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.

Too bad that a film like this is not on tape or DVD. A whole generation of viewers miss seeing a film that is history and drama of the birth of the space age. This is a gripping story that is well told and verges on being a documentary about the test pilots at Edwards AFB.

Toward the Unknown (1956)

In some ways this is fascinating stuff—you get a glimpse of mid-50s American military aeronautics, and a specific mention (and micro-glimpse) of the rocket efforts marking early space technology. William Holden plays a troubled test pilot who leads us through the different planes and testing efforts via his own return and rise through the system. It's not bad.

However.

You can't quite call this a formula film—maybe a genre film if there is a genre called test pilots in trouble—but there is a canned quality to this whole thing that holds it back unreasonably. There is the woman from his past who loves him but also has an affair going with the general (the likable Lloyd Nolan) on the base (Edwards Air Force Base). There are the competing test pilots (all good actors known mostly for television). It makes for a good group that is forced into a thin plot about rivalry and camaraderie.

The really best part of the plot (and the reason I watched the movie at first) is that Holden is a man who was in a Korean War prison camp, where he was abused and tortured and "brainwashed." It's this last thing that was so talked about at the time, and which was used to make some really terrific movies like "The Manchurian Candidate," and I wanted to see where it would go here. Well, a heads up, it goes nowhere. His prison camp experience causes a pivotal scene in the movie on the base, but it doesn't seem to have anything to do with brainwashing.

Too bad on that.

Holden by this point in his career is not the leading man he once was, though this is just five years after his terrific comeback year with "Union Station" and "Sunset Blvd." But he's really good, holding his scenes together with the woman (Virginia Leith) who has the eyes (blue) and lips (red) to pop on the WarnerColor screen, but who can't act very well.

Obviously if you like airplanes and the air force, this is a movie to definitely see. Some great footage of test aircraft in flight (real footage from the military). And of course the whole supersonic flying experiments were a big deal at the time. If all of this seems a bore and too historical for a good movie, you're partly right. It's not a great plot or drama. But it's not a terrible movie by any means. Director Mervyn LeRoy, rightfully a legend by now, and cinematographer Harold Rossen, equally a legend, together made sure that it held water and survives it's own flaws very well.

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.

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?