Verwegene Landung

Surprisingly enough, most of the action scenes were from real wartime footage which is incorporated very well, its reality adds to the suspense instead of subtracting. The fact that James Michener is one of the characters makes it more interesting, but there's just too much talk about bravery and duty to make this film really shine. Well worth watching, good stars, but not above the routine.

One look at the opening of this movie lets you know thta is not the work of MGM boss Louis B Mayer but his replacement Dore Schary whose job was to cut costs and make profits which MGM had stopped doing, leading in grosses but last in profits. Schary brought his penchant for reality with him starting with Battleground and once more here again. The star of the first is the star of the latter and by that I mean Van Johnson. This movie is about the Korean war which in the movie is referred to as a police action because an official war was never declared. True story taken from the Saturday Evening Post tells the tale of bomber planes on a Naval tanker during the war. It is very matter of fact with little plot but the lives of the men and their difficulty destroying a rail track that just seems to get rebuilt every time. Walter Pidgeon provides good support as the commander and everyone else is just fine and a thirty minute rescue scene is so impressive, it makes you wonder if this people had not been watching the Europen movies; the droll delivery, the spacial pacing, the voice over that is a third character, the actual footage of attacks because any attack or firing is actual footage. Fine movie all around that needs to be seen by more.

MEN OF THE FIGHTING LADY is a very unglamorous, but very gritty Korean War aircraft carrier picture whose centerpiece--the episode of a jet fighter pilot blinded by gunfire and "talked" back to a safe landing--is a true account from a story by Harry A. Burns titled "The Case of the Blind Pilot." The secondary script source for the story line is author James Michener (TALES OF THE SOUTH SEAS, HAWAII, THE SOURCE) who is actually portrayed in the film by Louis Calhern.

The lives of jet fighter pilots aboard the Fighting Lady in the Sea of Japan and their treacherous missions to destroy key North Korean military installations serve as the exposition for this slice-of-life, often neglected chapter in American war history. The mood and atmosphere of the film contain an unmistakable Korean War grimness that clouds over the men from beginning to end as they cut through the harsh North Korean skies battling ceaseless anti-aircraft fire in mission after mission.

MEN OF THE FIGHTING LADY is unromantic and raw. It's theme is the harsh, day-to-day experience of jet pilots who flew their missions under the gloom of being shot out of the air. For it is well worth remembering that unlike Viet Nam and subsequent Iraq wars, Korean War bombing missions exposed pilots to blistering anti-aircraft fire and attacking enemy aircraft resulting in numerous pilot casualties and downed planes. Not to be forgotten is that the Korean War was the first, full-blown "jet aircraft war" in history.

The opening of the film begins with a nostalgic flashback over "ham and eggs" recalled by Louie Calhern who recalls the episodes aboard the Fighting Lady and the lives of heroic pilots during the Korean War conflict. The lives of the men and their interaction with their commanders lead to the film's signal sequence in which Ensign Kenneth Schecter (Dewey Martin) is strafed by enemy fire in his cockpit while on a mission and radios back that he is blind. Lt Thayer (Van Johnson) calms him and ultimately talks him back to a perfect landing aboard the Fighting Lady. In another moving scene at Christmas, the entire squadron watches movie footage of a pilot's wife sending her love to her husband---who had just lost his life on a mission.

Frank Lovejoy and Walter Pigeon are perfect fits as salty naval officers bearing up under the harsh war conditions in the Sea of Japan at that time. Former MGM musical comedy star Van Johnson is excellent as Lt. Thayer guiding the sightless ensign back in safely to the carrier deck. A young Kennan Wynn portrays the anxiety of a flight deck signalman very effectively.

There may have been better Korean War films--BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI, PORK CHOP HILL, RETREAT, HELL, but many of those fine films are packaged within romantic portrayals of war. MEN OF THE FIGHTING LADY has no romantic sub-plot, no love story, and, in short, no women. The film is superior in its depiction of the reality of a jet pilot's life walking the thin line between returning from a mission in one piece and facing annihilation. MEN OF THE FIGHTING LADY also contains effective and very real stock footage of jet take-offs and landings as well as North Korean targets under actual cannon fire from American sorties.

MEN OF THE FIGHTING LADY should be viewed by anyone interested in the true mood and atmosphere of the Korean War years when a jet pilot faced demise on every mission--and for the time in our nation's history when Starfighters and Scorpian jets ruled the skies over the Sea of Japan.

Trivia: MEN OF THE FIGHTING LADY should not be confused with the 1944 release THE FIGHTING LADY starring Charles Boyer and Robert Taylor. That film follows the exploits of the USS Yorktown.

