Reviewed By: Mike HeenanYears before entertaining us all on the small screen as Hannibal Smith on the A-Team, George Peppard enjoyed a great career on the big screen with additions to his resume such as the Carpetbaggers, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and How the West was Won. In the Blue Max, his role took his career on a different turn from the perennial pretty boy to the tough guy we’ve all come to associate him with.
Peppard plays German pilot Bruno Stachel, born into the middle class and destined for the trenches until he is inspired to greatness in the air in World War 1. Most pilots were of a higher class and Peppard’s uncomfortableness with his upbringing is evident when questioned about his father’s background. He emphasizes that his father ran a hotel with five rooms, but the rest of the pilots joke how he must have simply been a lowly janitor. Stachel is on a quest to receive the Blue Max, an award given to pilots with 20 confirmed enemy downings of their aircrafts. Several of Stachel’s early downings are questioned due to lack of witnesses and he arrogantly argues for the victory, even going so far as to go back to the scene of the crime for evidence. Surely enough his tally of downings begins to rise as does his ego and his fellow pilots begin to become wary of him and his attitude.
