The War Lover (1962)

The War Lover

Philip Leacock's WWII drama, adapted by Howard Koch from John Hersey's 1959 novel. Steve McQueen plays Buzz Rickson, a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot flying missions out of England whose reckless, death-courting flying style both awes and unsettles his crew, above all co-pilot Ed Bolland (Robert Wagner); the two men's rivalry over a London woman, Daphne (Shirley Anne Field), sharpens into a wider argument about what draws a man to war. (Wikipedia)

Watches

Hanhart 417

Worn by Steve McQueen as Buzz Rickson. McQueen dresses Rickson in his own stainless-steel Hanhart 417 ES, a black two-register chronograph on a leather strap that he wore off-screen for years and that appears in period photographs including a 1963 LIFE magazine shoot; watch-spotting sources Oracle of Time and Watch-ID both document the watch's appearance in the film. (Oracle of Time; Watch-ID) The casting is a genuine anachronism collectors have flagged: Rickson is a WWII pilot in a story set in 1943, but the 417 ES was not produced until Hanhart introduced it for the West German Bundeswehr starting around 1956, well over a decade after the film's setting. (WatchProSite) Montres de Luxe independently identifies the same Hanhart 417, under the film's French release title L'homme qui aimait la guerre. (Montres de Luxe)

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