"Jet Pilot" was another of Howard Hughes pet projects in which he displayed his love of flying. As was his habit, he never seemed to be happy with the final result, so much so that the film, completed in 1950, was not released until 1957.
The flying sequences are breath taking filmed in glorious Technicolor against the backdrop of fluffy white clouds and clear blue skies. The story? Well that's something else.
A Russian pilot, Lt. Anna Marladovna (Janet Leigh) flees her country and lands in the USA seeking refugee status. Col. Jim Shannon (John Wayne) is assigned to "look after" her and find out what she is up to. She is allowed to fly American jets along with Shannon, who shows her some new flying maneuvers. Naturally they fall in love, or so Shannon believes.
This is when the story becomes a little stretch of the imagination. After Anna and Jim get married (to allow her to remain in the country you see), Anna is revealed to be a Russian spy in search of American military secrets. In an effort to find out what she is up to General Black (Jay. C. Flippen) and FBI agent Rivers (Richard Rober) arrange for Shannon and Anna to "steal" a jet and fly off to the USSR. He conveniently destroys the plane on landing and is taken to a bleak looking Russian camp for interrogation by Col. Sokolov (Rolnad Winters).
Anna (aka Olga Orlief) at first supports the breaking of the supposed defector Shannon but true love intervenes. When she learns from the evil Col. Matoff (Hans Conried) of a plan to erase Shannonon's memory, they steal yet another plane (Russian this time) and.....................
It's difficult to decide who was the worst bit of miscasting Wayne or Leigh. Wayne was a good twenty years older than the delectable Ms. Leigh and it shows. Its also hard to imagine the young Ms. Leigh, in her early 20s at the time, as a world wise Russian spy who speaks perfect English who is also an ace pilot.
I'm sure that Mr. Hughes relished the flying sequences in this film as they are the best thing in it. Too bad he didn't pay closer attention to the "B" level script.
Wayne's long time friend Paul Fix appears as his second in command Maj. Rexford.
Released by Universal after RKO closed up shop in 1956.
The flying sequences are breath taking filmed in glorious Technicolor against the backdrop of fluffy white clouds and clear blue skies. The story? Well that's something else.
A Russian pilot, Lt. Anna Marladovna (Janet Leigh) flees her country and lands in the USA seeking refugee status. Col. Jim Shannon (John Wayne) is assigned to "look after" her and find out what she is up to. She is allowed to fly American jets along with Shannon, who shows her some new flying maneuvers. Naturally they fall in love, or so Shannon believes.
This is when the story becomes a little stretch of the imagination. After Anna and Jim get married (to allow her to remain in the country you see), Anna is revealed to be a Russian spy in search of American military secrets. In an effort to find out what she is up to General Black (Jay. C. Flippen) and FBI agent Rivers (Richard Rober) arrange for Shannon and Anna to "steal" a jet and fly off to the USSR. He conveniently destroys the plane on landing and is taken to a bleak looking Russian camp for interrogation by Col. Sokolov (Rolnad Winters).
Anna (aka Olga Orlief) at first supports the breaking of the supposed defector Shannon but true love intervenes. When she learns from the evil Col. Matoff (Hans Conried) of a plan to erase Shannonon's memory, they steal yet another plane (Russian this time) and.....................
It's difficult to decide who was the worst bit of miscasting Wayne or Leigh. Wayne was a good twenty years older than the delectable Ms. Leigh and it shows. Its also hard to imagine the young Ms. Leigh, in her early 20s at the time, as a world wise Russian spy who speaks perfect English who is also an ace pilot.
I'm sure that Mr. Hughes relished the flying sequences in this film as they are the best thing in it. Too bad he didn't pay closer attention to the "B" level script.
Wayne's long time friend Paul Fix appears as his second in command Maj. Rexford.
Released by Universal after RKO closed up shop in 1956.