The film was directed and written by George Seaton, and was released April 26, 1950, less than one year after the Soviet blockade of Berlin was lifted and airlift operations ceased. Because the film was shot in Berlin in 1949, as well as using newsreel footage of the actual airlift, it provides a contemporary glimpse of the post-war state of the city as its people struggled to recover from the devastation wrought by World War II.
the big lift movie
Off-duty American airmen of the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron in Hawaii are ordered to report to their squadron in July 1948. What is briefed as a temporary "training assignment" in the United States becomes a flight halfway around the world to Germany for the C-54 Skymasters of the 19th, where the Soviets have blockaded Berlin in an attempt to force out the Allies by starving the city. Tech Sgt. Danny MacCullough (Montgomery Clift), flight engineer of a C-54 nicknamed The White Hibiscus, is immediately ordered to fly with his crew from Frankfurt into Tempelhof Airport to deliver a load of coal. His friend Master Sgt. Hank Kowalski (Paul Douglas), a ground-controlled approach (GCA) operator, hitches a ride with them to his new station. Hank, a POW during World War II, resents the German people and goes out of his way to be rude and overbearing to them. Danny on the other hand is frustrated at being restricted to the airport because of the necessity of quickly offloading and returning to Frankfurt.
Months later, the crew of "Big Easy 37" (a call sign, airlift shorthand for an eastbound C-54) rename their airplane Der Schwarze (The Black) Hibiscus because of the grimy soot that has accumulated in it from hauling coal. They become temporary celebrities on a mission when they are the 100,000th flight of "Operation Vittles" into Berlin. Danny is immediately enamored of Frederica Burkhardt (Cornell Borchers), an attractive German war widow chosen to thank him on behalf of the women of Berlin. When a news correspondent covering the ceremony recruits Danny for a public relations stunt, Danny jumps at the opportunity as a means of getting a pass in Berlin and seeing Frederica again. During a tour of the city, Danny's uniform is accidentally covered with poster paste, so until it is cleaned, despite the penalty if he were to be caught out of uniform, he borrows some civilian working clothes. At a night club, they meet Hank and his "Schatzi", the friendly and intelligent Gerda, but Hank is rude to Frederica and treats Gerda as an inferior. Hank chances to see the former prison guard who tortured him as a POW, and, following him outside, beats him nearly to death. Danny is able to stop Hank only by knocking him down. Mistaken for a German attacking Hank, he is chased into the Soviet occupation zone by military police.
All military roles except those of Clift and Douglas were portrayed by actual military personnel stationed in Germany as themselves. The 19th Troop Carrier Squadron was an actual Air Force unit based in Hawaii and was one of the first to deploy for Operation Vittles in July 1948. However it participated only until August 26, when it was inactivated and its personnel and equipment absorbed into the 53rd Troop Carrier Squadron at Rhein-Main Air Base as depicted in The Big Lift.[3] The copilot of Der Schwarze Hibiscus, 1st Lt. Alfred L. Freiburger, was a C-54 pilot with the 14th Troop Carrier Squadron who had participated in the final months of Operation Vittles.[4]
The production crew for The Big Lift arrived in Berlin in May 1949 just as the blockade was lifted by the Russians, and shot actual airlift activity at both terminals. Principal shooting began in July. Montgomery Clift became available after he dropped out of the film Sunset Blvd., in which he was to have been the lead, before shooting began in June. Even so, all scenes involving him were shot first to allow him to return to the United States to begin location shooting for A Place in the Sun in October.[5]
Aerial sequences were accomplished, often in bad weather to demonstrate conditions under which the airlift was flown, using a Fairchild C-82 Packet as a camera platform, taking advantage of its removable rear fuselage to take panoramic shots of up to 170 degrees. Seaton reported that he finally overcame political complications with Soviet authorities to complete location shooting inside the Brandenburg Gate, which was in the Soviet zone, but that on the day of the shooting the Soviets set up loudspeakers to harass the set with propaganda. The scene was shot without sound and dialogue was later added by dubbing.[5]
