Toward the Unknown

The one and only film that William Holden produced as well as starred in is this great tribute to the test pilots of the United States Air Force who were breaking all kinds of flying speed records in the Fifties, the new age of jet and rocket propulsion. Toward The Unknown is about as authentic as you can get in a film about flying, being shot at Edwards Air Force Base as it was.

Holden plays an Air Force pilot who was a POW in Korea and was tortured and broke under it. For that reason General Lloyd Nolan is reluctant to give him a chance at test flying the latest jets and even more so with the untried rocket technology of the X-2. Pulling for him is Nolan's second in command at Edwards, Charles McGraw, and Virginia Leith who is Nolan's secretary. In fact Nolan and Holden are both out courting her as well which puts another dimension to the situation.

This film is an absolute must for aviation buffs just like Jet Pilot, the Howard Hughes produced film that starred John Wayne and Janet Leigh. Unlike that film, the story plot is reasonable and coherent in Toward The Unknown.

James Garner has a small part in this film as another test pilot in one of his earliest feature roles. So does Murray Hamilton who has a drinking problem and a real dislike for Holden whom he sees as a rival.

Toward The Unknown, fine product that it was, was the last film that William Holden was involved on the production end with. He found he did not like being involved in all the aspects of production as it were as so many of his other contemporaries enjoyed.

Still as a producer Holden batted 1.000. Toward The Unknown is a fine production and should be required viewing for aviation buffs.

This is an excellent film. Most people know Mervyn Leroy as a great director, but they may not recognize Beirne Lay, Jr. Lay was a B-17 pilot in the 100th Bomb Group, 8th AAF in WW II, and the co-author of the book "12 O'Clock High", from which the academy award movie of the same name was made.

Many aspects of this film are great: its desert scenery, aerial photography and accuracy of detail in regard to flight test during the 1950s are all top notch. The cast ,as played by such great character actors as Lloyd Nolan and an up and coming James Garner (a Korean War infantryman), are sincere and believable.

What impressed me most then and more so now, is the way the film approached the issue of a Korean War POW who had "cracked". Remember, this picture came out more than 10 years before Americans saw the results of North Vietnamese treatment of our downed air crews. In the 1950s POWs were expected to give only name, rank and serial number if captured. Those that failed to stand fast, to what is now recognized as an unattainable standard, were shunned. Brainwashing and emotional torture weren't understood until years later.

But this film used a very strong leading man (Holden) to focus on the sensitive issue of a "broken" pilot who tried to make his way back into American society and regain his dignity in the hardest court of opinion, the ranks of the active Air Force. Everything gels in this movie. It makes a good point many years ahead of its time. Under the same circumstances who knows how he'd survive being a POW? And ultimately we all can fail and redeem ourselves.

I agree, they need to put this one out on DVD or VHS, so we can see it more than just on an occasional late night TV movie.

Why "Toward The Unknown" is not on VHS or DVD astounds me! The cast is top notch, the filming on Edwards AFB has great historical significance, the director was no other than Mervyn LeRoy, and William Holden was at the peak of his career. The faddish and superficial "Top Gun" pales in comparison to the factual importance of this landmark work. As a flight instructor, I routinely show this film during breaks in my flying academic classes. It is always met with genuine enthusiasm and great curiosity from the young military pilots. The popularity of this film has inspired several websites devoted to it. "Toward The Unknown" is a must for DVD. Why hasn't some company done it?

The basis of this film is the true story of Walker "Bud" Mahurin, an Air Force double ace (WW II and Korea) who was shot down in Korea and while in a POW camp, was tortured into signing bogus confessions of war crimes. When he was released, he was instrumental in changing content of AF survival courses to reflect this mistreatment.

This movie has some beautiful flying scenes, but it is more than just another flying movie. William Holden is excellent as the emotionally shattered pilot attempting a comeback from disgrace. The supporting cast is pretty fair, with the exception of L.Q. Jones in a thankless comic relief part (not to cast aspersions on him as an actor, the part really bites). The aviation content is generally accurate, with some rare footage of the Bell X-2 and a failed bomber, the Martin B-51, marked in the movie as the Gilbert XF-120. If this came out on DVD, I'd sure buy it in a hot second!

Regarding Txgmajor's comment below on the XB-51- one of the main reasons this plane wasn't built was the fact that Glenn Martin, owner of Martin Aircraft and maker of the B-51, sided with the Navy regarding the political dogfight over control of Naval aviation and the merits of the Air Force's pet bomber project at the time, the B-36, featured in Jimmy Stewart's "Strategic Air Command". Martin did build the Canberra bomber for the USAF under license, but never again was able to sell an original design to the Air Force. Old grudges die hard.

As a life-long military aviation buff,this is one of my favorite movies. Other reviewers here have mentioned that it contains a few technical inaccuracies and some formulaic characters and plot devices.This is true, but it is a piece of '50s film-making and some of that is to be expected.It has also been mentioned as a great companion piece to "The Right Stuff", with which I wholly agree. In 1984, when seeing TRS for the first time, I thought "The folks who made this obviously saw "Toward the Unknown" and copied some of its style", especially in the scenes where aircraft are shown from above climbing towards the camera with the desert in the background. One reviewer refers to the "fictitious bomber" in the movie. The bomber was quite real, being the XB-51, which was tested but never adopted for service. I've always been a fan of the "X" series of rocket planes and the pilots who flew them, and the inclusion of the beautiful, dart-like Bell X-2 in this film is one of its highlights for me. About fifteen years ago I had a taped from TV copy of this movie that I got off of TBS or TNT, but it is long since bit the dust. I'd dearly love to have it on DVD.