Destino às Nuvens

Despite the presence of Glenn Ford, "The Flying Missile" is an awfully dull film. And, although the title makes it sound as if it's a sci- fi movie, it isn't.

The film is a boring story about some folks on a sub who insist that they learn to incorporate missiles onto their ship. But, this isn't done so they all go to missile training school. Along the way, their commander (Ford) strikes up a relationship with a not particularly interesting lady.

During the course of this film, you'll see a lot of stock footage that is often crappily assembled. For example, you'll see a Bearcat airplane without a large droptank (for fuel)--yet when it's in mid- air, it has one. And, when it lands, it's missing. Also, you'll see a V-2 style missile become some other sort of missile after it's launched! And, a jet chase plane, in some shots, sports propellers!! Talk about sloppy and indifferent to continuity.

So, what you have is a dull film with worthless footage. Need I say more?

Of course McHale's Navy didn't appear until over a decade after this movie was made, but there are elements of this movie that remind me of McHale's Navy...stealing supplies, crewmen horsing around. The attempts at comedy were largely unsuccessful however.

This movie involves the implementation of Commander Talbot's (Glenn Ford) vision of missiles being launched from submarines. And he, and his crew, go through major contortions (a la McHale's Navy style) to get this accomplished. Of course, while so occupied, romance intervenes. And the girl's (Viveca Lindfors) father is a major stumbling block. He is a pacifist who is strongly against the commander's efforts.

Although slow moving, this film is still quite watchable. The acting is fair and the story is reasonable. It is obviously pro-military and I'm sure heartily embraced by the Dept. of Defense. For the amount of money which appears to have been spent on this production...very little...it turned out fairly well.

Although this is not a war movie per se, fans of WW2 era material will probably enjoy this one. My vote: 6 out of 10.

This film is in my 16mm collection and is quite old with various splices which makes it difficult to do a decent technical analysis. Additionally 16mm films are generally limited to mono sound tracks and substandard sound fidelity. If this film is available on video or DVD, I am unaware of it.

I stream videos in the background while I'm doing other work, and when I started this one, I wasn't expecting a lot. However, after a slow start, it grabbed me, and I ended up being distracted and not getting anything done. I also learned a few things I hadn't known, and followed up with a quick detour down a Wikipedia rabbit hole. All in all, a pleasant diversion.

The film is worth watching for Viveca Lindfors, who plays the most important part, in cajoling a war invalid back to life. That's the only human part of this war chronicle. It's all about testing missiles, and both Glenn Ford and Viveca Lindfors are agreed that this missle business is just awful, they just heartily dislike it, and so does her uncle. Still they go through with the project, Viveca losing her job in the bargain and Glenn ending up a cripple, but the interesting bit is how he returns to life in spite of his bitterness, total frustration and sense of guilt because of the loss of the life of his closest mate, for which he blames himself, and he is not altogether wrong in doing so. One small mistake in precarious ventures like this, and it can all go to blazes, which it does, but Viveca saves the situation. It's a rather humdrum ordinary cliché-kind sort of chronicle of no special interest, while you have to admit that Viveca Lindfors at least is beautiful.

This movie like so many old movies shows the relationship between officers and enlisted men as a bunch of friendly guys working together. This is not factual. Even on these tiny WWII subs, the enlisted men and officers were kept apart. The officers had their own separate mess and cook. Officers never fraternized with enlisted men. If you have never been in a WWII sub, it is informative. Even in these incredibly close quarters Naval discipline was enforced. In several scenes in this movie the sub Commander greets enlisted men as if they were high school pals. The real Navy was not at all like McHale's Navy.