Jet Pilot

Cold War romance brought to you not by Kraft, makers of fine cheese, but by Howard Hughes in all his mentally ill glory. There's John Wayne doing his best John Wayne, which is always fun. We get lots of scenes of flying jets complete with a seemingly endless soundtrack of jet noises. What are jet noises? You know, that sound like on the Roadrunner cartoons when Wile E. Coyote strapped a rocket to his back. But the main reason to watch this is lovely Janet Leigh, Hughes' muse of the moment. The camera's absolutely in love with her. She made many better pictures but few quite as enjoyable for me. It's a good movie of its type, helped along by some unintended comedy and the lovely Ms. Leigh. It's the kind of movie I just like to look at even if I don't care what the actors are saying.

At the ripe old age of 50, I was amazed to see JET PILOT today for the very first time. Not many Wayne films have escaped me, but this one had. As I was watching the film, it occurred to me that ol Duke must have enjoyed being a fighter pilot (as he should) because he played a pilot in at least 6 films I could think of off the top of my head. Janet Leigh was not overly convincing as a Soviet, but WOW is she gorgeous... WHO CARES. Still, if she had a convincing Russian accent and some leather this would have been the Duke's best effort! Great film of some wonderful machines, and such a treat to see them as well. I became a fighter pilot because of the F-86 though I was too old to fly one... this film features them constantly. Chuck Yeager stunted for the film and broke a tail in a Sabre pressing the envelope. Overall, just a nice film, that was totally unlike any Wayne film I had ever seen. Normally, you know exactly how the plot will go, and that Good, Truth, and the American Way will prevail... but this one... actually makes you wonder if that is going to be the case?!?! Maybe not for the Duke, you know he has a trick up his sleeve, but Janet Leigh?? She is a wild card and you never know till the end who will win out. This movie was akin to finding a $20 bill in your pocket from last year... it has been there a long time, and just a nice treat to come across it.

The aerial footage is nice, but once people start talking, the film goes into a tailspin. The plot seems as though it was made up as they went along (on a few occasions, I thought a reel must be missing) and I don't think I'm giving anything away (like there was any suspense anyway) by saying John Wayne must really love Janet Leigh to stay with her after she pistol whips him. Twice. It's unintentionally hilarious but unbelievably bad. I always like Hans Conreid, but he doesn't show up until the very end. All of the other actors in the film have a wooden presentation, as though they brought in actual air force officers to appear in the film. And if the U.S. military really hatched a plan like this, there should be courts martial all around.

There is great colour footage of F-86, F-80, B-36 and Bell X aircraft here interspersed with utterly ridiculous lines and a bizarre plot. Typically paper thin film making from Howard Hughes with big stars, high production values and zero aspiration towards making a decent movie. How some reviewers can say Wayne acts well in this film beats me! Janet Leigh is gorgeous though...

I waited a long time to see this movie, now I have and I must say I found it better than I had reason to expect. It is a fast moving comedy with many really funny scenes. Could it be this was the first movie that made fun of the Cold War? Could it be it was shelved for years for that reason (maybe the war in Corea made it inopportune to laugh about such matters)? Josef von Sternberg, steeped in German Expressionism, would be the last director you'd expect to helm a movie that at first sight seems to be an older version of Top Gun. But things are set straight very soon as it becomes evident that this is supposed to be a comedy in the vein of something by Ernst Lubitsch or Billy Wilder. Ninotchka comes to mind, and in a way - a hilarious way - Janet Leigh as the (intentionally?) grounded Russian jet pilot is in the footsteps of Greta Garbo here. So John Wayne as American jet pilot is a reticent, rather shy Melvyn Douglas. In his part you'd rather expect Cary Grant, and Wayne does seem to be slightly embarrassed throughout the movie.

Vivacious Janet Leigh's physical assets are highlighted as much as possible and with great success. There is a nice striptease scene in which she gets out of her cute white overalls, and each time she starts peeling off a new layer of clothing - woooosh - a jet plane is heard diving down. It's really a hoot. Soon she reappears in the American's war room in a neatly pressed Red Army uniform, full of medals and fruit salad (she must have stashed it somewhere in that jet plane of hers). Soon she and Wayne are off to Palm Springs, so that she can see what the Commies are missing. Wayne, in turn, gets a whiff of Socialist reality later on, as he accompanies the Russien pilot he sort of married back home. It's grim and Stalag-like, of course.

There is a lot of aerial footage in Jet Pilot and it is high quality material that still fascinates. A lot of elegant acrobatics is performed and filmed from different angles. But even the jets are well embedded in the comedy this movie ultimately is. One of the scene I liked best: Janet Leigh escapes. She runs to a jet with its – er – engine already running, pushes away the ladder and dashes of as if it were a little sports car or some getaway after a heist in a gangster movie. It's unparalleled and one of many laughs Jet Pilot offers.