The American Night Witch (1983?) (American title.) Ночные ведьмы (Night Witches) Russian title.
The stylized poster shows a blonde Hollywood star with a witch's hat in a Polikarpov Po-2 Biplane throwing a bomb over the side of the plane. Most of the posters show the Soviet Red Star on the plane, but a few, very collectible, posters show the American insignia.
The year is 1942. The world is at war. The American fleet is crippled by Japanese treachery. Far across the world, German panzers are deep in the heart of America's ally, the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union falls, the Nazis will make Festung Europa unassailable.
As the Panzers advance, everything is being thrown into the fight. What was inconceivable in 1939 is now imperative, and a few brave women take to the skies in obsolete training aircraft.
The plot is fairly standard war storytelling. It starts with a Greta Wilson, an American woman, being rescued from the Germans by the Red Army--what she was doing as a captive of the Germans near the Eastern Front is never mentioned.
She is one of the rare female pilots, and also competent with a wrench, and ends up assisting the Night Witches keeping their tiny training aircraft, now light bombers, in the air, while awaiting a chance to get sent home. Despite some friction--and unusually enough for Hollywood, a couple of realistic fistfights between women--Greta proves useful to the squadron. She fixes planes, and ferries them around, as well as testing them after repairs, but isn't allowed into battle.
The tale also follows several Soviet pilots, especially Ludmilla Gurbunova, as she carries out the silent harassment raids the Night Witches are known for. The battle scenes are well done, if a trifle unrealistic at times--these planes were not known fir killing tanks. (One of these could shoot down a fighter if it gets very lucky. In the film, it does,)
On the other side of the lines, the depredations of the Night Witches are giving Colonel Hoffman fits. After one raid destroys several of his fighters and detonates the fuel depot, he makes it his personal mission to destroy the witches once and for all. German fighters raiding their base inflict casualties, but at least once, the Messerschmidts were intercepted by Soviet YaK's, allowing a classic major dogfight.
Even so, several of the pilots are wounded or killed by the German air raids, leaving the squadron under strength. German paratroopers have taken a vital bridge, which, if it isn't destroyed, will allow Panzers to break through. The Luftwaffe smashes a heavy air raid by day, and tomorrow, Panzers will arrive and cross the bridge. It must be destroyed tonight.
With a shortage of pilots, but not planes, Greta chooses to accompany her new comrades, as the outcome of the war might hinge on this one mission.
Swooping out of the night sky with engines off, the first bombs fail to destroy the bridge, though they blow up a tank the paratroopers captured from the Soviets, but alert the anti-aircraft gunners. The second wave, with Greta flying one of the planes, sweeps in from another direction, but several planes fall to anti-aircraft machine guns. In some cuts, Greta's bomb is the key bomb that destroys the bridge--in others, Ludmilla's, and in some, it's deliberately not clear who blew it up--a team effort between the Russians and the American fighting the despicable Nazis.
When he hears that the Night Witches have destroyed the bridge, Colonel Hoffman grabs two other pilots--much like Vader in Star Wars--and takes off, despite the Bf-109 being unsuitable for night flying. One of the German fighters crashes on takeoff, but the other two high speed German fighters catch up to the fleeing biplanes. The Russians scatter, and Colonel Hoffman's wingman tries to follow too closely, and plows into a tree as the agile biplane takers a turn no Messerschmidt could make.
The colonel gains some altitude, and tries to dive on Ludmilla's plane, but she's agile enough to avoid being blown from the sky. Ludmilla leads the German a merry chase--her plane's top speed is slower than the German's stall speed, so very hard to hit. Even so, he manges to kill her tail gunner and wound her. As Colonel Hoffman comes in for another run, he strays across the path of Greta's plane, and her tail gunner shoots the Nazi from the skies.
The final scene shows great celebration--and in Hollywood fashion, Ludmilla's wound isn't serious.
The film is notable for very good battle scenes, and used many authentic aircraft. There's some distortion of history for the sake of the plot, but no accidental errors--the Soviet partners were insistent on that. (The mere fact of an American with the Night Witches is a major brak from reality.)
Made as a joint effort between United Artists and the Soviet film industry after difficult negotiations concerning the plot, and an agreement to film slightly different versions for Soviet and American release, the film was a box office success. The environment of cooperation in fighting a common enemy--terrorists that would attack nuclear facilities, and had done so in both nations--helped both make the film possible, and contribute to its success. So did the authentic equipment and the fact that history was not ignored--though it had its share of inaccuracies.
The box office success brought good hard currency into both United Artists' coffers, and the Soviet Ministry responsible. It led to occasional (although RARE!) joint efforts in the future, mostly war movies, starting with MURMANSK! (Soviet title) which was titled "CONVOY!" in the US and Britain.
Depending on how Soviet-American relations go, it might get made in my timeline, The Masquerade
Any thoughts on actors?
