The McConnell Story

i always thought Alan Ladd was not an exciting actor. his height was not impressive and always gave me a midget feeling, an actor too short to play big roles in any movie. if it was not the script that made him a greater hero, he would never become a memorable actor like other taller actors. about 95% of this film was unnecessary yada yada scenes and the other 5% left was barely watchable which included the boring air dog fights with the MIGs that didn't seem with any suspenseful tension, the dialog during the air support mission also sounded boring, then the small part of the 5% showed how this guy as a test pilot and crashed himself to death in a fireball also didn't create any heartfelt feeling at all to me. this film was one of the worst military films that i've ever viewed and very very forgettable and not even needed to write a positive review.

Even for a 1950s "wave the flag" movie, this film's plot is just, well, very bad. It is cliche ridden and inaccurate. The real Capt. Joe McConnell, Korea's highest scoring ace, got all his 16 air to air victories in just the last six months of the Korean War, and was shot down once himself. This could have made for an exciting docudrama. Instead, the director chose to do something less than a high school drama presentation showing June Allison flittering around with her screechy dialogue and Alan Ladd wearing his G-suit too low on his waist. (Never mind the inaccuracies like showing Ladd in a B-17 in WW 2, when McConnell was a B-24 nav).

The "aerial combat sequences" were laughable, especially the F-86s waltzing to AFN radio.

A much better period piece is "The Hunters" with Robert Mitchum.

I started watching this movie without knowing anything about the characters. I fell in love with it almost immediately! In fact, I watched it a second time with my husband. The story line is easy to follow and is faithful to Joe's real life story. The fight scenes when he's serving in the Korean War were well done, in my opinion. This movie made in 1955 only a year after his death was faithful to their lives together.

Typical 1950s fluff about a great, yet tragic hero. Entertaining for a rainy night, nothing else. However, it should be noted that the saddest movie star that ever lived, Alan Ladd, finally found some happiness in making this film. He fell in love with his co-star June Allyson; only problem, both were married at the time. Seems June looked alot like Ladd's first wife; his highschool sweetheart. Alas, Mr.Ladd's happiness was short-lived, as was he.

Not a GREAT film, but certainly watchable. You could easily swap June Allyson's "stalwart wife" performance here with her roles in STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND and THE GLENN MILLER STORY. Alan Ladd was an excellent choice for the title role as you can see at this site: www.acepilots.com/korea_mcconnell.html. Sadly, the ending of the film had to be re-written when Captain McConnell was killed during a test flight of an F86 at Edwards AFB in May of 1954 while the film was still in production. Of Note: McConnell was indeed shot down himself, but he managed to not only nurse his plane to where he could eject and be rescued at sea ("I barely got wet"), he also shot down the Mig (piloted by a Russian "Ace") that had gotten him! He last three kills came on his final day of combat missions whereupon his commanding General ordered his top ACE home.