Jet fighter (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Jet fighter |
| Original title | Jet pilot |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1957 |
| length | 113 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Josef von Sternberg |
| script | Jules Furthman |
| production |
Howard Hughes Jules Furthman |
| music | Bronislaw Kaper |
| camera | Winton C. High |
| cut | Michael R. McAdam , Harry Marker , William M. Moore , Frederic Knudtson |
| occupation | |
| |
Jet Fighter is an American aviator film by Josef von Sternberg, made between 1949 and 1953, starring John Wayne and Janet Leigh as opposing fighter pilots from the USA and the Soviet Union who fall in love.
action
Cold War , late 1940s, early 1950s. A Soviet defector flew with his jet fighter from his base in the far east of Siberia over the Bering Strait and landed on a US airfield. The commander in Alaska located air base , Air Force - Colonel Jim Shannon, is very surprised when he confronts the pilot: it's a woman! Her name is Anna Marladovna is Air Force - Lieutenant and beyond is also incredibly pretty. Anna asks for political asylum , but is not ready to betray her old homeland and divulge military secrets. Shannon should therefore treat the Russian woman courteously on behalf of Washington, pamper her with capitalist achievements such as steaks and champagne and, moreover, try to seduce her. In fact, the mismatched couple fall in love. Fearing that Anna could be expelled by the American authorities because of her unwillingness to cooperate, Shannon decides without further ado to marry the pretty deserter without the necessary approval from the Air Force. Then the two lovebirds go on their honeymoon to Palm Springs.
When Shannon returns to the air base, his superior, Major General Black, informs him that his wife is in all likelihood a Soviet spy who should scout him and the military base . You decide to play Anna's game first and give her the wrong information. When Shannon returns to his wife one day to tell her that the American side is planning to put her behind bars for several years and then deport her to the Soviet Union, he presents her with an alternative plan (obviously agreed with Shannon's superiors) : Jim and his wife drive to the base, steal a jet fighter and take off towards Siberia until they are safe from their American pursuers over Soviet territory and land on Anna's home airfield. Anna's superiors welcome Lieutenant Marladovna and take great care of her American "souvenir" Shannon. Both are housed in poor barracks. Anna makes it clear to her people that Jim Shannon is worth a thousand times more than the US military machine that was wrecked when it landed, because he has a wealth of expertise that could be of great use to the Soviet designers.
During their stay in the USSR, Jim discovers that his wife is pregnant by him. Shannon is commissioned by the Soviets to test-fly their new machine in order to identify any defects. But the truth is that they want to drug him to get all the information about technical innovations in American jet jets. The nature of the questions tells Jim how much the Soviets already know and what they are technically capable of. The Russians only get outdated information from him. When Anna sees through her husband's intentions, she fears for him, realizing that she genuinely loves Jim and, moreover, lacks the capitalist comforts with which Jim had clearly "infected" her successfully. She fears that if she stays in the USSR, the drugs will one day so damage Jim's head that he will no longer be the one she fell in love with. Your personal feelings begin to trump the patriotic sense of duty and love for the fatherland. The Soviet apparatchiks sense this dichotomy and put an agent loyal to the party at her side who is supposed to watch out that she doesn't do anything "stupid". Anna then grabs her husband, steals a Soviet jet fighter and flies back to the United States, chased through the clouds in a breathtaking hunt by Soviet chasers.
Production notes
Jet fighter was made mainly between autumn 1949 and spring 1950, the last scenes (follow-ups) were completed in May 1953. In the years to come, producer and financier Howard Hughes disappeared into the editing room with several film editors to sift through the wacky material, cut it over and over and fill it up with aerial photos. As a result, the world premiere was delayed until September 25, 1957, when the film was first shown in Los Angeles. The German premiere took place on July 11, 1958.
The buildings were designed by Albert S. D'Agostino , the decorations were done by Darrell Silvera . Almost a dozen cameramen provided additional and aerial photos, including William H. Clothier and Hans F. Koenekamp . Chuck Yeager did the aerial stunts in the jet fighter . Screenwriter and co-producer Jules Furthman also directed some scenes from the film as a second unit director.
Although last performed (1957), the Sternberg productions Macao (shot in 1950, premiered in 1952) and The Sage of Anatahan (1953) were created after the jet fighter .
For the great aircraft fan Hughes, jet fighter was a return to the aviator film, a genre in which he had achieved an overwhelming success with Hellflieger in 1930 .
Reviews
The domestic and international reviews of this Cold War product were devastating, some examples:
“ 'Jet Pilot' is the film Howard Hughes made to make a new Hell's Angels . It was a flop. "
Paimann's film lists summed up: "With espionage and real jet fighter sensations, an intensified ' iron petticoat ', but less lively in the presentation."
"Blooming anti-communist espionage nonsense with exquisite aerial photographs that Sternberg shot on behalf of the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes and which he had edited beyond recognition for seven years after completion, before he released it."
"In 1949/50 he [Sternberg] finally shot the ridiculous cold war product 'Jet Fighter', which the whimsical multi-billionaire and producer Howard Hughes kept under lock and key until 1957 in order to spice it up dramatically with subsequent aerial shots."
Web links
- Jet fighter in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- extensive review in the New York Times
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jet fighter in Paimann's film lists ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Jet fighter in the Lexicon of International Film
