricia Smith, Bartlett Robinson
- Directors: Billy Wilder, Richard L. Bare, Robert McKimson
- Writers: Billy Wilder, Richard L. Bare, Charles A. Lindbergh, Charles Lederer, George O'Hanlon
- Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Colour, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
- Language English
- Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 2.40:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: Warner Home Video
- DVD Release Date: 15 Aug 2006
- Run Time: 135 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B000FTCLR6
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 50,710 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Every year there's one can't-miss much-anticipated red-hot big-budget title with the right combination of star, director and subject matter that fails miserably at the box-office. This year it was Superman Returns. In 1982 it was Blade Runner. In 1957 it was Billy Wilder's The Spirit of St Louis, a film that had everything - top director, huge star, best-selling true story about an American hero - except enough of an audience to cover its costs. Maybe the public still remembered Lucky Lindy's anti-Semitism and his loud admiration for Nazi Germany's achievements before the war (neither covered in the film, which ends with his arrival in Paris before the legend got too tarnished). Maybe because they thought they knew the story or that it was just going to be one guy stuck in a cockpit for two hours. Certainly Wilder and co-writer Wendell Mayes are aware of the dramatic pitfalls of Lindbergh's relatively uneventful flight, alternating between a well-executed flashback structure to key points in his life and the build-up to the flight itself. Once the film is airborne, it's both surprising and suspenseful, finding genuine drama in his attempts to stay awake and to navigate without proper instruments.
It also builds up a quite remarkable sense of dread that's unlike anything else in Wilder's filmography, allied to a real sense of the epic: shots like the ominous storm clouds over the hanger the dark dawn before the flight carry a real chill of foreboding to them. Even the typically muted and problematic WarnerColor adds to the film rather than detracts from it. Along with the superb use of CinemaScope, there's a remarkable score from Franz Waxman: majestic, soaring but filled with understated menace, and cleverly used as part of the fabric of the film rather than mere musical accompaniment. The film does lose points for implying, though never actually saying outright, that this was a race to be the first to fly the Atlantic - in fact, Lindbergh was the third man to fly across the Atlantic after almost completely forgotten Brits Alcock and Brown's astonishing flight eight years earlier - but it's still a remarkably tense and engrossing adventure story that deserved the success it never found.
Warner's new restoration is light on film-related extras - only footage of the star-studded premiere and the original trailer, alongside a likeable Joe McDoakes short and a Speedy Gonzalez cartoon (Tex Avery's Little Johnny Jet, included on another James Stewart title, would have been a more appropriate choice of toon) - but the 2.55:1 widescreen transfer is quite excellent.
It also builds up a quite remarkable sense of dread that's unlike anything else in Wilder's filmography, allied to a real sense of the epic: shots like the ominous storm clouds over the hanger the dark dawn before the flight carry a real chill of foreboding to them. Even the typically muted and problematic WarnerColor adds to the film rather than detracts from it. Along with the superb use of CinemaScope, there's a remarkable score from Franz Waxman: majestic, soaring but filled with understated menace, and cleverly used as part of the fabric of the film rather than mere musical accompaniment. The film does lose points for implying, though never actually saying outright, that this was a race to be the first to fly the Atlantic - in fact, Lindbergh was the third man to fly across the Atlantic after almost completely forgotten Brits Alcock and Brown's astonishing flight eight years earlier - but it's still a remarkably tense and engrossing adventure story that deserved the success it never found.
Warner's new restoration is light on film-related extras - only footage of the star-studded premiere and the original trailer, alongside a likeable Joe McDoakes short and a Speedy Gonzalez cartoon (Tex Avery's Little Johnny Jet, included on another James Stewart title, would have been a more appropriate choice of toon) - but the 2.55:1 widescreen transfer is quite excellent.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
For Billy Wilder's 1957 film THE SPIRIT OF ST.LOUIS, Jimmy Stewart was widely considered to be too old to play aviator Charles Lindbergh, but he looks younger in this than he did in the western NIGHT PASSAGE, released in the same year, and the movie remains a big favourite of mine amongst his (very varied) output. It was a big departure for Billy Wilder too, bridging the gap between the dark humours of THE BIG CARNIVAL aka ACE IN THE HOLE and STALAG 17, and the later comedies that began with SOME LIKE IT HOT. It contains few of his trademarks and is perhaps a shade overlong, but nonetheless is an engrossing experience.
