The character literally gets off on the thrill of combat and the killing his bombs do. Ed Bolland, played with romantic dash by Robert Wagner. A tiny miscalculation and he could kill them all and put his base out of commission, and that barely merits a scolding from the CO.
I remember seeing this movie on TV as a kid and being jarred by two things. Individualists to a one. Any excuse the viewer makes for his behavior seems inadequate. Plainly he bullies his crew, which is why he kicks one member out. Hollywood at the time ordained that even the irredeemable must be ennoble themselves by the finale, but that lands flat, too. Many combat films were shot in black and white years after the Technicolor et al Revolution simply to make it easier to use actual stock footage of fighters attacking bombers.
It was cheaper. Models carelessly doused in lighter fluid represent crashing planes, and the stock footage never seamlessly fits in with nicely-detailed aircraft interior and exterior shots of gunners trying to chase off fighters.
The few actual flying scenes remind us there were plenty of air-worthy Bs around 17 years after World War II ended. If this script feels like it pulls its moral, sexual and violent punches, that must have been because he was running up against the mores of the day and a director Philip Leacock, best known for his later TV work without the status to push back at studio and star efforts to water it down. Email Address:. Follow MovieNation movienation. Movie Nation. Skip to content.
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