Which Biggles Story Would Make A Good Film?

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!

What Makes A Biggles Film

As we all know, the centenary of WWI is coming up, and doubtless there are many producers/directors/screenwriters/film people out there who are getting ready to release a great war film in honor of the occasion. Doubtless some of them will have heard of Biggles, and with luck, they might be thinking about making a Biggles film. On the off-chance that any of them happen to visit this blog, here is my wishlist--what I would like to see in a Biggles film.

1. Accurate time period. If it's going to be set in WWI, use the right planes and weapons, and the right characters. Much as I love Ginger and Bertie, they don't appear in the books until after WWI. Ginger for one was not even born in WWI, so to have him exist in a WWI as a 16-year-old (or older) is ridiculous.

2. Leave out the love interest, please. Yes, okay, in a moment of random lightheadedness, Biggles met a woman that he thought was the woman of his dreams, blah blah blah. How many Biggles books are there? 98. How many books did Marie appear in? 2 (to be quite accurate, she appeared in one book, and in one short story in a collection of short stories).

(A note to directors and screenwriters, if you're thinking that adding a love interest will bring in the female fans, rest assured, you can leave out the love interest and we female fans would still happily watch the film--as long as you choose good *ahem*--good-looking--actors to play the two main characters, Biggles and Algy. If you must add a love interest, at least make sure she comes to a tragic, or semi-tragic end. You'll make the female fans happy, and the critics will talk about the poignant and honest ending of the film.)

3. A normal enemy. Erich von Stalhein, in an iron mask? Please. Enough said.

4. A focus on the friendship between the main characters (aka Biggles and Algy). The best thing about the Biggles books is the friendship between the characters. the way they care about each other, the way they never leave each other in the lurch, the way they always go along with each other's crazy ideas. Explosions and aerial battles and sweeping scenes of destruction are all very well, but it always come back to the people, and the friendship.

5. Nice music. No hip-hop, no rap, no rock music. Just normal music that sticks to the background, blends in well, doesn't make too much of itself.

What would you like to see in a Biggles film? Comment below!

Biggles DVD

If you're a fan of the 1960s Biggles TV series (starring Nevil Whiting as Biggles, although the general consensus seems to be that he isn't much like Biggles) , you'll no doubt be delighted to know that the series are coming to DVD.

Biggles DVD
Image links to Amazon

I was initially excited to hear the news...right until the moment that someone broke the news to me that Biggles was in the series, Ginger was in the series, Bertie was in the series, Erich was in the series...

BUT ALGY WAS NOT.

From that moment on, I pretty much lost all interest in the proceedings. What? Are you joking? No Algy? How did this TV series ever come to be? Even if there wasn't money to hire another actor (which I believe was the reason for this ludicrous state of affairs), at least hire some high school kid to stand in part-time so that Algy can "answer the phone" or "man the plane" in the background. Get someone to voiceover  him on phone conversations. Don't just not have him!

Anyway, I don't see just why Algy had to be the one they didn't have money for....Algy should have been the first one they hired.

*sulks*

Biggles Media Archives: "Biggles: Adventures In Time" Trailer

*Warning: clip contains some strong language and adult humor.

Known in Biggles circles simply as “that film”, Biggles: Adventures in Time is not perhaps among the list of successful “book to film” movies. Using time travel as a plot device to link the past and the present seems to have been a popular idea at the time (the very first Back to the Future film had just come out a year earlier).

----------FILM SPOILER ALERT----------

An American from the 1970s, Jim Ferguson, aka Biggles’ “time twin”, keeps falling through a hole in time and going back to 1917, because the universe thinks that he should be there to get Biggles out of moments of dire peril, despite the fact that a) Jim Ferguson can’t fly, b) he’s a salesman for TV dinners, and c) he has no idea what’s going on and spends most of his time getting hauled around by Biggles and co. like a sack of flour. Yes, the universe runs on irony. As if we didn’t already know.

Biggles’ love life plays a predominant role throughout the film—one imagines a group of researchers desperately burrowing through Biggles book after Biggles book, trying to find a female character to use as Biggles’ girlfriend—despite the fact that the original books were written for young boys and so, if anything, tended to gloss over all interaction with females.

Equally in line with the books are the appearances of Ginger and Bertie in the trenches of 1917. Ginger, in particular, had not even been born when WWI was raging…although I suppose there is a possibility that he too fell through some hole in time as Algy’s time twin, only everyone was too polite to mention it.

As if that wasn’t enough, we have Erich Von Stalhein flying around in some sort of iron mask (I know, what?), blue flashes of lightning zapping around whenever someone’s about to go time traveling (which is, like, every five minutes), Colonel Raymond walking around trying to explain everything (like he ever knew anything in the first place), WWII planes flying around in WWI….the list just goes on and on.

But you know what? It is possible to forgive all of that. Or it would be possible to forgive all of that…if not for the appalling movie soundtrack, music that even Biggles would cringe at. Who was it that made the decision to play “Do You Wanna Be A Hero” during the scene where Von Stalhein is trying his best to shoot Biggles down? (Look, I’m not saying it’s a bad song, just a bad Biggles song.)

----------FILM SPOILERS END----------

You may be surprised to learn that the novelization of the film was the first ever “Biggles” book I ever read (I was eight at the time. The book had stills from the film in the middle. Can you blame me?), and that it was the book that introduced me to Biggles. I thought it was a fantastic book…until a few years later when I found a DVD of the film in a store and bought it.

I did try to like the movie. I did. I tried very hard.

Really, I blame the soundtrack.

To be fair, it’s not a bad film in its own right. In fact, if not for the word “Biggles” in the title, it might actually be all right. A group of friends rushing around to save Britain from a secret weapon in WWII (yes, WWII. Seriously, if you’re going to use planes and stuff that were invented after WWI, don’t set your movie in WWI) with a weird American on the side falling through time to provide some comic relief in moments of high stress. Okay, so it won’t win many Oscars, but it will at least be a film that most Biggles fans would be able to sit through without feeling the urgent need to comment or run away every five minutes or so.

Find it on Amazon: Biggles - Adventures In Time [1985] [DVD]