Les espions s'amusent

This was filmed in 1950, and not released until 1957 due to producer Howard Hughes dissatisfaction with the finished film. He tinkered with various scenes for seven years, until the new aircraft he had wanted to showcase in 1950 was outdated by the time of the film's release. Scripted by Jules Furthman, it plays like a airborne remake of "Ninotchka" (1939) and 1950 anti-Communist philosophizing.

John Wayne plays Col. Jim Shannon of the Air Force. He and his squadron spot a Russian plane, flown by Olga (Janet Leigh). After getting her plane to land at the Air Force base, and questioning her, he falls in love with her. After courting her at the Pentagon's behest, so she will let information about Russia slip, he finds out she's a spy. The plot then goes into comic book territory, and loses all credibility and interest.

The script is the main problem. It changes tone from scene to scene, veering from far-fetched melodrama to crude comedy and back. Wayne plays his persona, not his character. Leigh goes from being brainy to being a "dumb blonde", with no explanation. The two do the best they can to be amusing.

I can barely tell von Sternberg directed the movie. The only sign of him is the many loving closeups Leigh is given. Winton C. Hoch directed the beautiful cinematography. Bronislau Kaper's score is much more amusing than the script.

This may be of interest to aviation buffs, and Wayne/Leigh/von Sternberg completists. All others beware.

I waited a long time to see this movie, now I have and I must say I found it better than I had reason to expect. It is a fast moving comedy with many really funny scenes. Could it be this was the first movie that made fun of the Cold War? Could it be it was shelved for years for that reason (maybe the war in Corea made it inopportune to laugh about such matters)? Josef von Sternberg, steeped in German Expressionism, would be the last director you'd expect to helm a movie that at first sight seems to be an older version of Top Gun. But things are set straight very soon as it becomes evident that this is supposed to be a comedy in the vein of something by Ernst Lubitsch or Billy Wilder. Ninotchka comes to mind, and in a way - a hilarious way - Janet Leigh as the (intentionally?) grounded Russian jet pilot is in the footsteps of Greta Garbo here. So John Wayne as American jet pilot is a reticent, rather shy Melvyn Douglas. In his part you'd rather expect Cary Grant, and Wayne does seem to be slightly embarrassed throughout the movie.

Vivacious Janet Leigh's physical assets are highlighted as much as possible and with great success. There is a nice striptease scene in which she gets out of her cute white overalls, and each time she starts peeling off a new layer of clothing - woooosh - a jet plane is heard diving down. It's really a hoot. Soon she reappears in the American's war room in a neatly pressed Red Army uniform, full of medals and fruit salad (she must have stashed it somewhere in that jet plane of hers). Soon she and Wayne are off to Palm Springs, so that she can see what the Commies are missing. Wayne, in turn, gets a whiff of Socialist reality later on, as he accompanies the Russien pilot he sort of married back home. It's grim and Stalag-like, of course.

There is a lot of aerial footage in Jet Pilot and it is high quality material that still fascinates. A lot of elegant acrobatics is performed and filmed from different angles. But even the jets are well embedded in the comedy this movie ultimately is. One of the scene I liked best: Janet Leigh escapes. She runs to a jet with its – er – engine already running, pushes away the ladder and dashes of as if it were a little sports car or some getaway after a heist in a gangster movie. It's unparalleled and one of many laughs Jet Pilot offers.

As ludicrous as the narrative and dramatics are, this movie has some of the best, even wonderful, jet-age aerial scenes ever filmed. All in color, too!

Forget the story, discard any literary seriousness..., for genuine vintage military aircraft buffs, the flight footage alone is more than worth the price. Also has great shots of aircraft on the ground. It's like a historical (occassionally hysterical) air museum in motion.

The fact that it avoided grainy/phony stock shots, that the aerial footage was shot especially for this movie, that Chuck Yeager performed much of the stunt flying, and that there is actual original footage of the Bell X-1 in flight, makes this movie a true gem for military aviation buffs.

For Paul Frees fans, his brief appearance is incredibly energetic.

Oddly, the DVD is letterboxed, but the 1950 production (with a delayed 1957 release) was shot before the widescreen era, and should have been uncropped full-screen on video.

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Cold War romance brought to you not by Kraft, makers of fine cheese, but by Howard Hughes in all his mentally ill glory. There's John Wayne doing his best John Wayne, which is always fun. We get lots of scenes of flying jets complete with a seemingly endless soundtrack of jet noises. What are jet noises? You know, that sound like on the Roadrunner cartoons when Wile E. Coyote strapped a rocket to his back. But the main reason to watch this is lovely Janet Leigh, Hughes' muse of the moment. The camera's absolutely in love with her. She made many better pictures but few quite as enjoyable for me. It's a good movie of its type, helped along by some unintended comedy and the lovely Ms. Leigh. It's the kind of movie I just like to look at even if I don't care what the actors are saying.

I don't see why so many people hated this film, i actually sort of liked it. It's much better than several other John Wayne movies like The Sea Chase and Blood Alley. This was Joseph Von Sternberg's last film and he didn't like it either. This was made in 1950 but wasn't released until 1957. It stars off with a landing on an air force base and the pilot turns out to be Janet Leigh. The air force just want to get information out of here and give John Wayne the job. Wayne falls in love with her pretty quickly but you don't know about Janet Leigh. The air force find out she's a spy and are going to deport her but John Wayne marries her first. The air force doesn't like it but decides to send John Wayne over to Russia to get information out of them. John Wayne is good as usual and Janet Leigh is very sexy in this movie, just watch the first scene in John Wayne's office, you'll see what i mean.