A film that kept surprising me. On one hand there's a lot of rah-rah ness - unfunny military comedy, talk about sacrifice, Maureen O'Sullivan winsome and tired looking as John Hodiak's wife, John Derek being lecherous with women, Korean orphans, much of it feels rewritten/recut/made up as it goes along.
And yet... the fact it focuses on spotter planes is different, there's plenty of documentary style footage, the consistent action in the middle is fairly gripping, scenes like the arrival of a base that has been wiped out are tense.
There's camp (Derek talking about wanting to napalm the commies), surprisingly interesting characterisation (Audrey Trotter's tired, traumatised nurse), emotional ending (Hodiak dies), some 50s novelty (Harvey Lembeck and Richard Erdman reteaming from Stalag 17, a black soldier sings a song), Rex Reason has this random deep voice.
The film was so much better than I thought it would be.
Hodiak and the director, Fred Sears, would both be dead within a few years.
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