633 Squadron

633 Squadron was the first aviation film to be shot in colour and Panavision widescreen. It was based on a novel of the same name by former Royal Air Force officer Frederick E. Smith. The scenes were shot in the Scottish Highlands near Glen Coe, with most of the attack sequences filmed above Loch Morar and Loch Nevis.

About 633 Squadron in brief

Summary 633 Squadron633 Squadron is a 1964 British war film directed by Walter Grauman and starring Cliff Robertson, George Chakiris, and Maria Perschy. The plot involves the exploits of a fictional World War II British fighter-bomber squadron. 633 Squadron was the first aviation film to be shot in colour and Panavision widescreen. It was based on a novel of the same name by former Royal Air Force officer Frederick E. Smith, published in 1956. The film was produced by Cecil F. Ford for the second film of Mirisch Productions UK subsidiary Mirisch Films for United Artists. The scenes were shot in the Scottish Highlands near Glen Coe, with most of the attack sequences filmed above Loch Morar and Loch Nevis. Some real aircraft were used for the spectacular aerial scenes, while more dangerous sequences were created with models. The Three Compasses pub in Gloucestershire, which was used in a similar scene in the film From Russia with Love, could be seen in some nearby pubs. The pub where Robertson’s character romances Perschy was also used on the river Thames and also used in an early scene in a Bond film. The original drafts of the script were penned by The Great Escape scriptwriter James Clavell. When Robertson expressed reservations about the story, producer Walter Mirisch engaged U. S. scriptwriter Howard Koch, resident in London, to rewrite the film to placate him.

The final version of the film was released in 1964 and was directed by John Sturges, who initially worked on a script with Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone fame as early as 1958 and offered Jack Lord the leading role. After Sturges dropped out in favour of making The Magnificent Seven, WalterMirisch took on the project after reading the book. It is the first of a series of films about the RAF’s No. 33 Squadron, based on the fictional No. 32 Squadron. The squadron is led by Wing Commander Roy Grant, a former Eagle Squadron pilot. The movie was released during the summer of 1963. It has been released in UK cinemas on Blu-ray, DVD, Blu-Ray, and Blu- ray 2.0, and on DVD on September 25, 2014. It will be available in the U.S. and UK on September 26, 2014, and in Australia on September 27, 2015, and the UK on October 25, 2015. The UK release date for the film is September 28, 2014 and the US release date is September 29, 2016, and it will be released in the UK and Australia on October 27, 2016. The U.K. release date was September 28th, 2016 and the European release date on October 28, 2017. The US release dates for the movie are September 30, 2008, and October 29, 2017, and they will be September 30 and October 30, 2017 respectively. The British release date has been September 30th, 2008 and the Australian release date of September 29th, 2009.