Updated November 28, 2008

"The Birdmen" Film Data

Links from The Internet Movie Database

Cast
Major Harry Cook	The Late Doug McClure
Kommandant Schiller	The Late Richard Basehart
Halden Brevik / Olav Volda	Rene Auberjonois
Colonel Morgan Crawford	The Late Chuck Conners
Orville "Fitz" Fitzgerald	Tom Skerritt
Focus Flaherty	The Late Don Knight
Tanker	Max Baer Jr.
Sparrow	Greg Mullavey
Davies	Paul Koslo
Donnelly	The Late Barry Brown
Bridski (Uncredited)	Genadii Biegouloff
Helmut Weber [Schiller's Aid?] (Uncredited)	Rolf Niehus
Konrad [The Barracks Guard] (Uncredited)	Peter Hellman
Gunther - Cook's Contact (Uncredited)	The Late Karl Swenson
Castle Chef (Uncredited)	The Late Karl Bruck
German Guard in Truck (Uncredited)	Still researching...
Opening Narration (Uncredited)	The Late Charles Aidman
Crew
Director	The Late Philip Leacock
Producers	Harve Bennett The Late Harris Tatelman (Uncredited)
Written by:	David Kidd
Cinematography by:	The Late Jack A. Marta
Music by:	The Late David Rose
Film Editing by:	The Late Robert F. Shugrue Gene Palmer
Unit Manager:	Lloyd Anderson
Editorial Supervisor:	The Late Richard Belding
Set Decorator:	Robert C. Bradfield
Art Director:	The Late Henry Bumstead
Assistant Director:	Kevin Donnelly
Special Photographic Effects:	The Late Albert Whitlock
Companies
Production Company:	Universal TV
Distributors:	ABC TV & Universal Pictures
Color by:	Technicolor
Optical effects by:	Universal Title
Titles by:	Universal Title
Data
Running time:	73 minutes, 56 seconds

Birdmen Trivia

During a prisoner roll call, the German guard calls the name "Hogan", a reference to the television series Hogan's Heroes, which also featured Don Knight.

During the same roll call, the name "Baer" is called, a reference to Max Baer who stars in the film.

All of the main prisoner characters have last names that begin with the leters "A" through "D" so that they could be called quickly during roll call scenes.

Birdmen Goofs

In the opening scene of the film, Cook sees his contact and a boat on the opposite side of a river. Cook then meets the contact without ever crossing the river.

During the first fight between Cook and Crawford, Cook has a cut on his cheek before Crawford ever hits him in the face.

The cut on Cook's cheek is gone by the next morning.

The position of Donnelly's body changes twice after he is killed.

A shot of the model glider during the test flight shows it having wing struts. The model had none.

Shorts can be seen under Crawford's towel during the roll call scene.

If the wingtip of the glider was visible from the castle courtyard, the launching track should have been visible as well.

Allied prisoners would not be in possession of dress uniforms.

Allied prisoners would not have knowledge of songs that the Jews were singing in the concentration camps.

Fitz makes reference to a balsa wood strut on the model glider. It is unlikely that the prisoners would have access to tropical woods.

A NAZI book on aeronautical enginneering would not be titled and written in English.

A balloon can be seen holding Flaherty's kite aloft. (A projection system is needed to see this)