John Guillermin

From John Guillermin, the outstanding director of The Blue Max, The Bridge at Remagen, Skyjacked, The Towering Inferno, King Kong and Death on the Nile, comes this thrilling mystery in the tradition of Harper and The Long Goodbye. Down-on-his-luck New York private eye P.J. Detweiler (George Peppard, Newman’s Law) takes a bodyguard job to protect Maureen Preble (Gayle Hunnicutt, Marlowe), the mistress of shady millionaire William Orbison (Raymond Burr, Rear Window). P.J. gets in over his head after Orbison’s business partner is gunned down and he’s framed for the murder.

The Blue Max is highly unusual among Hollywood films, not just for being a large-scale drama set during the generally overlooked World War I, but in concentrating on air combat as seen entirely from the German point of view. The story focuses on a lower-class officer, Bruno Stachel (George Peppard), and his obsessive quest to win a Blue Max, a medal awarded for shooting down 20 enemy aircraft. Around this are subplots concerning a propaganda campaign by James Mason's pragmatic general, rivalry with a fellow officer (Jeremy Kemp), and a love affair with a decadent countess (Ursula Andress).