George Peppard's Performance

I've seen this film any number of times and have always enjoyed it. I don't think Peppard's performance was bad at all, and certainly didn't hurt the movie. He's of course surrounded by first rate international stars such as James Mason, Jeremy Kemp, Karl Michael Vogler and yes, Ursula Andress who copensate for any deficiences from him. As such, it helps emphasize the class differences that are central to the film. All in all, I thought this played out pretty well.

If George Peppard seemed wooden, that's probably exactly how a lower class soldier would act around the aristocratic upper class officers in Imperial Germany. He would be afraid of any social faux pas, but as time went on and he saw how degenerate some of the upper classes were, he realized he was the better man. After not being accepted, he decided to stick his own arrogant superiority up their nose by beating them at their own game by winning the one medal only a very few of the upper class ever won. They might still look down on him socially, but he, and they, knew who it was that had the "right stuff" every time he showed up with that medal.

He plays the role of a total butthole really well.

Yeah I wasn't wild about his character. Maybe he was supposed to act like that, but everyone else had thick accents and strong voices while he was soft spoken and sounded very american. It also seemed like he didn't really take anything seriously, he had that sense of humor and cockiness but displayed no fear or remorse during the film. Was his character faithful to the book? Maybe I am partly judging him on the fact that i didn't like his character as a person as well. Also, was the addition of Ursalya just the studio's attempt to add a love story?

The Aerial footage and action is first rate but the drama parts are fairly dull in my opinion. I was pretty tired when I watched it though, and fell a sleep a few times. But I would have loved if they cut out the love story and showed the camraderie or lack of and also discussed the missions more. That and maybe swap out peppard for lee marvin or someone like him.

I'd agree. But the role is better under played rather than over played. My guess is that the studio needed an American, and he fit the bill well enough. How much depth in character can there be in a young pilot? I liked the drum playing bit. A surprise, and it looked like he could play some of the basic rudiments OK. So I'd say he wasn't badly cast, but could have been better. Perhaps it was the expert direction that got him over the top. And as others have said, the rest of the cast is superb.

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I thought his performance was fine. The film was nothing like the book though. He was meant to be a cold and callous character which was partly caused by the time he had spent in the trenches prior to becoming a pilot. He had become used to death as an everyday event and, therefore, it meant nothing to him. He wanted to prove that he could better himself and show the conceited officer class that he was as good as them, at least as a pilot. Peppard was good at playing such arrogant and pompous characters as he later proved in Banacek. I thought Karl Michael Vogler was also very good.

The stress and casualties of World War I meant that people were becoming officers who would not have reached that status at the start. I think Peppard conveys this in his performance, as somebody who has risen in status but cannot fit in with the aristocratic or at least upper middle class officers.
This process was also repeated in WW2, with combat casualties and promotion from the ranks resulting in working-class Germans becoming army officers. They were often considered socially awkward by the more upper class ones, and there was an acronym for them - VOMAG (Volksoffizier mit Arbeitergesicht) which can be translated as "people's officer with a working class face". They had a reputation for courting popularity with NCOs and other ranks, which most of them had been previously, and for taking dangerous risks in an attempt to prove themselves. Peppard's character is a good example of a VOMAG.

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