SNMR 5.10: "The Spirit of St. Louis"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "The Spirit of St. Louis" (1957, NR, 138 minutes), starring James Stewart, Murray Hamilton, Bartlett Robinson and Arthur Space. The film was directed by Billy Wilder.

PLOT SUMMARY: This is the biopic of Charles A. Lindbergh's historic flight from New York to Paris in 1927. The screenplay was based on Lindbergh's own autobiography.

This is a role that Jimmy Stewart, himself a WWII pilot, wanted to play for a long time, as Lindbergh was one of his childhood heroes. People thought he was too old at 48, when he finally got the part.


MY OPINION: It's a good film, but I would say far from Stewart's best role or performance in a career filled with great performances. For a film that was released in 1957, the aerial photography is superb. The film is maddeningly slow at times and has no frills, which is what you would expect from a film of this kind. Director Billy Wilder did a good job of filling in back story from Lindbergh's life during the trans-Atlantic flight sequences.

*** out of *****