One of the highest decorations Germany bestowed on its air aces during the First World War was known as the Blue Max. A blue enamel cross edged in silver, with the eagle motif latticed between the arms of the cross, it was worn on a broad black and white ribbon round the neck.

It was awarded for valor to men who had served their country above and beyond the call of duty.

A spectacular epic based on this award and the men who coveted it was filmed in Ireland. The Blue Max stars George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Jeremy Kemp and Karl Michael Vogler.

The central character, Bruno Stachel (George Peppard) is a young man whose generation seems doomed to die on the battlefields.

Stachel is obsessed with winning glory, and this is his final downfall. The taunts and baitings of his more aristocratic rivals, men like Willi von Klugerman (Jeremy Kemp) and Squadron Commander Otto Heidemann (Karl Michael Vogler) resolve him further in his quest for glory. He becomes a hard, ruthless, and thoroughly unlikeable person.

George Peppard is acquiring a strong reputation as a player of unsympathetic parts. His characterisation of the cruelly ambitious Jonas Cord in The Carpetbaggers was one of the highlights of his film career. His role of Stachel should establish him even more as one of the screen's most exciting stars. "Bruno Stachel," he says, "was the eternal loner, the man fighting desperately to be recognized and accepted. He fights so hard, in fact, that without realising it he finds himself believing he is superior."

So keen was Peppard to play the part well that he did four months of flying training so that he could do his own flying in the film. When he eventually started filming in Ireland he had 210 flying hours on his pilot's log, more than 150 of them solo. He performs many of the film's daring flying sequences himself; stunt flying stand-ins were strictly out.

Author of the book on which the film is based, Jack D. Hunter, was delighted with the film casting. "Certainly the casting of George Peppard and James Mason is for me a flash of genius on somebody's part. They could not have been better chosen if I had written the book with them in mind," he says.

Director John Guillerman wanted Ursula Andress for the role of Kaeti, a ruthless and beautiful woman. He promised her that the part would give her a splendid chance to prove her acting ability - a chance to be seen as an actress and not simply as a beautiful woman. "The character is a woman who is so unlike my own self that I would have to act if it was to come off, " Ursula remarked.

While the casting was being done, the problems of putting such a gigantic production in front of the cameras were being ironed out.

Firstly, where to shoot the film? Ireland was chosen for many reasons. The terrain of County Wicklow strikingly resembled the Somme area of France during the last part of 1918. It is also one of the few places in the world close to a big city (Dublin) where the surrounding skies are not jammed by commercial and private flying. Add to this the help of the Irish Department of Defence, and it's easily understood why Ireland was chosen as the site.

Yet another difficult problem was the aircraft themselves - early vintage war planes. The accent of the film is on authenticity. Exact replicas of the planes had to be built and had to be flown. It cost 500,000 dollars to construct nine such planes, all built to the very same plans as the actual life and death machines of the 1914-18 war.

One of the film's most spectacular sequences is a reconstruction of a Somme battle. Director Guillermin, with production designer Wilfred Shingleton, chose about 230 acres of County Wicklow at a spot called Kilpedder, six miles from the Ardmore Studios. The Irish Army supplied about 1,200 officers and men to take part in this fantasticlly real battle. Shingleton designed the horrific battlefields from actual photographs and old newsreels. Explosives experts were called in. To obtain the right effects they used something like seven tons of explosives a day!

Of the seven cameras used, one was mounted in a helicopter which flew over the battlefield. A remote-controlled camera was strapped to the wing of one of the bi-planes which flew through the smoke and flame of the battle.

Other highlights include magnificent aerial combat scenes, so realistically filmed that the film-goer will find it almost impossible to believe that he is not watching the real thing.

Technical advances in CinemaScope filming made possible enormous close-ups of Peppard, Kemp and Vogler during their aerial fights.

The Blue Max is a film to be remembered - a story of courage, human conflict and human weaknesses.

"The story excited me," says director Guillermin, "because as a film maker I've always been fascinated by those in life who are forever beating their heads against a brick wall."

The End