Battle Taxi

No doubt, the film contains more than its share of deficiencies, which have been amply pointed out in previous reviews of this title. But we have to remember that it was probably shot on a minuscule budget, and most likely in a heluva hurry, for the war had been over for at least a year before it got released. For me, "Battle Taxi" rates 4-5 for cinematic quality, but as a document of aviation history it's at least an 8, and for sentimental value (for me), it's off the charts. Along with Richard Widmark's "Hell and High Water," this was my favorite movie back around 1958, when I was four years old. My old man was an Air Force fighter jock at that time, having flown F-80s in Korea, now stationed at Hamilton Field north of San Francisco, flying F-86s. For whatever reason, I absolutely loved helicopters, especially the H-19, and a Chickasaw pilot lived on the same street as we did in Novato. One of my earliest memories is of being invited out to the base to see a real H-19, and actually getting to SIT IN THE COCKPIT, while my brother and cousins had to stand below in the cargo bay. I hadn't seen this film in at least 30 years when it showed up on TCM around 2005. Yet I remembered it in almost every detail, especially the "truck gas" episode. Seeing it again was a priceless time-warp experience. PS: for any H-19 fans out there, floating around YT is a 25-minute Army training film about pre-flight inspection of the Chickasaw. I would have given my last toy revolver back in 1958 to have seen that!

Rough tough, phone in the performance and cash the paycheck Captain Sterling Hayden commands a fleet of helicopters in the Korean War. Can he keep his BATTLE TAXIS in the air rescuing shot down pilots, or will re-purposed hot shot pilot Arthur Franz keep flying the copters into unnecessary danger?

If you want character driven drama, any sense of suspense, or performances you'll remember five minutes after "The End", this is not the movie for you. If you want camp, atrocious dialog, and amazing overacting, this also is not the film for you. But, if you love watching spliced bits of stock footage, newsreel stuff, and endless shots of helicopters and jet fighters in the midst of not so exciting action, this is your movie. Heck, this flick even has Hayden and Franz show a group of hot shot pilots a movie full of stock footage, newsreel stuff and helicopters, just to get all that stuff that had been rotting at the stock company's shelves in.

The performances are pretty dull -- but in fairness to the actors, there is so much footage from other sources, they don't have much time to develop their characters beyond the desired stereotypes. The script is pretty dreary as well, with only one moment of actual originality appearing two-thirds of the way. But if you enjoy looking at old helicopters and jets, this is actually a pretty valuable film.

The kind of thing I'd love to hear the back story on. When allowed to happen, perfectly well acted, good story, great realism (not the hardware, but Art 15 for screwing up, yelled at by superiors over paperwork...) and well enough scripted.

Also yes, AMAZING access to military equipment, including current helicopters. And then... they wasted much of it. Long sequences of stock montages for no reason, they even ran the film backwards during a flying scene, rather obviously.

Also photographed pretty boringly. Overall decent, could have been good to great. Wasted opportunity but still a must see for helicopter nerds.

Everything about this movie is wrong.... or just plain bad.

From the writing, directing, choice of stock footage, etc.... the dialog stunk to high heaven. The editor of the stock footage even screwed that up by showing a few seconds of a jet about to start, then the blades revolving as a big radial on a B-29 started to turn followed immediately by the blast of a jet tailpipe as it begins to taxi..... I can't go on. This has to be at or very near the top of the list of really bad war movies of all time. Close ground support by jets instead of the prop jobs that actually did it held over from WWII. Huge formations of aircraft fly over constantly as though at a big air show, which is probably where most of the stock footage came from. Just awful.

A very good movie for all the aviation buffs : it can easily be considered as the "Sikorsky H-19 " helicopter definitive film. Then , there are a lot of good old Sabres and Shooting Stars, some S-51 Hely and other USAF stuff of the period(F-51 , B-45, B-29, Hu-16) . Haiden was a super actor and Franz did his best. A must for all the Hely lovers and aviation fans. Typical production of the early fifties, mainly done to promote Air Force and to give an idea of the hard work usually done by the Air Rescue Service men. The aviation movies regarding the Korean conflict are usually full of North American F-86 Sabres and are the vehicle for daring and handsome Fighter Pilots. This B movie is an honest one mainly produced to inform people of the obscure and dangerous work the SAR people performed and still do in saving life of pilots.