The Gypsy Moths (1969)

Joe Browdy: Look, kid, this is a business. They don't pay to watch us walk across the street. Now, when are yuh gonna get that through your head? If you're so concerned with Rettig doing the jump, I mean, you can learn it yourself. Then you wouldn't have to worry about him.
Malcolm Webson: I have a better idea. Why don't you do it?
Joe Browdy: Because I recognize my limitations. It's the secret to my success in life.

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Elizabeth Brandon: I imagine you're the sort of man who always manages to find the best and rightest reasons for everything you do. Do you think that's possible for everyone?
Mike Rettig: I'm always hopeful.

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Mike Rettig: [Softly] Tomorrow, when we leave here, I want you to come with me.
Elizabeth Brandon: [Clearly surprised at the request] Come with you?
Mike Rettig: Yes.
Mike Rettig: [She makes some low sounds, and he moves toward her] Do you always offer more than you're asked for?
Elizabeth Brandon: Only to those who ask so much less than they want.

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During the filming of Gypsy Moths at the airfield in Benton, Kansas, the director, John Frankenheimer, wanted to get a real, horrified reaction from the extras playing the audience, so he had a Mannequin dressed like a skydiver and tied it under a helicopter which ascended a couple of hundred feet, then released the dummy. Most of the people hadn't noticed what had been rigged up, so when it fell, they thought it was a real person hitting the ground and he got the reaction he was looking for. One minor problem was that the pilot didn't gauge the wind accurately and the "skydiver" fell into the parked cars, narrowly missing some people and caving in the roof of an extra's ride. The studio bought the car for several times what it was worth and the damaged vehicle spent the rest of the shooting behind one of the hangers.
This film is one of John Frankenheimer's two favorites of the films he has directed.
TCM occasionally plays a 15-minute long documentary short entitled "The Sky Divers", narrated by Wink Martindale, on the making-of this film. The short is also provided on the Warner_Home_Video DVD, often cited as simply a "Behind-the-scenes documentary" featurette.
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