Bombardier B.52

Interesting as well as tedious film at times , though . The picture contains a silly and boring love story ; being designed to showcase the US Air Force's brand-new B-52 Stratofortress bomber, including actual footage of jet plane and as such the studio received complete cooperation from the Air Force . As the B-52 Stratofortress bombers weighed 500,000 pounds and could fly at a speed of 650+ miles per hour and travel 17,000 miles without having to land and they could refuel in mid-air . This aerial drama deals with Sgt. Chuch Brennan (Karl Malden who steals the show as expert sergeant) always disliked playboy and hotshot, Col. Jim Herlihy (Efrem Zimbalist , he replaced Tab Hunter) . Now Chuck has even more reason to, Jim is dating his daughter, Lois (Natalie Wood ,during shooting, she was named "Miss Stratosphere of 1957" and "Sweetheart of Castle Air Force Base") . This movie's dedication shown at the end of the film states: "With grateful appreciation for the cooperation of the United States Air Force we proudly dedicate this picture to the crew chiefs and ground personnel , the indispensable men who contribute so much to our airpower."

This is a family drama , including an usual love story between a pilot colonel and a gorgeous young with her sergeant father objecting , interwoven with nice aerial footage of B 52 maneuvers . This film is a Warner Brother official studio tribute to the B-52 Stratofortress bomber air craft and the United States Air Force. This was apparently the first film in which the US Air Force's new B-52 Stratofortress bomber was featured. It appeared in a number of films afterward, notably A Gathering of Eagles (1963), Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), and By Dawn's Early Light (1990). Good quartet protagonist as Karl Malden , Efrem Zimbalist , Natalie Wood and Marsha Hunt . Although Natalie Wood received star billing with her name above the title, she actually only had a minor part . Fine plethora of secondaries , many of them uncredited , such as Ann Doran , John Doucette , Stuart Whitman , Bing Russell , Will Hutchins and recently deceased Juanita Moore . Colorful cinematography in Cinemascope by William H. Clothier , John Ford's usual , it was shot on location in in Merced County (California) Air Force base . Thrilling as well as rousing musical score by Leonard Rosenman .

The motion picture was professionally directed by Gordon Douglas. This is one of various and professional works of his long career as filmmaker . He was a Hollywood veteran director, directing early movies such as ¨Little rascals¨, ¨Spanky¨. He was an expert on adventures genre as ¨Black arrow¨ and ¨Fortunes of Captain Blood¨ , both starred by Louis Hayward ; but he's mainly specialist filmmaking Western , his first was ¨ Girl rush (1944)¨ and in the 40s directed ¨Doolins of Oklahoma¨ and ¨The Nevadan¨ for duo Harry Joe Brown-Randolph Scott . He went on directing Alan Ladd's vehicles as ¨Iron Mistress¨ and ¨The fiend who walked west¨ which resulted to be a Western rendition to ¨Kiss of death¨. In the 50s he proved his specialty on Western in the films starred by Clint Walker as ¨Fort Dobbs¨ ,¨Yellowstone Kelly¨, ¨Gold of seven Saints¨ and about legendary bandits as ¨Doolins of Oklahoma¨ and ¨Great Missouri raid¨ . After that , he filmed ¨Chuka(1967)¨ that bears remarkable resemblance to ¨Only the valiant¨ , the remake ¨Stagecoach (1966)¨ , and the superior ¨Rio Conchos¨. Douglas usually worked for Frank Sinatra in various films such as ¨Lady in Cement¨, ¨Tony Rome¨, ¨The detective¨ , ¨Robin and the 7 Hoods¨. Bombers B 52 , rating : Passable and acceptable , 6 . Well worth seeing .

I am NOT being negative when I say that "Bombers B-52" is a propaganda piece. Not all propaganda is necessarily evil and the film clearly is a giant recruiting film for the US Air Force. It features their new B-52 bomber and is intended as a publicity piece. However, he's the odd part...the film is also, at times, a bit like a soap opera. While the general plot is a lot like the superior "Strategic Air Command" where a man struggles to decide whether to stay on active duty or move to the private sector, there is the soapy element because the man with this struggle (Karl Malden) is under the impression that his Commanding Officer (Efram Zimbalest) is a playboy trying to wood Malden's daughter (Natalie Wood). Of course, it's all just a misunderstanding that could EASILY be explained away, but most of the film Malden and Zimbalest grunt and do their macho posturing instead of just talking. This makes an otherwise decent film a bit clichéd. During a few sequences, you really wish they'd have edited out the schmaltz and theatrics! It's a shame, as the air sequences are very nice (with a few amazing aerial shots of the bomber from above in mid-flight) and the film is a decent historical look into the Cold War.

