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Rating:  -
This movie has special meaning to me as it is about sky divers in the late 1960's; who, like the barn stormers of early 1900's, travel from town to town putting on airial sky diving shows. The movie was filmed at my grandparents, Harry, Twila Nelson, farm and airport in Benton, Kansas. My grandparents, father Henry Nelson, and I worked and built the airport in 1960. The airport was Nelson's Airfield. Other parts of the movie was filmed in ElDorado, Kansas. While filming the movie I was a freshman in high school. I got the opportunity to meet and visit with the stars, Burt Lancaster, Gene Hackman, Deborah Kerr, William Windom, Bonnie Bedelia. The movie is a B movie that was made back in the 1950's, 1960,s that was produced as fast and cheap as possible. The story line is marginal and action is slow. It is not a bad movie, but not one of the caliber that Gene Hackman and Bonnie Bedelia went on to make later in their careers. It has some good airial views and sky diving stunts. If you like flying, sky diving, you will enjoy some of the scenes in this movie, and if you are a fan of B movies with the early careers of some of the stars, then I recommend this movie.
Rating:  -
This is one of my favorite movies. Gene Hackman was pretty much unknown at this time and his performance was worth the price of admission.The rejection Scott Wilson felt was understated, therefore more poignant. The movie was not promoted because James Aubrey(the Smiling Cobra) had taken over the studio and said no one would be interested in Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr "pawing each other". Sheree North was past her prime and it always seemed to me she accepted aging and took appropriate parts.
Rating:  -
I have to agree with Charles Hall.
Fist of all a great cast like this deserves something better (much beter). This film is ok if you really don't have anything to do and are a fan of Kerr or Lancaster's.
I was mislead into watching this cuasi-movie, again, by the reviews. But who the heck is Frankenheimer? I just wanted to see if by chance (like when the donkey blows into a flute and a wonderful note comes out unexpectedly) a non-first rate director could produce a great movie. Let's give it a chance, I said.
And I watched the whole thing because after one hour I was still expecting something to get started. But no, the whole thing was really the story, not the warm up for the story!
So besides the cast, a nice photography and -I have to say it- Ms Kerr's naked scene there's nothing really told in this thing. Yes, by the end of the movie, I had a hint that the perpetrator of this movie had wanted to tell us something, but I am not sure if it had to do with skydiving, Edipo's complex, phetishism, or what. The funny thing is that there's always going to be people who like it because they have found out there's a message in it, and that skydiving is just a metaphor of it. Well, sure, but of what?
Consume at your own risk.
Rating: -
This glorified soap opera is a waste of a great cast. What other reviewers call "spare dialog" I call unnaturallly long pauses between phrases, especially on the part of Lancaster and Kerr.
The plot seems to revolve around how these professional skydivers are afraid to jump out of planes and sometimes forget to pull their rip cord (I kid you not).
There are some swell aerial scenes at the beginning and end, plus you get to see Deborah Kerr naked, but otherwise this movie is just awful.
Rating:  -
"The Gypsy Moths" is an almost-lost, almost-classic by legendary director John Frankenheimer. While I certainly wouldn't quibble with the five-star ratings some other users have given it here, I'd say that it's a very good movie, but not quite great.
This is not to damn "The Gypsy Moths" with faint praise. Yes, it's somewhat formulaic (outsiders shake up the lives of folks in a sleepy Midwestern town) and it is a bit of a soap opera. But with the addition of its skydiving story and action sequences, it's also a twist on the standard soap format. And ultimately, it's a story about what happens when characters with utterly different lifestyles and values are pushed into the same room with each other; a story of how, sometimes, envy and contempt become practically the same thing. Add to the mix the commanding presence of Burt Lancaster and a dead-on performance by Gene Hackman, and the whole thing is elevated to a higher level. Hats off, too, to director Frankenheimer for turning what could have been just a soap with some skydiving into something with a bit more substance.
Again, I wouldn't quite say that this is a great movie. The resolution is a bit too simple and the ending a bit too abrupt...at least in comparison to more contemporary standards. But "The Gypsy Moths" does indeed fall into the category of the undiscovered gem. And the commentary track by Frankenheimer makes this one well worth a second viewing.
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