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BullMoose
Reviews
Wings of Fire (1967)
Good cast but a one dimensional plot
I did see this (TV) movie and I do remember it ... sort of. Since there is no plot description given and no reader comments yet, I will have to rely on my memory (probably a bad idea).
What I remember is Suzanne as a young female pilot who wants to be in the unlimited class air races but her male friends block her ambitions. Her boyfriend (Farentino) annoys her enough that she runs off with a bad-boy pilot (Slate?) for a quickie. When her other male friends find out about that affair, they berate her and make her feel so bad she wants to kill herself (yeah, it's that bad a plot). She takes her plane up with the intention of crashing it but is followed by Farentino who tries to talk her out of it. I won't totally spoil the story by telling you how it ends but trust me, you won't be surprised.
At the time this movie was made, the US was going through a major cultural change and feminism was on the rise. This movie was a forgettable attempt to show a young woman struggling against the mores of the time. That's just my take on what I remember so if there is someone with a different viewpoint, please post a comment.
What makes this movie memorable to me was not the plot nor the actors but the plane that Suzanne files, a Grumman Bearcat (ex Navy fighter). There are too few movies that show an F8 Bearcat in flight (offhand, I don't know of another one). So I remember the story because of those scenes of the plane.
-bm
Captain Midnight (1954)
Captain Midnight was my hero
Captain Midnight was a crime fighter, a jet pilot, a scientist and a super role model for kids. He gave me an early desire to become a jet pilot when I grew up. I never did though, become a jet pilot I mean. I was a fan from the beginning of the TV series and never missed an episode when we lived in Los Angeles. I had a secret squadron decoder ring too. If I remember it right, I sent in the paper seal on the inside of the cap of a bottle of Ovaltine plus 25 cents and I got the ring in the mail. Pretty cheesy little gadget that fell apart quickly but it was a symbol of the show and I liked having it. I believe he had a slick special car too to go along with the streamlined theme of the base and the jet. Yeah, really good entertainment for kids of the day IMHO.
-bm
Gog (1954)
Ivan Tors put the "Science" in Science Fiction
In my opinion this is one of the best films made by Ivan Tors. Tors created "Science Fiction Theater" for TV and made several SciFi films (like The Magnetic Monster) before this genre was really popular. He brought real science to the screen in plots that may seem dated today but afterall, it was 1954. In GOG, Tors brings in then brand new inventions such as jets, computers, robots, high frequency sound, cryogenics, sunlight as a weapon, electronic surveillance, atomic power and even man-made satellites (which would not become reality for 3 more years). To an audience unfamiliar with such things, it was exiting and scary. Especially scary when you were made to think such super weapons were under the control of a foreign power. The Korean War had just ended and the USSR was making aggressive comments about atomic war with us. This movie gave me nightmares for quite awhile.
-BullMoose
Stand by for Action (1942)
Laughton is Classic
The story is fiction but the war was very real when this movie was made. While not intended to be a comedy, it has it's moments of humor. I heard it said this was to be a British movie but was switched to Hollywood because Britian was in deep straits and under attack at the time. Whatever the reason, it plays pretty well except for the old US 4 piper destroyer sinking a modern Japanese battleship (not a Japanese destroyer) . Not very likely, but that's Hollywood for you. However, the acting by Charles Laughton is classic. He does indeed steal every scene he's in and that takes some doing when one of the other actors is Walter Brennan. Laughton's John Paul Jones speech to the ship's company is superb and stirring even 60 years later.
-BullMoose
It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)
A movie that should not be "lost".
I remember this movie well though it was a half century or more ago that I saw it. It was on TV at a time when only 10-20 year old movies were being broadcast (pressure from the big movie studios?). That this movie was only 6 or 7 years old and still made it to TV shows how little Hollywood thought of it.
I don't think of it as a "Christmas movie" though that theme does fit. I liked it because of the wacky plot (to my young mind) and because the stars (Don Defore and Gale Storm) were familiar to me. I have come to realize the genius of adding Victor Moore to the cast. He was one of the really good character actors of the time and his part goes a long way toward making this movie memorable.
It is too bad this fine movie isn't preserved and available to the general public. I would buy a copy.