Bosley Crowther of The New Yorker wrote that the film "merits favor without too high acclaim," finding "many vividly realistic scenes that are aimed to describe the toil and daring of the airlift enterprise," but also that it "lacks cohesion, clarity or magnitude."[7] Variety praised it for a "masterful scripting job" and "a couple of winning performances" from Clift and Douglas.[8] Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote that "you should see it," and found the airlift scenes "finely pictured," but thought director Seaton "tries to do too much," with the explanations of the Douglas character to his girlfriend about democracy running "too obtrusively, artificially, through the picture."[9] Harrison's Reports called it "an absorbing postwar drama," with the depiction of the airlift operations "taut and exciting."[10] John McCarten of The New Yorker liked most of the picture, calling it "a good movie as long as it sticks to the impressive actuality that inspired it," though he was less impressed with the "fairly routine romantic and comic doings."[11] The Monthly Film Bulletin called Seaton's effort "half hearted. Having found promising material, he shies off it, indulges in too many contrivances, plays some sequences for rather heavy-handed comedy, resolves the situation with facile tricks and glib dialogue."[12]
This is a complete, 120mn long print of the film. The other print already available on the archive and its ipod derivative are 102mn long, with some scenes cut down or cut out altogether. Shot on location, The Big Lift is a reenactment of the Berlin Airlift of 1948. After the Russians decide to blockade West Berlin and no supplies can reach the area via land or water, the US Air Force and other allies steps in to bring food and fuel to the inhabitants via air in spite of dangerous flying conditions. The film follows the adventures of a C-54 flight engineer (Montgomery Clift) and an air traffic controller (Paul Douglas) as they participate in the effort. External links: -IMDB page -American Film Institute entry -Wikipedia entry Video: XVID 576x432 24bpp 25fps 1166kbps Audio: MP3 48kHz 112kbps original registration: THE BIG LIFT. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp., 1950. 120 min., sd., b&w, 35mm. Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.; 26Apr50; LP204. renewal registration: none
The talented and tragic Montgomery Clift only completed 17 features, but each movie is of supreme interest. That's because Clift was the forerunner of today's naturalistic school of screen acting, predating Brando's film debut by a good couple of years. The Big Lift is one of five films Clift made with a German or militarist theme - a propaganda piece celebrating the airlift into postwar Berlin. It benefits from location shooting in Frankfurt and Berlin, with a supporting cast recruited from the military stationed there. Paul Douglas plays the blustering mouthpiece for American policy, and Cornell Borchers charmingly smooches with Clift in a dance club. By the way, watch Clift try to upstage Douglas in their scenes together. Douglas soon stopped Clift's Actors' Studio tricks by sharply treading on his foot.
Starring:Montgomery Clift (Sgt. 1st Class Danny MacCullough) Paul Douglas (MSgt. Henry 'Hank' Kowalski) Cornell Borchers (Frederica Burkhardt) Bruni Löbel (Gerda) Otto Eduard Hasse (Stieber)
Douglas C-54 Skymasters from the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron of the MATS (Military Air Transport Service, established in 1948 by merge of the ATC-Air Transport Command of the USAF and the NATS-Navy Air Transport Service) are seen throughout the movie. The 5 stars actor in this movie is the Douglas C-54D-15-DC Skymaster s/n 43-17223 c/n 22173/DC625 delivered to USAAF during Summer 1945. Involved in a minor landing accident near Montevideo, Uruguay on 17 July 1947. And in another one at Tachikawa Air Base, Japan on the 1st March 1951. Bought by Americada Corp on September 1966 and registered as N68783. Withdrawn From Usage and stored on 1970.Seen here as "The white Hibiscus".
Douglas C-54G-1-DO Skymaster 45-514 (c/n 35967) ran off end of runway into ditch and caught fire while landing at Flughafen Berlin-Tempelhof 13 August 1948 during Berlin Airlift. Crew survived.Same aircraft in other movies at IMPDb: Frequently Seen Aircraft (Military Fixed-Wing).
The base had been assembled and welded inside a sturdy support frame, acting as a rigid exoskeleton. For the first time, the component would be lifted out of its steel cradle and it was of crucial importance to verify that the deformation incurred would remain within tolerances.
Incremental lifts, first a few centimetres, then a few metres above ground, allowed for the fine-tuning of the crane systems. These movements were interrupted at regular intervals to perform metrology surveys, ensuring that reality reflected what had been planned and modelled over the years.
In 1948, the Soviet Union blockades the Allied sectors of Berlin to bring the entire city under their control. A semi-documentary about the resulting Berlin Airlift gives way to stories of two fictitious U.S. Air Force participants: Sgt. Hank Kowalski, whose hatred of Germans proves resistant to change, and Sgt. Danny McCullough, whose pursuit of an attractive German war widow gives him a crash course in the seamy side of occupied Berlin. 2ff7e9595c
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