strip Peanuts, by Charles Schulz, and was included in subsequent television specials as a running gag. Charlie Brown's beagle Snoopy frequently fantasized about being a World War I flying ace. In his daydreams, he imagined his dog house to be a Sopwith Camel and carried a personal grudge against the Red Baron, whom he imagined to be his arch enemy. In spite of Snoopy's best efforts, however, the "Baron" always shot him down with little difficulty, leading Snoopy to curse the Baron for his success and swear to one day shoot him down. This recurring story arc inspired songs by The Royal Guardsmen. The imaginary air battles between Snoopy and the Baron are referenced in The Bloody Red Baron, the second book in Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series, where a beagle resembling Snoopy is shot by the Baron, who feels a strange hatred towards the animal he cannot explain. Despite the antagonistic relationship the characters had in the comic strip, novels and video games, other media depicted them in less combative roles. In the Royal Guardsmen's song "Snoopy's Christmas", the Baron and Snoopy are depicted as participating in The Christmas Truce. A later song by the Guardsmen, "Snoopy for President", sees the Baron cast the ballot that allows Snoopy to become President of the United States, explicitly referring to Snoopy as his friend, as he also does in "Snoopy's Christmas". Board game references The Red Baron was the inspiration for Avalon Hill's 1970s board game Richthofen's War, one of the first World War I aerial combat board games. The Red Baron was also prominently featured in Snoopy & The Red Baron, a Milton Bradley skill game released in 1970. Movies Concrete 1927: Richthofen, a 1927 German silent war film, starring Carl Walther Meyer as Richthofen, was the first film to portray the life of the World War I fighter pilot. 1971: The Roger Corman movie, Von Richthofen and Brown, alternatively titled The Red Baron, starred John Phillip Law as Richthofen. 2008: The Red Baron, a romanticized biopic, starring Matthias Schweighöfer as Richthofen. Indirect 1927: A Richthofen-based character appears briefly in the World War I-epic Wings, directed by air combat veteran William A. Wellman. 1930: The Red Baron was a character in the Howard Hughes film Hell's Angels. 1943: He was caricatured in the Disney propaganda film, Victory Through Air Power. 1966: Richthofen appears briefly in the film The Blue Max,