Dennis Caracciolo

One of the finest of the Korea War films with dramatic airfights , following the hazardous exploits of a carrier and its crew . This action/adventure/War story is dedicated to the remarkable men who run the machines of war . It is based in events published in the Saturday Evening Post under the titles ¨The Forgotten Heroes of Korea¨ by James Michener and ¨The Case of the Blind Pilot¨ by commander Harry A. Burn USN. Regarding a famous writer , Louis Calhern as James A Michener , visits an aircraft carrier during the Korean war to learn more about it and the way it's run. He also gets to find out more about the Navy and Marine aviators themselves , their internal and external conflicts and dangers of their job . Torn out of a tortured sky !. M-G-M presents the heroic story of what happened to the Men of the Fighting Lady ! .No man is an island , entire of itself.. Any man´s death dimininishes me because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls -it tolls for thee -John Donne.

A Korean war drama movie with flag-waging American sentiment , thrills , emotion , dangerous aerial scenes , occasional drama , battle scenes and a lot of stock footage . Features the stories of selected pilots stationed on a US aircraft carrier in the Pacific during the Korean war . The stories told to Louis Calhern as writer James A Michener , centering around pilot Van Johnson and standing out his feat in which he helps a blinded Dewey Martin land his aircraft safely on the carrier deck . This is a powerful film competently directed by Andrew Marton and it displays extremely realistic aerial sequences , in fact this picture was made with the cooperation of the department of Defense and the United States Navy , with particular appreciation to Commander Air Force , US Pacific fleet and the officers and men of his command . This exciting and thrilling film focus on the group of pilots and their perilous missions on their planes . Gene Ruggerio's editing of the war footage was so expertly made that he was even questioned by the Pentagon when they had a hard time believing the scenes were achieved by skillful mountage and painted backdrops . This Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1954) production is a hell of a war movie , combining with some effective quiter moments . It is plenty of riveting technical detail and there's richly rounded support cast . There's also also an introspective real guy interfacing by the ensemble cast , as well as a nice group of actors giving fiercely well-defined portrayals of pilots and soldiers under stress , being masterfully played by a lot of familiar faces , such as : Van Johnson , Walter Pidgeon, Louis Calhern , Keenan Wynn , Frank Lovejoy, Robert Horton , Bert Freed , among others, and look for 'Beaver' Jerry Mathers as one of Keenan Wynn's sons.

It displays a moving and rousing musical score by classic composer Miklós Rózsa . It's all topped off with the vividly charming cinematography which typified the Korean war period from director of photography George Folsey . This propaganda and agreeable picture was professionally directed by Andrew Marton , and there this great filmmaker creates some nice aerial action scenes , as it has worn well through the years , in spite of the extremely jingoist and patriotist yarn . Marton's filmmaking is masterly in its economy , power and pace . Craftsman director Marton made a lot of films in all kind of genres and creating good works . Marton was a specialist on Wartime movies, such as : ¨The thin red line¨also based on James A. Michener movie , ¨The longest day ¨and adventure movies as ¨African Texas style¨, ¨Around the world under the sea¨, ¨Clarence , the cross-eyed lion¨, and ¨King Salomon's mines¨(1950) co-directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton directed the second unit , he then was tasked with replacing Compton Bennett as director after the latter had been taken ill . One of his more prestigious assignments came about by chance to lay in some excellent work as second-unit director , notably in charge of the chariot race for William Wyler's ¨Ben-Hur¨ (1959), as well as of the Normandy invasion sequences for the World War II in the sensational ¨The Longest day¨(1942) . After his contract with MGM expired in 1954, Marton founded his own production company in conjunction with fellow Hungarian émigrés Ivan Tors and Laslo Benedek . He later concentrated on TV adventure series, helming the pilots, respectively for "Daktari" (1966) and "Cowboy in Africa" . Men of the Fighting Lady (1954) rating : 6.5/10 , better than average.

If you don't mind mid-fifties melodrama, there's a whole lot of good action, suspense, and some nice, patriotic touches in Men of the Fighting Lady, an 80 minute long recruitment poster for being a fighter-bomber pilot, especially in an unpopular war. There's actually so much as-realistic-as-you-can-get-for-1954 action in the movie that the human element almost trips up the gun-camera footage of things being strafed and napalmed.

Yet, even if you find the talk-talk irritating (I didn't because it rang true), you can't dismiss the home movie sent to the air group on the carrier for Christmas or the blinded Panther pilot fumbling with a morphine syringe, trying to drive back the pain of his injuries so he can listen to his wingman talk him down.

I'd tune in the next time Turner Classic Movies shows Men of the Fighting Lady, and even if you don't believe in the Iraq War, you'll really get a taste of the flesh and blood reality of being a carrier pilot, dropping ordnance on things that don't seem particularly important to blow up.