Most of the WWI Biggles stories are short stories with simple tasks and simple endings. As far as I can remember, there are only two full length Biggles WWI stories, Biggles Flies East and Biggles: The Rescue Flight.
So which of these two would make the best WWI Biggles film? Or would it be better to write a new Biggles script from scratch using the short stories as references?
There is no doubt that Biggles Flies East has all the excitement of a spy thriller and the intrigue of a mystery, not to mention some great potential for flying scenes--just think about the fight with Leffens or the Very Light moment with the Camel. And of course, everyone loves Von Stalhein. Not to mention, some fantastic Biggles and Algy moments in it (which I have no doubt will be cut out of the film in order to make room for some romantic moment with some lady that Biggles clearly couldn't care less about...)
On the other hand, The Rescue Flight is set in wartime France (lots of lovely battle scenes there), has the excitement of secret rescue missions, and also some fantastic camaraderie between Biggles and Algy and Thirty and Rip. Also some nice moments between Biggles and Mahoney. Some interesting flying scenes as well, though, and hopefully no room for any female characters to barge in and make much of themselves.
Which story do you think would make a good WWI Biggles film? Or would you like to see a new story? And if so, what would the plot be? Comment below!
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'Flies East' every time for me - provided they did it right and didn't mess it up like you say, Soppy, by adding any silly, unnecessary 'romantic themes'.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand I would also enjoy an amalgamation of some of the WW1 stories.The film could begin with Biggles 'losing' his birth certificate and bunking out of school to join up underage, his struggles learning to fly,then going on to being taken under Mahoney's wing in France, joining 266, losing Batty, and Parker, and touching upon the increasingly frayed state of his nerves (as well as his brilliance as a pilot). Hope, and some much needed light relief would finally come with Algy joining up, highlighting the amazing comradeship and stong bond forged between friends through shared peril.
The time frame would have to be seriously messed with of course to make it all work - but then WEJ himself was good at that...!
And needless to say, Marie would be COMPLETELY written out - I could never watch any film which gave her a starring role. Yuk! The very thought!
Hmm... that's a hard one. Probably I'd agree with you JJ and say Flies East :)
ReplyDeleteWhat about Biggles Takes a Holiday? That has a great Algy/Bertie/Ginger-arguing-on-a-boat moment, but sadly Algy is neglected most of the way through! :( Flies East it is then
For a good tight plot with loads of excitement I think Flies East would be hard to beat - and it is my most favourite book.
ReplyDeleteBut an amalgamation of some of the WWI stories, starting with Biggles learning to fly, and then continuing as described by JJ would also be good - you'd just need the right selection of the best stories.
I wouldn't mind it ending with Biggles' love affair and him being shot down - I think that would make a good dramatic ending, especially as he is told that an armistice has been signed.
Dash it, just remembered that Learns to Fly is a full-length WWI book as well (although unfortunately containing Mark Way rather than Algy). I don't know why I didn't remember that when I was writing the post, just that in my mind it felt more like a collection of short stories rather than an actual book, if that makes any sense.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be interesting to map out Biggles' WWI career in a film, the whole losing his papers and going off to join up, the learning to fly, and so on, as JJ said. I don't think I would care to have Marie in, even at the very end bit (but then again, I'm biased about Marie, can't help it). Knowing film people, however, they would probably end up putting Marie front and center (horror of horrors, they might even pull a Mulan and make Algy a girl or something, in the same way that American series has made Watson a girl.....)
I'd better go and lie down in a dark room now....
I don't think it matters that learns to fly is a whole book. A good writer could take the best bits from all the WWI books and bring in Algy at an early stage. Nice though Mark Way is, I wouldn't want him being Biggles best friend all the way through.
ReplyDeleteAs for Marie, it's quite difficult to end it without bringing her in just at the end - and it would make for a dramatic finale to follow the last two chapters of 'The Camels Are Coming' faithfully.