And SPIRIT is yet another film in which music plays a significant part and, in this case, it practically becomes another character in the story, especially in the long flying sequences devoid of dialogue. One particularly moving scene deserves a brief mention here and it occurs when Lindbergh is preparing for his flight. A huge crowd has gathered, and when he calls for assistance in the shape of a mirror, a woman emerges from the throng and offers her make-up mirror. She tells him that not only has she been waiting out on Roosevelt field all night to see him off, but that she has also travelled all the way from Philadelphia for the privelege. When Lindbergh asks her why she should have come all that way, she replies "I had to! You needed the mirror!" Later, as part of a montage sequence, we see her travelling home by train, and as she looks in the bag for the mirror, she remembers who she has given it to, and her face turns slowly up to the sky. The point is highlighted and turned into a pivot by Franz Waxman's wonderful score. Such moments are quintessentially cinema, and all the rarer for that.
The colour photography is great - Hitch's favourite cameraman Robert Burks, who had recently won an Academy Award for TO CATCH A THIEF, shares credit with J.Peverall Marley. The screenplay is co-written by Wilder and the talented Wendell Mayes. A final mention too for the score, the opening bars of the main-title being strongly reminiscent of Waxman's own OBJECTIVE,BURMA! As Lindy approaches Ireland, a high-spirited Irish jig accompanies this sequence, before a beautiful segue (continuous in the movie) into a very "English" sound for the Devon coastline and Plymouth.
This review is for the Warner Home Video release, which is presented in the original cinema ratio and, best of all, in 5.1 Dolby Stereo, a unique experience for anyone with an ear for that unforgettable music.
And SPIRIT is yet another film in which music plays a significant part and, in this case, it practically becomes another character in the story, especially in the long flying sequences devoid of dialogue. One particularly moving scene deserves a brief mention here and it occurs when Lindbergh is preparing for his flight. A huge crowd has gathered, and when he calls for assistance in the shape of a mirror, a woman emerges from the throng and offers her make-up mirror. She tells him that not only has she been waiting out on Roosevelt field all night to see him off, but that she has also travelled all the way from Philadelphia for the privelege. When Lindbergh asks her why she should have come all that way, she replies "I had to! You needed the mirror!" Later, as part of a montage sequence, we see her travelling home by train, and as she looks in the bag for the mirror, she remembers who she has given it to, and her face turns slowly up to the sky. The point is highlighted and turned into a pivot by Franz Waxman's wonderful score. Such moments are quintessentially cinema, and all the rarer for that.
The colour photography is great - Hitch's favourite cameraman Robert Burks, who had recently won an Academy Award for TO CATCH A THIEF, shares credit with J.Peverall Marley. The screenplay is co-written by Wilder and the talented Wendell Mayes. A final mention too for the score, the opening bars of the main-title being strongly reminiscent of Waxman's own OBJECTIVE,BURMA! As Lindy approaches Ireland, a high-spirited Irish jig accompanies this sequence, before a beautiful segue (continuous in the movie) into a very "English" sound for the Devon coastline and Plymouth.
This review is for the Warner Home Video release, which is presented in the original cinema ratio and, best of all, in 5.1 Dolby Stereo, a unique experience for anyone with an ear for that unforgettable music.
Format:DVD
This movie is a must for all children to view. Its history potrayed as it happened by one of the worlds best actors.( James Stewart) James Stewart himself being a famous second world war aviator.
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Lucky Charlie, Flying Eagle or The Flying Fool?
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great film, james stewart at his best,great transfer to dvd shame it is not released in region 2 yet, seems all the great old epics are not in region 2 yet. Read more
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