Review: Jet Pilot

Russian pilot Janet Leigh lands at a US airbase in Alaska manned (and I do mean manned!) by John Wayne, who sees fit to take her in for questioning. She claims to be defecting, but is she? No time for that, though, because through movie magic (<cough> major plot contrivance <cough>) the two stubborn personalities fall in love and even marry! Say it ain’t so, Duke! Paul Fix plays Wayne’s buddy, and Jay C. Flippen is his superior. Hans Conried (Captain Hook himself!) plays a Russian Colonel towards the end.

Curious 1957 vehicle (no pun intended) for Wayne directed by Josef von Sternberg mixes comedy, spy movie and aerial action with little genuine success. However, it’s so silly and misogynistic that I refuse to believe it was meant to be taken too seriously, and is quite amusing at times (Leigh as a Russian pilot? Oh, boy! And love those comical sound FX during her strip search!). In fact, it’s the dopey stuff that is far more entertaining than the dull stuff in Russia and the flying scenes that did very little for me.

A solid cast like this deserves better, but it’s still kinda watchable, with Wayne a lot looser than usual (Anyone else find it odd to see ‘red’-hating Wayne in this plot during the McCarthy era? Don’t worry, it ain’t no pinko movie, though) and Leigh never more attractive.

Strange that filming started in 1950 (hence why Wayne looks so young), but it remained unreleased for a whopping 7 years (allegedly the fault of obsessive, eccentric producer Howard Hughes who dissatisfied, kept tinkering with it) . It’s not that bad, just awfully goofy. Aerial buffs will probably like the fly footage, some of the stunts being performed by Chuck Yeager himself (if that name means anything to you or if you’ve seen “The Right Stuff”). Meanwhile, perverts will appreciate the similar attention Hughes and the director pay to Leigh’s breasts.

The rather juvenile screenplay by the normally well-regarded Jules Furthman (“Bombshell”, “Mutiny on the Bounty”, “Man Hunt”, “To Have and Have Not”) is surely meant to be some kind of joke, right? And remember folks, when you encounter a dirty commie...just give ‘em a large, juicy steak from Uncle Sam!

Rating: C+