DId some Amercians REALLY make Dr Watson a girl? Horror of horrors - only thing worse would be to make Algy a girl - deep shock even at the thought...
I think between us we could piece together a good Biggles script. Then all we'd need is a couple of million, some actors, and a director, and we could make a movie.
ReplyDeleteOh, yes. and we'd need to pay for the copyright thing.
Hmm. Not as easy as I thought.
Yes, the Americans made a series that they thought would be like BBC's Sherlock (It's not). The Watson is a girl. There's a thirty second trailer here that you can watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfRJYckHD5E
And then you can sit in a dark room and wonder what they were thinking...
Seriously, the world's going mad... Doctor JO Watson? Dear oh dear :(
ReplyDeleteThere's just one thing I must say to the film directors: LEAVE ALGY ALONE!!
[ME: rent me a dark room too Soppy]
I wonder what the film 'Biggles Sweeps the Skies' would have been like if they had really made it back in the 60s. It was supposed to be from WWI.
ReplyDeleteNever seen Biggles Sweeps the Skies...? Any idea where one could get that?
ReplyDeleteAA, I agree. If anyone makes my Algy a girl, I WILL do a Battle of Flowers...
Well, they never filmed it, so you can't see it anywhere. It's a pity though, from what I gathered they had everything ready to start shooting, except the planes. Who knows, it might have been a nice film. I wonder about the casting, too.
ReplyDeleteYou can hear about it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfhNHFg7PXo
Taking all things into consideration,and much as I'd like to see a really good Biggles film - I just don't think I'd trust ANY film makers with Algy and the boys. The stories are just too precious!
ReplyDeleteJust look at how some publishers have botched up the books themselves over the years :(
It's almost as if they WANT to ruin a good story.
They kept the biplane in a shed for all those years! A SHED. :((
ReplyDeleteQuite a sad story really. The plane that Biggles never really got to fly. I'd like to get my hands on that unfinished script and see what they meant to do with Biggles.
I don't know, JJ, on the one hand I do agree with you--no one can possibly make Biggles and Algy the way wej wrote the books. On the other hand, I'd love to be surprised...in a good way...if it was something done on a Lord of the Rings ish scale and style. Now that was a brilliant example of book to screen!
I might be going to upset a few people, but I don't think you can have any WW1 film based around the short stories and not include Marie. Her impact resonated throughout the entire series. For example, the reason Biggles was promoted to Major was due to his behaviour in the days post the incident involving her, which led to Major Mullen promoting Biggles over the other more experienced flight commanders, fearing he would be killed if he remained in France. It affected his attitude towarrds women, hence his professed lack of understanding of women, as referenced in Biggles & Co. Look at his attitude towards drinking. In the aftermath of the affair involving Marie, Biggles was dinking heavily. In Biggles in the Orient, he tells Scrimshaw (I think it was) that 666 squadron doesn't 'brood and booze' (I know this isn't the exact quote). There are other references to drinking, recklessness and getting shot down as a consequence in this and other stories. In the Biggles universe that occupies my mind, the circumstances surrounding the affair involving Marie are crucial to the eventual character that Biggles became. But that's the great thing about fiction. The Biggles universe I envisage is probably vastly different to the one imagined by many others who visits this blog, which is why it would be herculean task to make a movie that appealed to all. That said, I enjoy reading the plot ideas fans have been submitting.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree with you more. I rather think you and I may have some common ground in the Biggles universe we each envisage :)
ReplyDeleteWell put, Anonymous. I agree.
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand the hate that is usually expressed towards Marie here, it seems to me rather unfounded. If you wish to stay true to the original, as you profess you do, why delete Marie? She is important in her own way, as Anon said.
Speaking for myself, the reason I dislike Marie is not because she treated Biggles so shabbily, but because she was so wily and secretive about it (the word backstabber comes to mind). Erich may have hated Biggles, and tried his best to kill him, but at least he was upfront and honest about it. I know that there are plenty of people who would argue that Marie was just doing a job and that her heart got in the way and she made the best of a bad job under the circumstances, but I must confess that to me she just felt like someone who wanted her cake and wanted to eat it too, and I think it is that, more than anything else, that irks me.
