Jet Pilot

Josef von Sternberg and Technicolor should have been a formidable combination. But the true auteur behind this jaw-dropping folly was infamous back-seat driver Howard Hughes (who continued tinkering with the film long after Sternberg had left the production). Hence the combination of smirking titillation and breathtaking aerial photography with which he had already overwhelmed audiences twenty years earlier in 'Hell's Angels'. The youthful Janet Leigh (who disliked Sternberg but later grudgingly acknowledged that he was a better director than she cared to admit at the time) would later reveal her considerable talents as an actress for directors like Welles and Hitchcock. Those weren't exactly the talents that Hughes was interested in revealing; but casting her as a Russian aviator shows a certain enterprise.

Cold War romance brought to you not by Kraft, makers of fine cheese, but by Howard Hughes in all his mentally ill glory. There's John Wayne doing his best John Wayne, which is always fun. We get lots of scenes of flying jets complete with a seemingly endless soundtrack of jet noises. What are jet noises? You know, that sound like on the Roadrunner cartoons when Wile E. Coyote strapped a rocket to his back. But the main reason to watch this is lovely Janet Leigh, Hughes' muse of the moment. The camera's absolutely in love with her. She made many better pictures but few quite as enjoyable for me. It's a good movie of its type, helped along by some unintended comedy and the lovely Ms. Leigh. It's the kind of movie I just like to look at even if I don't care what the actors are saying.

Poorly written, this film has the thinnest and most ridiculous "plot" I've ever seen. The acting (even from the Duke) is also sub-par from such a cast. I think that Janet Leigh actually out-acts Wayne. I can't see much to commend this film. A defecting Soviet pilot (Leigh) is given a totally free rein (no detention, no interrogation, nothing!) and even allowed to fly modern US jet fighters, watched only by Wayne's character, who has fallen for her. This film is too laughable to be called anything other than a comedy. However, it wasn't shot, edited or released as a comedy. It was designed as a pure propaganda film. As such, it's a total failure. This thing's a complete waste.

There is great colour footage of F-86, F-80, B-36 and Bell X aircraft here interspersed with utterly ridiculous lines and a bizarre plot. Typically paper thin film making from Howard Hughes with big stars, high production values and zero aspiration towards making a decent movie. How some reviewers can say Wayne acts well in this film beats me! Janet Leigh is gorgeous though...

The aerial footage is nice, but once people start talking, the film goes into a tailspin. The plot seems as though it was made up as they went along (on a few occasions, I thought a reel must be missing) and I don't think I'm giving anything away (like there was any suspense anyway) by saying John Wayne must really love Janet Leigh to stay with her after she pistol whips him. Twice. It's unintentionally hilarious but unbelievably bad. I always like Hans Conreid, but he doesn't show up until the very end. All of the other actors in the film have a wooden presentation, as though they brought in actual air force officers to appear in the film. And if the U.S. military really hatched a plan like this, there should be courts martial all around.

I personally disagree with the ones that say that this is bad in the same way as ''The Conqueror''. Sure it's bad, but it more looked a comedy than a war movie. John Wayne plays a US Air Force Colonel that is forced to escort a defecting soviet pilot (Janet Leigh) to Russia, and then all hell breaks loose, and in a funny way. Wayne and Leigh even fall in love, and they share even some nights out. Even when they end in Russia the comedy comes out of nowhere! Paul Fix is the comic relief while Hans Conried did his best with the material he was given. However there was a good thing about this movie (that's why I rated it 7); the nice figther planes and the aerial shots, very ahead of its time (made in 1951, but not released until 1957).