Lafayette Escadrille

Lafayette Escadrille follows Thad Walker, a rebellious young American who leaves his wealthy father's home and ends up flying with the French air service before the United States enters World War I. He joins a group of daring American volunteers in France, among them Tom Hitchcock, Duke Sinclair and Wild Bill Wellman, and their service in the air runs alongside Thad's romance with Renée Beaulieu, a French woman working in a Paris brothel who gives up that life for him. The pair face the barriers of language and Thad's need to stay out of sight, while the war shapes the friendships and losses around them.

William A. Wellman directed and produced the film, his sixteenth of sixteen features in chronological order, following The High and the Mighty in 1954; Albert Sidney Fleischman wrote the screenplay. The story draws on Wellman's own connection to the Lafayette Escadrille, and his son Bill Wellman Jr. appears among the flyers. Tab Hunter leads as Thad, with Etchika Choureau as Renée, Marcel Dalio as the drill sergeant, David Janssen, Paul Fix and Veola Vonn among the twenty-three credited players.

Released by Warner Bros. Pictures in early 1958 and running 93 minutes, the film mixes drama, romance and war. Audiences have been muted: it holds 5.5 out of 10 on IMDb from about a thousand votes, and 4.5 out of 10 on TMDB from a few dozen. The gap between the two is modest, and both point to a film remembered more for its director's wartime background than for its reception.