ReplyDeleteI would agree that the original Marie (so to speak) left a profound impact on Biggles, but I don't know that the fictional Marie had as large an impact on Biggles and the series. True, she was partly the reason Biggles was promoted to Major just before the war ended, but I wonder if that had more to do with wej's desire for the ironic rather than an expression of Marie's impact? In any case, ending WWI as a major or starting WWII with a promotion from Raymond or somebody would have amounted to the same thing in the end (wouldn't it...?) As for Biggles' lack of interest in drink and women, I would argue that that had more to do with the genre of the books and the sort of moral "lesson", as it were, that wej wanted to pass to the younger generation. After all, Algy, Ginger, and Bertie have a similar (although to varying degrees) lack of interest in women and drink, and no one attributes that to anyone in their past.
I think as a symbol, Marie reminded wej of his own lost love (which makes it slightly odd that he chose to make her a spy who doublecrossed his main character, rather than someone on Biggles' side). The reason that I feel uneasy with letting Hollywood mess about with Marie in a film is because I think they would get the wrong idea and inevitably try to make the whole thing more about her than about Biggles.
Just my opinion...
The early books might be the Biggles stories many would consider most suitable for making into a feature length film, but it was always the later books in the series that, at least in my estimation, could provide a seriously good (and genuinely memorable) Biggles adventure. Take Biggles in the Baltic, for instance...brilliant story! Or, Biggles Defies the Swastika, which is also a great story. Half the problem with films and film makers is that they seem to insist on having some kind of superfluous romantic interest, which adds nothing to the film itself. You want an example of a film that worked without any women involved in it? How about The Great Escape, as proof, if any were needed, that you don't need a damsel in distress to make a decent and emotionally gripping movie!
ReplyDeleteFor all of us who have read many (if not all) of the Biggles stories, it's not just about Biggles flying a biplane in WW1 or even a Spitfire in WW2; it's about all the aircraft he can fly and all the places he might find himself in, from the Baltic Sea on one hand, to Bodmin Moor on the other! People don't have much knowledge of Biggles, or the characters and stories unless they are full-on fans of the books. In reality, there is a potentially massive range of adventures that could, in an ideal scenario be made into a successful and long running movie franchise. Biggles is as cool as James Bond and, arguably, an iconic figure in our country's literary heritage, yet remains largely overlooked after more than three quarters of a century - and, however dated (or racist!) some of the stories might be, there is nothing in any Biggles book that couldn't be suitably adapted for the demands of a contemporary big screen story.
Biggles Takes a Hand, Biggles Hunts Big Game, Biggles in the Terai, Biggles Sees Too Much, Biggles and the Dark Intruder, Biggles and the Noble Lord, Biggles in the Underworld, Biggles on the Home Front, Biggles and the Plane That Disappeared, Biggles Scores a Bull, Biggles and the Gunrunners - tons of the stories from late in WE Johns's writing career and life were all worthy of being made into a good film. And, unlike with most movie franchises, it's not a 3 films and you're out of ideas kind of deal. There is literally tons of good material to use, to pick from, to amalgamate into bigger stories, or to use as creative inspiration for brand new stories. Biggles really could be the new James Bond...only, this time, I have got one piece of advice for the film makers: please leave the girls out of it. Biggles doesn't need the aggro!
I agree that Biggles is definitely not just a bunch of stories about a guy flying a plane. I think that that was the mistake they made when making the first film--they thought that as long as there was a plane in it (and not even the right kind of plane! X_X) and they slapped "Biggles" in the title it would make it a Biggles film. They left out so much about Biggles that actually made Biggles Biggles.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I would agree that the later books necessarily would make great films though. I feel like the WWI books had more grit and character than the WWII and air police books--often times in the air police the big climax is just Biggles catching the bad guy and then saying that it's time to cut along home!