[The Spirit of St. Louis is] good, albeit not great….

No script, however ingenious, could by itself have made a film so good as this. Accomplished direction was also required, and that Mr. Wilder has abundantly supplied….

On the morning of the take-off a small mirror is needed so Lindbergh can read a compass affixed over his head. One of the hundreds of spectators who have waited all night in the rain, a quite plain girl, offers her pocket mirror, and is allowed through the police lines. (p. 126)

Wilder cuts to this girl's face several times during Lindbergh's actual take-off to reemphasize that everywhere, in the most obscure lives, the young man about to risk his life had quickened good will, awe and love.

The dramatics of the take-off consisted in making the audience wonder whether Lindbergh could get a plane so heavily laden with gasoline off the...