Chain Lightning

I saw this movie when it first came out and jets were practically unheard of. Three years later I was in Korea with the 335th FIS, and the King then was the F-86. The original movie showed a needle nose designed to break the air at high speed as a diver points his hands to break the water, and the air intakes were on the sides. The F-86 had one big intake in front which was dangerous because one of my best friends, a mechanic, was accidentally sucked up the intake while chocking wheels on the run-up strip when the pilot hit the throttle at 100%. He was gone in the blink of an eye. Bogie's plane could fly up to 60,000 ft and top speed of about 1600 mph. General Dynamics must have used this movie for the development of the F-16, because there seems to be a lot of similarities. I took an interest in some of the comparisons after seeing the movie "Afterburn".

From 1950, "Chain Lightning" stars Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Raymond Massey, Richard Whorf, and James Brown. Brown played Lt. Rip Masters on Rin Tin Tin and I believe was my first crush.

This is one of those films Bogart probably made to fulfill his contract obligations with Warners, the other one being "The Two Mrs. Carrolls," a scream of a film in which he's really terrible. He's so rarely bad, and he's certainly not bad in this.

Bogart plays Matt Brennan, a pilot, and in the beginning, he's testing a plane. His girlfriend Joan (Eleanor Parker) rushes up and begs her boss (Raymond Massey) to order him down, as she's afraid for him.

The story then goes into flashback, with Matt and Joan during World War II. He was a bomber pilot, in love with Joan. He flew hazardous missions from England to Germany, while Joan is a nurse. He leaves for the states first - they want to get married, but he is unable to find anyone who can give him permission.

Once back in the states, after bouncing around for a bit, Matt is hired as a test pilot by Leland Willis (Raymond Massey) an aircraft manufacturer.

There, he re-connects with Carl Troxell (Whorf) who is now dating Joan, Willis' secretary. Apparently after he left England, Matt never contacted Joan, even though he wrote letters that he never sent. He felt the life that he could offer her wasn't good enough.

Matt takes the new jet JA-4 on a hazardous flight, and that brings us back to the first scene.

This is a pretty ordinary film, with Parker looking beautiful and Bogart acting tough - kind of Rick Blaine as a pilot. I will take issue with what one person on this board said, that Massey was playing Howard Hughes and doing a bad job. If the studio had wanted someone to play Howard Hughes, they would have hired someone else and named the character Howard Hughes. Massey was playing a Howard Hughes type, and he was fine.

The aviation part of this film was ahead of its time for sure. The rest of it was not special. I've always loved Bogart's acting, and even though he's probably going through the motions here, I'd rather watch him go through the motions than almost anyone. Eleanor Parker, another favorite of mine, gives a lovely performance and is absolutely beautiful.

After World War II is over, bomber pilot Humphrey Bogart becomes a test pilot who flies the jet planes Raymond Massey's company builds. There's also a bland romance with Eleanor Parker. It's Bogart's first movie released in the 1950s, a decade he sadly would not survive. Bogie does fine but, truth be told, he's too old for the part. Richard Whorf plays his romantic rival. You'll forget him as soon as the movie ends. Eleanor Parker does what she can with her part as "the prize." Raymond Massey is solid as always. James Brown is the clichéd country bumpkin pilot. The plane stuff is interesting, even exciting in spots, but the story is so dull and put together in as workmanlike a manner as possible. When you chip away the advanced technology, you're basically left with one of those 1930s movies about the perils of flight. Only those were usually more fun than this. Not something I'd recommend unless you're an aviation buff or a Bogart completist.

As a pilot in the war you've been so brave, what are the chances you'd avoid finding a grave, the time comes round to go back home, to find a smaller aerodrome, leaving the one you love behind, without a wave. A new age of aeronautics ushers in, flying high where air and oxygen are thin, you get the chance to take a jet, new world records are then set, as you loop the loop, then twist and turn and spin. All in all the stories tame and rather plain, not really Top Gun but you are in the fast lane, alas there's little there to fuel, to make you salivate and drool, there is no lightening, and there's very little chain.

Chain Lightning is pretty clearly riding the early '50's interest which arose from the disclosure of Yeager's shattering of the sound barrier in '46. The plane Bogie flies is visually a cross between the Bell X1 and X2. (Paned flush windscreen, but swept wings.) "This is the JA-3, position 300 miles to the north of you...Oops! Just passed you." It's not really a Bogie movie, it's one of the first hot-plane movies. I liked it a lot, since I was a hot-plane fan as a little kid. Bogie does OK, certainly. Little details like the perforations in the bottom of his faceplate (in a "pressure suit"!) rather hint that some members of the crew didn't quite understand what they were creating, but I'd rather watch him trying to shake off that stuck rocket booster or land dead stick than sit through another run down some Death Star trench:). It fits into the genre occupied by The Dam Busters and 663 Squadron, fast flying, but none of their "combat" content. The people support the hardware adequately:).