The Blue Max is a 1966 British war film directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Karl Michael Vogler, and Jeremy Kemp. The film was made in DeLuxe Color and filmed in CinemaScope. The plot is about a German fighter pilot on the Western Front during World War I. The screenplay was written by David Pursall, Jack Seddon, and Gerald Hanley, based on the novel of the same name by Jack D. Hunter as adapted by Ben Barzman and Basilio Franchina. In contrast to films that romanticize the flying aces of the Great War, The Blue Max depicts the protagonist as a man who appears to have no regard for anyone but himself. Set against the realities of modern warfare, the film also explores the decline of chivalry and the advent of total war. Plot German Corporal Bruno Stachel leaves the fighting in the trenches to become a fighter pilot in the German Army Air Service. In spring 1918, he sets his sights on winning Germany's highest medal for valour, the "Blue Max", for which he must shoot down 20 aircraft. Of humble origins (his father ran a small hotel), Lieutenant Bruno Stachel sets out to prove himself. Willi von Klugemann resents having a commoner as his rival. Their commanding officer, Hauptmann Otto Heidemann, is an aristocratic officer whose belief in chivalry and the laws and customs of war conflict with Stachel's disregard for them. On his first mission, Stachel shoots down a British S.E.5, but does not receive credit for it because there were no witnesses (Stachel's wingman Fabian was shot down). Stachel searches the countryside for the wreckage, which gives the impression that he cares more about himself than the death of his wingman. Soon afterward, he attacks an Allied two-man observation aircraft and incapacitates the rear gunner. Instead of downing the defenseless aircraft, he signals the pilot to fly to the German base. As they near the airfield, the rear gunner revives and reaches for his machine-gun, unseen by the observers on the ground. Stachel is forced to shoot the aircraft down. A disgusted Heidemann believes that Stachel has committed a war crime just for a confirmed kill. The incident brings Stachel to the attention of General Count von Klugemann, Willi's uncle. When the general visits the base, he meets Stachel. As Stachel is a commoner, the general sees great propaganda value