Die den Hals riskieren

Actor & director combo Burt Lancaster and John Frankenheimer team for this appealing film that explores the lives of three sky divers, played by Lancaster, Gene Hackman, and Scott Wilson. They come to a small Midwest town named Bridgeville where they stun the locals with their aerial feats. Meanwhile, they affect the lives of some of the local woman. Mike Rettig (Lancaster) finds himself falling for Elizabeth Brandon (Deborah Kerr), who happens to be the aunt of Malcolm Webson (Wilson).

Fundamentally, this is a good story (scripted by William Hanley, based on the novel by James Drought) well told, and it's punctuated by absolutely dazzling sky diving footage. Some viewers may wish there was more of this type of thing in the movie and less romance. The film flirts with melodrama (such as a back story involving Elizabeth) but Frankenheimer and the actors help keep it on an even keel.

It's the cast that makes this worth watching. The majority of the performances are agreeably subtle, with the exception of Hackman, who's playing the extrovert of the group anyway. Lancaster and Kerr have a very alluring sex scene; both actors look incredibly good. Hackman strikes up a relationship with a hottie waitress (Sheree North) while Wilson is attracted to the college student (Bonnie Bedelia) who's boarding with the Brandons. North absolutely sears the screen. William Windom is good as Kerrs' husband whose aloof nature is a factor in her being turned on by Lancaster.

Frankenheimer gets great use out of the real Midwestern locations (this was filmed in various parts of Kansas); the movie is definitely a real slice of Americana. Overall it's endearing enough and exciting enough to make it an okay view; it's ultimately rather predictable, but it remains watchable throughout.

Seven out of 10.

Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman, and Scott Wilson portray a team of professional sport parachutists barnstorming their way through small-town America.

The movie features some fine performances, particularly Lancaster's. I enjoyed the way the small town was depicted; it felt curiously familiar and yet distant at the same time. The movie holds its own, even 30 years after its initial release.

The jumping sequences are fantastic...truly the finest jump sequences ever captured on film at that time (1969). Pay particular attention to the 'cape' jumps, particularly the last one (Scott Wilson's) which gets me bug-eyed every time I see it (yes, I'm a jumper too).

Longish and slow-moving at times but well worth it.

Although this film wasn't a career high for either of these great performers it did demonstrate that there was majic between them. If you check Kerr's biography, this film isn't list on her film chronology. In fact, it is hardly mention on any other site other than IMDb's. I think it was because she appeared nude. She was 48 when this film was released. I think she is one of the greatest beauties that ever graced the screen.

Being an aviation enthusiast, but not a jumper - I was drawn to this movie. Burt Lancaster plays "Mike Rettig" in the sort of role he is best at, plenty of action, with an eye for a pretty face. The pretty face in this case being Deborah Kerr. Miss Kerr was approaching 50 years of age when this movie was made, but was able to been seen close-up and naked with Burt Lancaster in what what must be one of the few (if the only) scenes where Miss Kerr reveals all. A far cry from the many Nuns she has played in her career. Compare her in this with "Heaven knows, Mr Allison" with Robert Mitchum. Gene Hackman provides good support as the reckless carefree "Joe Browdy", seeking out the local haunts for loose women. William Windom brilliantly plays Kerr's isolated and betrayed husband. A good film that happily TCM repeats regularly - thank goodness!

As a very young boy in El Dorado, Kansas, I marveled when the film crews came to town from Hollywood to shoot this film, what is considered John Frankenheimer's `lost classic.' The story is sub-par: three barnstormers stop at a small Kansas town to put on a show and get involved in a less-than-intriguing soap opera with the occupants of a house where they are staying. What makes the movie work for me is the reoccurrence of so many memorable images from the town where I grew up, but for outsiders, the essence of small-town Kansas life is captured so purely you'll be transported to the peacefulness of a world where the arrival of daredevil skydivers is a Big Event.

Most interesting to note in this film are the back-stories. Scott Wilson was called in to replace an injured John Philip Law, who was originally cast as the young daredevil. Gene Hackman was still a fledgling, relatively unknown, and yet he managed to steal most of the scenes from the established Burt Lancaster. For the locals, this film still lingers in the memory. The Victorian home where the barnstormers stay still stands, and the screened in porch on the house's north side--built exclusively for this film by the visiting film crew--is still referred to by locals as the `MGM porch.' The fight song that the marching band plays throughout this film is still the fight song of the Butler County Grizzlies, the athletic team of the local community college. And even today, old-timers wonder whether or not that was really Deborah Kerr in the buff … or if a body double was used. Either way, you'll get a real feel for this community, an interesting first look at up-and-comers Gene Hackman and Bonnie Bedalia, and a fascinating series of sky-diving sequences that set the tone for many such scenes to come.