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The real stars of this movie are the beautiful Grumman F9F Panther jets that we get to see launching from and landing on the carrier. The plot is mildly interesting, but nothing special. It is based on a story written by James Michener for the Saturday Evening Post. "The Bridges At Toko Ri" which was released the following year starring William Holden, Grace Kelly and Mickey Rooney is a more compelling story of carrier jet pilots in Korea, but Men of the Fighting Lady has better footage of the planes themselves. This movie does help you appreciate the very real dangers faced by pilots landing jets on pitching carrier decks. As the admiral in The Bridges at Toko Ri put it, "Where do we get such men?"

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.

Author James A. Michener visits the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany during the Korean War. He is tasked to write the crew's Christmas story. He is brought to flight surgeon Kent Dowling who recounts the story.

Released a year after the war, this is adapted from a magazine story by Michener. The use of the real thing and some real footage helps heighten the intensity. Seeing the real thing is fascinating even all these years later. Seeing the real bombing runs must have been compelling back in the day. I do remember the plane explosive crash on the carrier deck from somewhere else. I wonder if this is where it came from. Otherwise, the story is simple and the characters don't really stand out. These are good character actors and they do a solid job. As for the climatic story, it's just not that dramatic. The drama is concentrated on the landing and it's not that in doubt.

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 good and highly unusual film. It's highly unusual because the screenplay is based on two different short stories by two different authors! And, even more unusual, Louis Calhern plays one of these authors, the famous writer James Michener. It's also a bit unusual because it's a Korean War film....and, oddly enough, Hollywood made very few Korean War movies.

The story is about a group of fighter-bomber pilots flying Panther jets from a US aircraft carrier. What happened to the men is described to Michener (Louis Calhern) by the ship's doctor (Walter Pidgeon)....a story about the pilots flying interdiction missions over Korea. The part of the story that is longest and most interesting is a true story of a pilot hit by shrapnel. The plan is badly damaged, he is blinded and he cannot eject...and another pilot trails him and talks him down onto the carrier deck!

The story is interesting and the acting quite good. But like too many war films, it's filled with lot of grainy stock footage that obviously doesn't fit. What's worse, occasionally it's VERY sloppy...such as when a dark blue Panther jet becomes a silver F-84 fighter plane! Another time, during a bombing run, a Panther becomes a WWII era propeller fighter, the F4U Corsair*! This is not only sloppy but insults the audience's intelligence.

Overall, worth seeing...despite the sloppy footage issue.



* To folks who know a ton about planes, yes I know that the F4U Corsair was also used in Korea....but a propeller fighter becoming a jet fighter...that's just stupid and obvious.