The stylized poster shows a blonde Hollywood star with a witch's hat in a Polikarpov Po-2 Biplane throwing a bomb over the side of the plane. Most of the posters show the Soviet Red Star on the plane, but a few, very collectible, posters show the American insignia.
The year is 1942. The world is at war. The American fleet is crippled by Japanese treachery. Far across the world, German panzers are deep in the heart of America's ally, the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union falls, the Nazis will make Festung Europa unassailable.
As the Panzers advance, everything is being thrown into the fight. What was inconceivable in 1939 is now imperative, and a few brave women take to the skies in obsolete training aircraft.
The plot is fairly standard war storytelling. It starts with a Greta Wilson, an American woman, being rescued from the Germans by the Red Army--what she was doing as a captive of the Germans near the Eastern Front is never mentioned.
She is one of the rare female pilots, and also competent with a wrench, and ends up assisting the Night Witches keeping their tiny training aircraft, now light bombers, in the air, while awaiting a chance to get sent home. Despite some friction--and unusually enough for Hollywood, a couple of realistic fistfights between women--Greta proves useful to the squadron. She fixes planes, and ferries them around, as well as testing them after repairs, but isn't allowed into battle.
The tale also follows several Soviet pilots, especially Ludmilla Gurbunova, as she carries out the silent harassment raids the Night Witches are known for. The battle scenes are well done, if a trifle unrealistic at times--these planes were not known fir killing tanks. (One of these could shoot down a fighter if it gets very lucky. In the film, it does,)
On the other side of the lines, the depredations of the Night Witches are giving Colonel Hoffman fits. After one raid destroys several of his fighters and detonates the fuel depot, he makes it his personal mission to destroy the witches once and for all. German fighters raiding their base inflict casualties, but at least once, the Messerschmidts were intercepted by Soviet YaK's, allowing a classic major dogfight.
Even so, several of the pilots are wounded or killed by the German air raids, leaving the squadron under strength. German paratroopers have taken a vital bridge, which, if it isn't destroyed, will allow Panzers to break through. The Luftwaffe smashes a heavy air raid by day, and tomorrow, Panzers will arrive and cross the bridge. It must be destroyed tonight.
With a shortage of pilots, but not planes, Greta chooses to accompany her new comrades, as the outcome of the war might hinge on this one mission.
Swooping out of the night sky with engines off, the first bombs fail to destroy the bridge, though they blow up a tank the paratroopers captured from the Soviets, but alert the anti-aircraft gunners. The second wave, with Greta flying one of the planes, sweeps in from another direction, but several planes fall to anti-aircraft machine guns. In some cuts, Greta's bomb is the key bomb that destroys the bridge--in others, Ludmilla's, and in some, it's deliberately not clear who blew it up--a team effort between the Russians and the American fighting the despicable Nazis.
When he hears that the Night Witches have destroyed the bridge, Colonel Hoffman grabs two other pilots--much like Vader in Star Wars--and takes off, despite the Bf-109 being unsuitable for night flying. One of the German fighters crashes on takeoff, but the other two high speed German fighters catch up to the fleeing biplanes. The Russians scatter, and Colonel Hoffman's wingman tries to follow too closely, and plows into a tree as the agile biplane takers a turn no Messerschmidt could make.
The colonel gains some altitude, and tries to dive on Ludmilla's plane, but she's agile enough to avoid being blown from the sky. Ludmilla leads the German a merry chase--her plane's top speed is slower than the German's stall speed, so very hard to hit. Even so, he manges to kill her tail gunner and wound her. As Colonel Hoffman comes in for another run, he strays across the path of Greta's plane, and her tail gunner shoots the Nazi from the skies.
The final scene shows great celebration--and in Hollywood fashion, Ludmilla's wound isn't serious.
The film is notable for very good battle scenes, and used many authentic aircraft. There's some distortion of history for the sake of the plot, but no accidental errors--the Soviet partners were insistent on that. (The mere fact of an American with the Night Witches is a major brak from reality.)
Made as a joint effort between United Artists and the Soviet film industry after difficult negotiations concerning the plot, and an agreement to film slightly different versions for Soviet and American release, the film was a box office success. The environment of cooperation in fighting a common enemy--terrorists that would attack nuclear facilities, and had done so in both nations--helped both make the film possible, and contribute to its success. So did the authentic equipment and the fact that history was not ignored--though it had its share of inaccuracies.
The box office success brought good hard currency into both United Artists' coffers, and the Soviet Ministry responsible. It led to occasional (although RARE!) joint efforts in the future, mostly war movies, starting with MURMANSK! (Soviet title) which was titled "CONVOY!" in the US and Britain.
Depending on how Soviet-American relations go, it might get made in my timeline, The Masquerade
Any thoughts on actors?
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