A few things to note in the film: The interesting ejection sequence--it really opened my eyes about the way a crew would leave the plane if there was an emergency as well as the low flyover in Egypt--which surely would have resulted in the Egyptians shooting at the plane as well as an international incident!

This movie was made at the same period as Strategic Air Command, Bridges at Toko-Ri, The Hunters and other wave the flag Cold War error. Yes as stated it does have some overstated patriotic, my job is the most important job in the world sentiment to it. That being said, I am a former USAF maintenance technician who did work on B-52's amongst other airframes in my 20 year career. I enjoyed the movie for several reasons, one the airplane shots with the B-47, F-86, and B-52B's. There are a number of at best questionable plots in the movie but all in all not bad if you like early Air Force movies. And in opposition to a previous input, the maintenance tech on these airframes is all important to the scheme of thing. The "O's" get to fly them but could not do a thing with out the maintainers keeping them ready to fly.

If you love anything and everything about the B-52 than you'll love this film. That's what caused me to give it a six. It would have been higher; but this was a really dumb story. A really good cast was squandered on a poorly written story. The underlying story is about a misunderstanding that came out Karl Malden's character jumping to a conclusion about his commanding officer; that he doesn't bother to clarify. He just holds his bitterness about his conclusion until he finds himself working with Zimbalist again. Both men are assigned to the testing program. To make the story more interesting, I guess; Malden has a beautiful daughter (Natalie Wood). While the first part of this story was in Korea, the rest of the story is about the B-52 and Karl Malden trying to keep Effram Zimbalist away from his daughter. Because he thought Zimbalist had been a coward in Korea (and didn't bother to talk to him about it), so did everything he could to keep Zimbalist away from his daughter. He goes so far as resigning from the air force to be able to get his daughter away. However he winds up having to fly another long test flight while his resignation is being processed. During this test flight there is a major failure and most of the crew has bail out; the pilot (Zimbalist) stays with the plane and gets it back to the air base. It's here that the story gets really silly. When Malden bailed out they didn't get a very good fix on his position. So when the search is going badly Zimbalist's character decided he was going to take part in the search. So we have a story where a full colonel is riding in helicopter, taking part in a search and rescue operation. They get to an area to where they think he is; and they put the colonel down on the ground to search for Malden. He finds him, and this eventually gives him the chance to find out he was wrong about Zimbalist, all along. In the end all is forgiven and Malden now wants Zimbalist to marry his daughter. Even though Zimbalist is twenty years older then the girl he is pursuing (Natalie Wood). In this story the crew is working with the very first B-52's and supposedly doing some kind of advanced testing; the thing that is hard to believe is that there are no people from Boeing (the maker of the plane) working with this plane. Advanced testing like this is done with major involvement with the plane; they would even be flying on the plane during this kind of testing. And in the end, in this film the Air Force seems to be making all their decision about the B-52 based on the advice of one senior enlisted man. It's difficult to spell out how really silly this story is. It's a guilt pleasure that i have watched this film more then once. But I watch for the scenes with the 52. The underlying story is rubbish.

i just saw this from the DVD release.Its an enjoyable movie,as long as one doesn't ask too much.This is a simple story of a career technician of the air-force,and his problems with his daughter and a Colonel who dates her and whom he knew back from the Korean war.Natalie Wood who plays the daughter is in her blooming youth here. Malden is a pleasure to watch in his simple working man role,also his life doesn't look half-bad,he has a lovely wife and daughter and a job he loves and he is really good at.In fact,the America in the 50's look in beautiful widescreen and Technicolor,is the main the thing i liked about this movie. The subplot is about the B-52 bomber of course,and the movie shows in detail this huge aircraft.Its not really a plane very suited for movies,unlike fighter planes,but for airplane fans its interesting. All in all,i think its a decent movie but mostly for people who like airplanes.